Pope Francis, Hero of Africa

By Jerry Jumbam

This book is for, firstly, the African people and, secondly, those who are concerned about the suffering of the poor peoples of the earth. In Pope Francis, Hero of Africa, Jerry Jumbam discusses the hostility of some people to Pope Francis (especially in Church circles) as a result of ignorance of the background of the Pope and of who he represents on a global scale. Jumbam explores the Pope's underprivileged background and how his word and deed have pervasive influence on the similarly underprivileged people of the world. The book underlines the fact these people should not be underestimated or ignored in matters concerning world leadership. Jumbam also highlights the beauty and challenges of African Christianity and reminds the world that Africa is not a latecomer to Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528910583

Jerry Jumbam

Jerry Jumbam (Gerald Jumbam NYUYKONGMO) is a catholic priest whose independence of mind allows him to speak without fear on challenging subjects. His first book Why Bernard Fonlon Matters (a bestseller in Cameroon) makes a case for the beatification of one of the greatest saints to have come out of the continent of Africa. He is the author of challenging and thought-provoking articles published in some of Cameroons Christian famous newspapers like LEffort Camerounais, and Cameroon Panorama. He did research and wrote many articles on witchcraft in Cameroon. He has also written extensively on the importance of technical education especially when he was principal of a technical college in Cameroon. He is in Rome for studies and has recently availed himself of this opportunity to do research and contributed in Facebook, blog and twitter on religious, historical and political matters concerning Africa, and especially on the ongoing Southern Cameroons Problem in his homeland. His contributions on this issue (the burden of this book) has been incomparable. He holds a licentiate in Moral Theology from the Pontifical Urban University Rome and holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Lateran Pontifical University of Rome.

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Conclusion

About the Author

Jerry Jumbam is a Catholic priest whose keen sense of inner freedom allows him to speak without fear on challenging subjects. His first book Why Bernard Fonlon Matters (a bestseller in Cameroon) makes a case for the beatification of one of the greatest saints to have come out of the continent of Africa. He is the author of challenging and thought-provoking articles published in some of Cameroon's famous newspapers like L 'Effort Camerounais, and Cameroon Panorama. He researched and wrote many articles on witchcraft in Cameroon. He has also written extensively on the importance of technical education especially when he was principal of a technical college in Cameroon. He is in Rome for studies and has availed himself of this opportunity to do research and write on matters like his recent work on Pope Francis and Africa. He is writing a doctoral thesis on the Education of the Laity in John Henry Newman.

Dedication

To Mgr. Jean-Marie Benoît BALLA; bishop of Bafia, who stood and died for the truth so that the Church in his country may not stray from the path of Christ.

Copyright Information ©

Jerry Jumbam (2017)

The right of Jerry Jumbam to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781787107724 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787107731 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2017)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

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Acknowledgments

I had not thought the book would come so speedily to light, but Fr. Ger Fitzgerald came and encouraged me to work on it quickly and put it available to the reading public. That was the tonic I needed to complete the work. Ger Fitzgerald in his characteristic Irish kind-heartedness has been truly a friend and brother in the Priesthood. I am grateful to him.

This work is a product of the rigorous reflections I have had here in Rome, about the future of Africa vis-à-vis the Universal Church. It is thanks to the tranquil studying environment I have enjoyed in the Irish Pontifical College Rome that this work has seen the light of day. I am immensely grateful to Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly of Cashel and Emly, Mgr. Ciarán O’Carroll, Fr. Tom Hogan and Fr. Thomas Noris. I owe so much to them for I have been, these years, the recipient of Irish benevolence in these brilliant men.

I thank the Catholic Dioceses of Killaloe and Limburg for assisting my studies in Rome.

I am very grateful to the main supervisor and moderator of my doctoral thesis Prof. Furio Pesci. By working with him, his informed perspective of events has helped to provide me with certain useful insights which have been important in the writing of this book. I also thank Prof. Stephan Kampowski the second supervisor of my thesis.

I owe thanks to Joseph Sserugga, Martin Njikang, Andrea Cini, Frank Sammon, Julie Dolan, Peter McEvoy, Jean Walter Duce, and Peter Sekeres for their friendship.

Preface

The election of Pope Francis on March 13th 2013 as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church marked a significant turning point in the history of the Church not only in the world, but more particularly, in Africa. For the world, Pope Francis is the first citizen from the Americas, the first non-European and the first Jesuit Priest to be named Pope. In an age of globalization, his election shows a Catholic Church that is ready, more than ever before, to open up to peoples of all places and all times. For who before then could have dreamt of the Papal Conclave meeting to elect the son of poor, humble Argentinean people as their Pope? But it is a sign that mindsets are changing. People are beginning to realize that before God, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither poor nor rich, for all of us are one in Christ Jesus, as Saint Paul said long ago.

For some centuries past and in the not too distant past, the Church identified itself with the rich and powerful classes of the world and even some church leaders have given the wrong impression that Jesus Christ is a wealthy man. Indeed many a pastor of the new churches that spring up today in Africa have been known for telling their gullible followers that as Christians, poverty is not our lot, forgetting Christ’s saying that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Some knowledgeable African Christians of the last century such as the learned and saintly Bernard Nsokika Fonlon were already worried by the African Church’s attachment to the corrupt and wealthy classes in newly independent African countries and the consequent alienation of the mass of poor African people from the Church. Hear him:

The truth in some cases is that such souls have been driven to disbelief, because the Church in the past, had made herself an ally, if not the very lackey of capitalism and the moneyed classes.¹

And when Archbishop Desmond Tutu laments in another meaningful occasion: God weeps and says: ‘Who will help me so we can have a different kind of world, one in which the rich know they have been given much so they can share and help others?’² It dawns upon us that we have to take more seriously the Christian Imperative of the Preferential Option for the Poor. The problem is spiritual worldliness. Francis sees spiritual worldliness as the worst of all temptations for the Church, because it is the most dangerous and clever. eh… worldliness… and this is dangerous… Jesus when he prays for all of us in the Last Supper, he asks one thing for all of us to the Father, of not taking us from the world, but defending us from the world of worldliness. [Worldliness] is extremely dangerous. It is a secularization with a bit of make-up, a bit disguised, a bit ‘pret-a-porter’ in the life of the Church.³ Here, we appear to be promoting God’s interests, but in reality we’re promoting our own. His foremost role has been to expel the money changers from the temple of Vatican courtyards, for, borrowing the words of one of the key Christian thinkers of our time Cardinal de Lubac, Francis says that when spiritual worldliness enters into the Church – this is a way – it is the worst that can happen to it, even worse than that which happened in the age of the corrupt Popes.⁴ To him, detachment from wealth, power, and pride through being close to the poor and through dependence on Christ and the Holy Spirit is the answer.

The election of Pope Francis as Pope is therefore a recognition by the wealthy and powerful that the poor have something worthwhile to contribute to the growth of our world. As Bishop and later Archbishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina, Francis took his vow of poverty very seriously and despite his office as Bishop, he took public transportation rather than being chauffeured in an expensive car, as had been the tradition. He rode the buses and subways of Argentina with the poor and lowly of Buenos Aires and because of his open solidarity with the poor people of his country, he became one of the most popular prelates in Latin America. He put in Argentina, the lay people of God at the forefront of things. El santo pueblo fiel de Dios he used to say. To him this identifies with the values of the Church, a Church that ought to be help of the helpless poor majority and the ordinary believers rather than the elite schemes and ideologies. It is a vision of a Church engaged in a radical enculturation of faith, a faith universal, but a faith rooted in the particular cultures of people, a Church that has in its very blood stream the native traditions and lore of the poor people of the peripheries. As Archbishop, he endeavored to convince the Argentinean government to follow this spirit in politics, though with less success. Francis has the same message for the universal Church today.

Now, even as Pope he has chosen to renounce any external sign of prestige or privilege. The Holy Father sees the world through the eyes of mercy and has visited prisons where he has washed the feet of some prisoners as a way of reminding us of what Christ said that the greatest among you shall be servant of all. To Pope Francis therefore, the genuine relationship that should exists between one Christian and another, indeed between one man and another, should be one of service and love.

It is because we ignored this important advice of Christ that some of the great tragedies in human history occurred, the Holy Father seems to say: tragedies such as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the Colonization And Exploitation Of Peoples in the So-Called New World, Africa, and Asia; and the Terrors of Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. But Pope Francis is not saying that rich people should renounce their riches. Rather, he underlines that the rich should use their wealth to provide for the basic needs of the poor in their societies. In fact, Pope Francis is not for a poor Church. Instead he is for a Church which uses its enormous wealth to solve the problems created by our world.

Indeed, Pope Francis - who before becoming Pope was known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – chose the name Francis to emphasis these qualities of sympathy for and compassion with the poor. These qualities in an earlier epoch (the twelfth century to be precise) had endeared St. Francis of Assisi to his poor Italian people. It is this concern for the poor which to me appears to be the significant hallmark of Pope Francis’s papacy. The Holy Father knows very well that, where there is great poverty, there also is great injustice; and where there is injustice, there can never be peace. It is for this reason that the he calls on the rich and powerful to show moderation and temperance in the use of the world’s resources so that what God designed for everyone should be used by everyone and not by a few individuals. Let it be clear; the new Pope does not preach a doctrine of poverty. He merely calls on the rich and the powerful to know that the whole world belongs to the whole world and to behave otherwise would be grave injustice to the wretched of the earth. Because of his Argentinean background, Pope Francis is able to articulate from a very personal experience,