Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Joseph Essama
Published on 2024-04-13 12:23:40
The lifeless body of Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga, a priest of the diocese of Kribi, was discovered yesterday in the Ekoumdoum neighborhood in Yaoundé.
The remains of Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga now rest in the Mvolyé cemetery in Yaoundé. His body was discovered yesterday in the Ekoumdoum neighborhood in Yaoundé. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, he was immediately buried alongside other priests who have passed away and whose remains rest in Mvolyé. A former student of the Mbalmayo minor seminary, class of 1999, Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga was a brilliant individual as testified by his peers. After his ordination, he suffered for several years. Interned multiple times at the Jamot hospital due to symptoms that led people to believe he was insane, he eventually returned home and never regained his health until his death.
Father Armel Bissi, who knew him at the minor seminary, believes that his downfall came from ecclesiastical maneuvers far from Christianity that traumatized the young priest. “In December 2013, he was ordained a priest in Kribi by Bishop Befe who asked him to spend a few months in the diocese before returning to Rome for further studies. Unfortunately, Bishop Befe passed away a few months later before sending the new priest Auguste Mballa Mebenga back to Rome. This was followed by ecclesiastical maneuvers that I believe were unchristian, with the goal of never showing him the way back to Rome. This caused significant traumas in him, which he spoke to me about continuously and would sometimes make him incoherent. People said he was crazy. Many times he was interned at the Jamot hospital in Yaoundé, and he would often say he didn’t know what he did to those who refused to let him return to Rome as Bishop Befe had wanted. His heart was still in Rome, but no one was showing him the way anymore,” testifies Father Bissi.
Father Jean Armel Bissi is clear, his late colleague “was a tortured soul. Regrets consumed him and corroded his inner balance to the point where for those who did not consider his inner suffering, he was a priest whose mind was no longer sound. All of his childhood friends express gratitude to his Bishop, his priest colleagues in Kribi, the faithful, and his family for every effort made to ease the pain of our brother Auguste, with the hope of seeing him regain the beautiful soul he was endowed with on the day of his priestly ordination in December 2013.”
Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga entered the major seminary in the diocese of Kribi after obtaining his baccalaureate in 2006 when the diocese split from Ebolowa. After studying philosophy at the Otele major seminary, Bishop Befe, the very first bishop of the diocese of Kribi, chose him to study theology in Rome.
Read the original article(French) on Mimi Mefo Info
