Gunmen set a Catholic church on fire and kidnapped five priests, one religious sister and two lay people in western Cameroon, where a civil war has been raging since 2017.
The Catholic bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province released a statement following the September 16 attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Nchang, Mamfe Diocese.
“It was with great shock and utter horror that we, the Bishops (of the BAPEC) learned of the burning down of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Nchang… and the kidnapping of five priests, one religious sister and two lay faithful by unknown gunmen,” the statement said.
The bishops said they “strongly condemn all these attacks against the Church and her Ministers and we appeal to those who have taken the priests, the nun and the Christians in Nchang to release them without further delay.”
“We insist on this because this act has now crossed the red line and we must say that ‘enough is enough,'” read the statement.
Cameroon has been embroiled in a civil war known as the “Anglophone Crisis” in which armed separatists from the Anglophone regions of the country in the Northwest and Southwest have taken part in an uprising against government forces. Both sides have been accused of atrocities, including the murder and torture of civilians.
The conflict has killed thousands and displaced as many as 500,000 since 2014.
On September 6 suspected militant separatists opened fire on a bus in Muyuka, killing at least six civilians.
In their statement, the bishops said that the Catholic church has increasingly been targeted by attackers.
“A wave of persecutions against the hierarchy of the Church is now the new game of the “Struggle,” and all kinds of threat messages are sent out against missionaries who have surrendered their lives to work for the people,” read the bishops’ statement which noted that Presbyterian and Baptist churches have also been targeted.
About two-thirds of Cameroonians practice Christianity, while 25-30% are Muslim.
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Denver, Colo., Jan 27, 2022 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
When Daniel Campbell saw an email in his inbox last spring from Soroti, Uganda, his first thought was: Am I being scammed?Campbell, who directs Denver’s St. John Vianney Se… […]
Sophie Nélisse portrays Irena Gut Opdyke in the new film “Irena’s Vow.” / Credit: Quiver Distribution
CNA Staff, Apr 12, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
A new film depicting the incredible true story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic nurse who risked her own life to hide Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II, debuts in theaters across the country April 15-16.
“Irena’s Vow” is told through the eyes of strong-willed 19-year-old Irena Gut. When Gut is promoted to be the housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer after learning that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated, she makes it her mission to help the Jewish workers.
Gut decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of — the basement of the German major’s house. Over the next two years, she uses her creativity and quick thinking to keep her friends safe until she is able to help them escape.
Actress Sophie Nélisse portrays Gut in the film. She and Jeannie Smith, Irena’s real-life daughter, spoke to CNA about what they hope viewers will take away from the film and what it’s like for Smith to share and watch her mother’s story on the big screen.
Sophie Nélisse portrays Irena Gut Opdyke in new film “Irena’s Vow.” Credit: Quiver Distribution
“I immediately fell in love with Irena’s story because I felt it was just so relevant to this day, and I think there’s so much to learn from her story and a tale that brings a lot of hope, I find, despite all the horrific events,” Nélisse said.
As a Catholic, Smith shared that her mother’s faith “100% played a role” in the work she did to save the lives of Jews.
“She was raised that people mattered and that the differences in people did not matter,” she said. “They were all human beings and part of one human family and stood under God created by him.”
Smith added that Gut had “childlike trust.”
“[God] would open a path and she would walk in it and then it was up to him to take care of her, and her job was just to do what she was supposed to do — to follow. She kept that her whole life. It just was part of her. It wasn’t even something she had to think about,” Smith said.
Gut had no intention of ever sharing her story when she came to the United States, Smith explained. It wasn’t until she crossed paths with a “Holocaust denier” that she opened up about her experience.
“She was faced with a Holocaust denier, over the phone, a young man who was just doing a report in school about the propaganda of it all,” Smith recalled. “That’s when she realized that if she didn’t start talking, history could easily repeat itself.”
From then on, her mother slowly began talking, but it was evident to Smith “how hard it was for her, especially that first time, and I stayed away from the subject.”
“It wasn’t until I went with her to a school — I was almost 20, [and] I took her to a school so she could talk to kids — that I not only heard her story but saw the saw amazing reaction … and I thought, ‘Man, this story is powerful.’”
Gut received several recognitions for the work she did to protect Jews during the Holocaust, including being honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust Commission. This title is given to non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jewish people during WWII. She also received a Medal of Honor in a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and her story is part of a permanent exhibit in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., among other recognitions.
One that particularly meant a lot to Gut was the papal blessing she received in 1995 from Pope John Paul II for her sacrifice. Smith explained that her mother had a very painful experience when she went to confession, after enduring sexual abuse and being forced to have sexual relations with the German major.
Unable to confess to her usual priest one day, Gut went to a young priest who Smith said was “more anti-Semitic and told her she didn’t have a part in the Catholic Church, which broke her heart.”
“So [there was] this papal blessing where Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope, sent a delegation from the Vatican, and we had a ceremony in a Jewish synagogue in Irvine, California,” she said. “So the mixture was amazing, and it was just coming home for her. It meant a lot.”
Nélisse pointed out that Irena Gut’s life can inspire everyone.
“I think we as individuals think that we can’t really make a difference or that we’re too small to really have an impact, and I think that she’s the perfect example that — I mean, she obviously did heroic things — [but] by doing tiny things that seem so simple, it could be smiling to someone or helping them with a bag or complimenting them, it does have a ripple effect,” Nélisse said.
Smith added that she has heard from kids who were thinking about taking their lives by suicide, but one day someone sat with them at lunch and that changed their minds. She hopes that her mother’s story reminds people that “we are all able to do amazing things.”
“People will call my mom a hero or somebody who’s special, and she wouldn’t have liked that and I don’t either, because you label somebody that way and it gives them permission to do things that you can’t, [but] the bottom line is we are all able to do amazing things,” she said.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 30, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) as well as numerous Catholic universities blasted the U.S. Supreme Court’s Thursday decisio… […]
5 Comments
The “religion of peace” spreading peace, love and tolerance again, it seems.
Since Pope Francis has ok’d the world of many religions…these Catholics are under no obligation to remain Catholic in the face of life threatening oppression
In fact they have no one supporting their decision to face such consequences
Not to say this is in any way good but it us a consequence of pluralism…ie. just pick the easy one.
I think the Pope should call for and organize a Crusade. This war against Catholics has to stop. (I will not hold my breath, waiting for this to happen.)
And not a peek from the secular press. Nor has there been ant reporting about the many attacks and vandalism of churches in places like France. I will bet that the vast majority of reporters have never set foot in a church, hence their morally bankrupt state, which is so apparent in their “work”. Or, lack of it. Sad.
The “religion of peace” spreading peace, love and tolerance again, it seems.
Since Pope Francis has ok’d the world of many religions…these Catholics are under no obligation to remain Catholic in the face of life threatening oppression
In fact they have no one supporting their decision to face such consequences
Not to say this is in any way good but it us a consequence of pluralism…ie. just pick the easy one.
I think the Pope should call for and organize a Crusade. This war against Catholics has to stop. (I will not hold my breath, waiting for this to happen.)
And not a peek from the secular press. Nor has there been ant reporting about the many attacks and vandalism of churches in places like France. I will bet that the vast majority of reporters have never set foot in a church, hence their morally bankrupt state, which is so apparent in their “work”. Or, lack of it. Sad.
…Because in the new American media Christian lives don’t matter.