Four priests sanctioned in Archdiocese of Bertoua

According to a Decree from Archbishop Mgr Joseph Atanga, signed July 30, 2014, four priests in the Archdiocese of Bertoua have been suspended from their functions.

The first decision permanently suspended two priests: Father Hilary Aboh Ogochukwu, who originates from Nigerian, parish priest in Mbitom and Jean Michel Awono Ngono, parish priest at the Holy Ghost parish in Bertoua. According to the decree, they have now been "reduced to lay status", i.e. removed from the clerical State.

According to the Chancellor of the Archdiocese, Fr. Alexandre Aoudi Goliké, they permanently lost their priestly title. They will never again have the right to say mass or administer sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church.

Our source says that this decision is exclusive to the Pope, taken after the review documents carrying the crime of each concerned; these reasons were given to the Holy Father in Rome by the Archbishop. "Their behaviors do not conform with the teachings of the Church“explains the Fr. Alexandre Aoudi Goliké.

Yet, the Archbishop had used all means to bring them back on the right path: warnings, call to order, prayers. "They had even been sent to the monasteries for a time of intense prayer, so that they change. But it contributed to nothing!", he said.

The second decision concerns two other priests, who were temporarily suspended: Louis Marie Kilian Mbarga, Cameroonian, and André Krynski, Polish. This type of penalty runs between three and twelve months.

"It depends on the level of amendment or conversion of the concerned. If they come back to reason, the suspension will soon be uplifted", says our source. They are excluded from all activities of the Church: masses, sacraments. The reason for their suspension: insubordination, disobedience and differences in behavior.

Father Kilian, for example, was already suspended last year while he was parish priest at Mbitom. A year later, he was reinstated. Fr. André Krynski, was the former Rector of the University of Bertoua, before he went to Poland where he worked on behalf of the Archdiocese of Bertoua.