2024-04-15 22:58:45
A macabre discovery shakes the world Cameroon and its Catholic church. This Sunday, April 14, 2024, the lifeless body of the abbot Armand Auguste Mballa Mebenga, priest of the diocese of Kribi, was found in an advanced state of decomposition in a hotel room in Ekoumdoum. A scandal which raises many questions about the troubled actions of certain men of the church.
A priest in a hotel room, questions pile up
The scene is shocking. What was a man of God, supposed to embody virtue and spirituality, doing in such a place? This is the question that burns the lips of thousands of Cameroonians, stunned by this sordid affair revealed exclusively by 237online.com.
“How can we understand what a priest does in the room of an inn?“, asks a faithful in shock. A legitimate question which says a lot about the deep unease that reigns within the Cameroonian Catholic Church, shaken by repeated scandals.
A death shrouded in mystery and unsaid
But beyond the murky circumstances of this presence in a hotel, it is the death of Father Armand itself which raises questions. Found in a state of advanced putrefaction, he would have succumbed in the greatest solitude, far from his family and his community.
“We do not know the circumstances of his death”, confides a source close to the investigation. A mystery which only adds to the ambient unease, especially since the diocese of Kribi, to which the priest depended, remains walled in deafening silence.
7 years of illness, the shadow of abandonment
Because behind this sordid death, the whole question of the management of sick priests is raised. According to information collected by our journalists, Father Armand had suffered from a long illness for 7 years. An ordeal that he would have faced in icy solitude.
« Could he have been abandoned during his long penance of illness?“, protests Kingue Lazare Casimir, a relative. “ How did he find himself so alone that he died and his body was discovered in a state of putrefaction?“, he adds, his voice breaking with emotion and anger.
The diocese of Kribi, a repeat offender of abandonment?
Many people are asking these questions today with growing indignation. Because the diocese of Kribi seems to be accustomed to abandoning its suffering priests. “As I had wondered about the case of Father Nyemeck whose family said he had been abandoned by the diocese of Kribi”, recalls Lazare Casimir.
A serious accusation which says a lot about the malaise that reigns within this local church. “I hope that I will not receive the lightning that comes straight from the bishopric”quips our interlocutor, testifying to the silence that reigns on these sensitive subjects.
A quick funeral that goes badly
As if to add to the suspicion, the burial of Father Armand was carried out in haste that same Sunday at the Mvolye cemetery. A haste that many interpret as a clumsy attempt to cover up the affair and bury with the deceased the disturbing questions surrounding his death.
One more snub for the faithful, who demand transparency and compassion from their church. “This is how our dear priest ends, who was nevertheless full of life in Kribi”laments a parishioner. ” What happened ? »he adds, summarizing the general feeling in one sentence.
The Cameroonian church must come out of denial
It is at this price, and at this price only, that the Cameroonian Catholic Church will be able to regain the trust and respect of its faithful. It’s up to her to seize this chance, before it’s too late. The Cameroonians will be vigilant. For Armand, for all the others, and so that never again a man of God dies like this in indifference and dishonor.