Cameroon: Bishop Speaks Out on Synod Issues

A central element of the intervention of the Archbishop of Bamenda, who is also President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, was to emphasize that the African delegates had already spoken with one voice during the first session of the Synod, and that they should continue to do so for the second.

According to the intervention, which is reported by ACI Africa, the Bishop said that “when we went to the Synod, it was clear that Africa had to take charge of its own destiny. We knew that we had to make our voice heard in the first phase of the Synod,” Bishop Nkea said.

He went on to stress that Africa’s position on the controversial issues in the ongoing Synod has nothing to do with politics. “The members who participated in the Synod, do not see anything in the context of creating an African Church: The Church is the Church of Christ. And we must oppose the politicians who tell us that it is time to create an African Church.”

The second element he stressed, and which complements the first, is that “in making Africa’s voice heard, the delegates made it clear that the continent was ‘not talking purely from a cultural background.’”

The Cameroonian Archbishop clarified: “In presenting our points at the Synod, we did not want to be seen as presenting points of Africa, because of the culture from which we come. Our stand has nothing to do with culture; it was about fidelity to the truth; fidelity to what Christ taught. It was about fidelity to what the Apostles handed down to generations.” He defended African delegates’ position to the Synod on the issue of “marriage of homosexuals,” which he said was raised in the synodal conversations in Rome, adding: “Africa was not defending a cultural idea. Africa was defending the teaching that the Church has had for 2,000 years.”

Archbishop Nkea Fuanya insisted that Africa’s “vehement no” on hot-button issues such as the blessing of irregular and same-sex couples, as well as the ordination of women deacons, was guided by Scripture and the teachings of the Catholic Church, and “not purely” by the continent’s culture, which he said had been described as “inferior.”

On same-sex marriages, he said Africa had “vehemently rejected” Fiducia supplicans, the document issued a few months after the first session of the synodal meeting in Rome. “We are returning to the second session with the same vehement rejection of that document,” he said. 

On the issue of the ordination of women, another major topic at the synod, the archbishop said: “Our Church has a tradition." He concluded that these reasons explain why Africa should speak with a clear voice on hot topics and controversial issues, not only at the ongoing Synod on Synodality, but also beyond.