Pope Leo’s second stop in Cameroon was in Bamenda, in the northwest, the Anglophone section of the country and the site of a separatist movement against the largely Francophone government which has been bloody and destabilizing. Following claims of legal marginalization of English-speaking Cameroonians propagated by the Francophone-majority population, clashes broke out between separatist groups and the military in 2017 that have since killed more than 6,000 people and displaced more than 600,000 others, as AP reported.
The Pope took the opportunity to address the violence, war, and also the crimes of colonialism. On his second day in the Central African country, the morning after issuing a stark call in the country’s capital for political leaders to break “the chains of corruption” that shackle them to the pursuit of profit, Leo traveled to Bamendat, where he delivered a plea for peace amid the violence that has plagued the region, to Cameroon as well as to the world writ large.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” the U.S.-born pope proclaimed in English from the cathedral’s altar in Bamenda. “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild…. Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death,” he said. “They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
Continuing his condemnations of the instrumentalization of religion, which he began in earnest on Palm Sunday, Leo said, “[W]oe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
The pope’s message was preceded by speeches from Presbyterian and Muslim religious leaders who underscored the role of religious communities in pursuing a peaceful resolution to the Anglophone crisis.
Following his remarks, the pope addressed the crowd outside the cathedral and with other representatives released seven doves into the air in a sign of peace.
Leo’s mass, his second on the African continent, was attended by a huge gathering of 20,000 at the airport of Bamenda, which had been closed since 2019 and was reopened specifically to receive the pope and host the mass. The local political leaders called a three-day pause in the fighting to allow the Pope’s visit. About 28% of Cameroon’s population is Catholic; 40% is under the age of 15.
Beyond the struggles within Cameroon, the pope said Africa at large also suffers from “those who, in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it. The time has come, today and not tomorrow, now and not in the future, to restore the mosaic of unity by bringing together the diversity and riches of the country and the continent,” he said to applause and shouts of approval from the crowd, reported the National Catholic Reporter.
On Friday the Pope will visit Doala, Cameroon’s economic hub, where 600,000 are expected to attend a mass at a stadium.
