Editorial: Deciphering Pope's sealed message to Atanga Nji.

He told reporters later that they discussed a range of issues, "from political parties to NGOs and associations, as the ministry manages all these areas”.

Atanga Nji said the diplomats usually raise "opposing" questions, but such interactions are part of the open-door policy advocated by President Paul Biya.

He explained that the ministry remains receptive to conversations with foreign representatives and values these engagements to clarify positions to better understand the context in which Cameroon operates.

Wednesday’s audience was on the heels of that by the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, who told reporters after the meeting that: “We were able to share the wonderful and exceptional relations that exist between Cameroon and the Holy See”. 

While expressing gratitude to the minister for receiving him, the Apostolic Nuncio said the audience also offered him the opportunity “to present the best wishes of the Holy Father, Pope Francis”, to the MINAT boss and the nation of Cameroon.

Bettencourt added that the ongoing Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church would open more horizons for Cameroon and the Vatican.  

“It is especially for us in the Catholic Church, a Jubilee Year. It is a Holy Year, it’s a year of grace…looking with a lot of optimism to this year and to the many graces it will bring".

What he did not say was that he brought a "sealed letter" from the Pope. The Guardian Post understands that as a Papal Nuncio, the Archbishop is a diplomat; people who often speak with both sides of their tongue.

The "sealed message" certainly would not have been to the minister since as Head of State of the Vatican, the Pope, can only communicate directly with President Biya or through diplomatic lineage.

Such communications are traditionally routed through the Minister of External Relations, the Prime Minister or Secretary General at the Presidency.

But why this time through MINAT? Was it because some bishops have been openly opposing the candidature of President Paul Biya, who Minister Atanga Nji defends to the hilt to run for an eighth term?

Although the exact content of the message has not been disclosed, there are speculations in diplomatic circles that it is likely that it addresses issues of common interest, "such as the promotion of peace, social justice, and the strengthening of moral values in society".

Relations between the Vatican and Yaounde are long standing. President Biya had his first official visit to the Vatican in 1986, while he equally attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II, on his second trip to the Holy See. He and his wife, Chantal, again took part in the beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II in 2011. 

Pope Benedict XVI visited Cameroon in March 2009, while Pope John Paul II, was in the country twice, in 1985 and 1995, which illustrate the "excellent" relations of a country a Catholic is president.

The relation between Cameroon and the Holy See is concretised by a text the Presidency calls "agreement for the judicial status of the Catholic Church".

The extract of the agreement, which is public knowledge, in its Article 1 stipulates that: "The Republic of Cameroon and the Holy See reaffirm that the State and the Catholic Church are each in their own order, sovereign, independent and autonomous, and undertake to work together for the moral, spiritual and material aspects of the human person, as well as for the promotion of the common good”.

That accord is said to give Catholic priests some diplomatic immunity to objectively criticise the regime without the diplomatic niceties used by some diplomats.

A sealed letter coming in the heat of vitriolic criticisms of the government by some bishops is therefore being interpreted as a reminder of that agreement and possibly notice that the clergy will not be silent as the nation girds its loin for a crucial election that will make or mar a country in which Catholics are a dominant force.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3334 of Friday January 10, 2025