In this year dedicated for priests, a packed Douala St. Peter and Paul Cathedral on December 8 welcomed 12 new priests. During the spirit-filled ceremony two deacons were equally ordained.
In his homily, in which the responsibilities and duties of a priest were stressed, Christian Cardinal Tumi explained that a priest is called upon to preach God’s Word at all times even if he is not heard or welcomed. Priests, he went further, are expected to do what pleases God at all times.
Cardinal Tumi called on the newly ordained priests to collaborate with their Bishop without which their priestly mission will be useless. Just as Christ came to serve and not to be served, he reminded priests of their role as servants. He explained that service entails sacrificing for the good of others and not working for one’s personal gratification.
He exhorted them not to seek money and goods for their personal needs but only for the good of their communities. He used the example of Judas Iscariot, who as an Apostle and Bishop of the Church, was considered a thief because he used his community’s goods for his interest, to remind priests and bishops, who act in the same way, that they are also thieves.
He cautioned the newly ordained priests to be careful how they deliver the Word of God which, he said, is real spiritual food. He reprimanded priests who do not take time to prepare their homilies and also called on young priests to refuse if their Parish Priests tell them on Sunday Mass eve to prepare a homily for them. “The homily should be prepared at least one week to the day of preaching to avoid mediocre sermons”.
The Cardinal was severe when he enjoined priests to desist from settling scores with Christians from the pulpit by preaching insultingly as this, he explained, has pushed Christians to attack priests on some occasions.
The ordination coincided with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Cardinal said this is proof of Mary’s key place in the lives of her children. He implored her to protect the newly ordained priests. He also called on Christians and priests to pray the Rosary daily to beseech the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for them.
Cardinal Tumi however, regretted that some parents continue to deprive children of their divine rights by not baptising them the first week after birth. This act makes them members not only of the Catholic Church but of God’s kingdom. He explained that if a baby dies without being baptised he/she has no right to be buried as a Catholic Christian. He therefore called on priests to ensure that babies are baptised the first week after birth.
He was firm when he told the young priest to see the Blessed Virgin Mary and their sister in every young girl and the High Priest Jesus Christ and their brother in every boy. He encouraged the newly ordained to sacrifice for one another as they now have to live as a community. He spoke out loud against priests who neither pray nor eat together and wondered how they could share the Body of Christ in this state.
The celebration’s most exciting and solemn part came after the homily when the 12 were called to the Altar. After prostrating themselves during the Litany of the Saints, the Bishops and priests present laid their hands on the candidates’ heads, after which the Bishop said the consecration prayer through which the candidates became priests.
After their vesting in stole and chasuble, the new priests’ hands were anointed with chrism and they received the chalice and paten. Then they concelebrated Mass for the first time. At this moment the Cathedral was filled with a deafening applause from the congregation who rejoiced as they saw their sons become priests and deacons.
In his speech at the end of Mass, the Vicar General of Douala Archdiocese, Mgr. Paul Nyaga, thanked Christian Cardinal Tumi and Mgr. Samuel Kléda for their patience in training and bringing more workers into the Lord’s vineyard. He urged the newly ordained to be perseverant.
The newly ordained representative, Rev. Fr. Jean Tagne Waffo, thanked all those who stood by them during their training and expressed gratitude to God for their ordination. He compared their batch of 12 ordained priests to the 12 twelve tribes of Israel and Jesus’ 12 Apostles. He expressed concern over the spread of sects and the image of today’s priests, who at all times, must stand for the truth. The 12 ordained priests were products of Nkongbodol Paul VI Major Seminary Douala. The diocesan multilingual choir animated the liturgy. Many seminarians also took part in the ordination Mass.
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