Youth Fill Cameroon Churches Because Traditional Values Passed Down 'Uncontaminated', Bishop Says

The Catholic Register ^ | 10/25/18 | CNA

[marshmallow]

VATICAN – While European bishops discuss how to bring young people back to the Church at the 2018 Synod of Bishops, one bishop from Cameroon said that he has the opposite problem.

“My churches are all bursting, and I don’t have space to keep the young people,” said Bishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Mamfe said at a Vatican press conference Oct. 24. “And my shortest Mass would be about two and a half hours,” he added.

A study by Pew Research Center in August 2018 found that church attendance and prayer frequency was highest in sub-Saharan Africa and lowest in Western Europe. Four out of five Christians in Cameroon said that they pray everyday.

“People ask me, ‘Why are your churches full?’” the Cameroonian bishop said.

For Bishop Fuanya, it all comes down to family, community, and traditional values.

“Coming from Africa, the family is a very, very strong institution,” Fuanya said. “We come from a culture in which tradition normally is handed from one generation to the other.”

“Our traditional values still equate to the values of the Church, and so we hand over the tradition to our young people undiluted and uncontaminated,” he continued.

When asked about the potential inclusion of so-called “LGBT” language in the synod’s final document, the bishop reiterated that point.

“I wouldn't vote for any article that has LGBT.” Fuanya said, explained that “99.9 percent” of the young people in his diocese would “stand at my door and say, 'What's this?'”

[Eagles6]

Good News!

[Fred Hayek]

Watch Africa send Christian missionaries to Western Europe and North America.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[hinckley buzzard]

They already have, among the Anglicans at least.

[frogjerk]

We need an African Pope

[Theo]

“For Bishop Fuanya, it all comes down to family, community, and traditional values.”

Hopefully Jesus is in the mix somewhere as well. He is the Savior of all of humanity, after all.

[St. Louis Conservative]

Anyone but the current one

[Ouchthatonehurt]

We had a visiting priest from Cameroon a few years back.
He was AWESOME.

[dfwgator]

I long believed we could use an African Pope, they tend to be the most conservative of the Cardinals.

[pepsi_junkie]

The Vatican are a bunch of clueless fools. Their plan for 25 years to get more people to come to church is to water down the mass, make the music more like pop songs, get rid of any judgy stuff. Surely the kids will be into that, right?

No. The more you make it meaningless, the less anyone cares. I don't know what went down in this TV show about some fictional Pope but this one scene I came across aligns with my thinking pretty well on what they church really needs to do it if wants to stuff the pews to capacity. Well, except the part where he starts talking about making hell. That was odd. The rest, though, is a recipe to make the church deirable to this seeking to be part of something bigger then they, to learn from someone who tells them they (and only they) have the answers. Not "who am I to judge?".

"The Young Pope" on his reforms to revitalize the Church

[Fred Hayek]

Cardinal Robert Sarah would be an excellent choice for pope

[lastchance]

This should not be a surprise to anyone. God keep them all.

[vladimir998]

“Watch Africa send Christian missionaries to Western Europe and North America.”

Already happening for the last two decades at least.

[John Locke]

I watched exactly that in Pittsburgh over 25 years ago. Our church of choice was about 85% black, but very traditional. For a year they had a priest from Ghana, who was even more traditional.

I remember my children in the choir singing Mozart's Ave verum corpus during the Consecration. I remember the priest kneeling before the altar rail, beating his breast and saying "Domine non sum dignus", before being censed.

And Sunday attendance was over 90% of the parishioners.

Yes, we were white and were never shown even the smallest sign of hostility.

[daniel1212]

In some way shape or form, they would likely be charged with being racist if the MSM commented on this since they are conservative. But the country itself under current leadership would see favor with them, since since "English-speaking people are discriminated against; protests often escalate into violent clashes and killings.[50] In 2017, President Biya shut down the Internet in the English-speaking region for 94 days, at the cost of hampering five million people, including Silicon Mountain startups.[51]" "Nearly 60% of the population is under age 25. People over 65 years of age account for only 3.2% of the total population.[1]" "The predominant faith is Christianity, practised by about two-thirds of the population, while Islam is a significant minority faith, adhered to by about one-fifth."

40% are Catholic (a false church with many true teachings ) and 30% Protestant (a mixture)