Africans in the Washington DC Metro Area Celebrate the Anniversary of Ecclesia in Africa and Pope John Paul Visits to Cameroon

Isn’t Cameroon like Africa in miniature, a melting pot of many ethnic groups with rich traditions, a crossroads of all the major religions of the African continent, at the crossroads of the French-speaking and English-speaking worlds, with a remarkable demographic expansion and a very large youth population? This country has been spoken of as an island of peace,” stated Pope St John Paul II upon arrival in Cameroon on August 10, 1985, for his first-ever visit, where he spent four days and celebrated four Masses, spread in each of the four ecclesiastical provinces of Cameroon. 

Ten years later, on September 14, 1995, he returned to Cameroon, as though to ascertain its “African in miniature” status, where he signed and released the Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Ecclesia in Africa,” containing the final reflections of the first Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Church in Africa which had taken place in Rome from April 10 to May 9, 1994. 

Ahead of the celebration of the feast of St John Paul the Great, African Catholics in the Washington DC Metro area gathered, 6.000 miles away from Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital to commemorate these events on the occasion of the ruby anniversary of the momentous 1985 visit and the pearl anniversary of the 1995 release of “Ecclesia in Africa.” 

Sponsored by the National Shrine of St. John Paul II, in line with its triple character as a “place of worship, religious formation and cultural renewal”, and its goal of “highlighting significant events in the life of Pope John Paul II and his momentous influence as the spiritual father through liturgy, prayer and cultural events”, this anniversary celebration, which took place on Saturday September 13, 2025, checked all those boxes. 

The three-part event kicked off with a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Bibi of Buea Diocese, Cameroon, as main celebrant and homilist, with over a dozen priests of African descent studying and/or working in the Archdioceses of Washington, DC, Baltimore and the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. The celebration reminisced the 1985 papal visit. Bishop Bibi happened to have been one of the “lucky” altar servers at the Mass for families which the Holy Father celebrated in Bafut, Cameroon on August 12, 1985. The anniversary’s keynote address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Michael Niba, priest of the Archdiocese of Bamenda who during the 1985 visit played the lead xylophone at the same Mass.

This Eucharistic celebration deservedly had an African flavor, with the characteristic lectionary procession after the opening prayer, led by two prominent Catholic women’s groups, namely the Catholic Women Association (CWA) and the Catholic Women’s Organization (CWO); then there were the prayers of the faithful translated and rendered in different African languages. The procession with the sacred gifts for Offertory took on a typical African mood, in the form of a solemn dance accompanied by the Congolese song, “Eh, Eh Eh Mfumue”, originally composed and rendered for the first time at St. Peter’s Basilica during the opening Mass of the Synod, and which has become a signature offertory song for African liturgies. By some holy coincidence, Sr Marie Agatha Ozah, a religious sister of Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus (HHCJ) who took part in the offertory procession in Rome in 1994 was delighted not just to be part of this anniversary celebration but also to be part of the four nuns who bore the gifts to the altar while the same song was being rendered, 30 years later. 

The rich African colors in display added to the beauty of the celebration. The Mass brought home inculturation, one of the key messages of “Ecclesia in Africa” which is relevant today, in addition to the “necessity of being personally rooted in Christ, and the vocation and dignity of the family,” which comprised the focus of Bishop Bibi’s homily. 

Inculturation, the Family and Jesus Christ 

Highlighting inculturation as a fruit of the synod, Bishop Bibi, reminded African Catholics of the urgency of this task in the evangelizing mission of the Church in Africa as stipulated by Pope John Paul II in Ecclesia in Africa. He explained that “inculturation, is not a superficial celebration of human culture”, but rather an “interaction between the Gospel and our cultures, an interaction marked by a twofold process: the Gospel penetrating our cultures, and in return uplifting aspects of culture that are compatible with it or are a preparation for it (EIA, #59-60).”

The prelate then exhorted Africans, especially those in the Diaspora, to promote African values rather than adopt compromising and even contradictory patterns from the West. Drawing from “Ecclesia in Africa”, the Bishop described some of the rich cultural values which Africa brings to the Church, such as “the sense of the sacred, the belief in God the Creator, solidarity and community spirit, love and respect of life, the welcoming of children as gifts, respect for human life from conception until its natural end, and the respect for elders, especially as shown in the fact that elderly parents and relatives are kept in the families” (EIA, #43).

Beyond the liturgical adaptations, which have been the focus of inculturation initiatives, one area that yearns for the inspirational and evangelizing influence of inculturation is that of the family, the African family. The development of the “Church-as-family” model remains a classical treasure of Africa that took form and prominence at the first Synod on Africa in 1993. 

During his homily in Bamenda on August 12, 1985, at the Mass for families, which John Paul II celebrated at the Bafut airport, and which had as theme: “God’s plan for marriage and the family ‘from the beginning,’” the holy Father addressed the following message to the families of Cameroon: “learn to build your family life on love! Do not give in to the forces which weaken and destroy the unity, stability and happiness of your families. Do not follow the path of selfish materialism and consumerism which have produced so much suffering in other parts of the world and which you too are now beginning to experience. Do not listen to ideologies which allow society or the State to take over the rights and responsibilities which belong to families (Cfr. IOANNIS PAULI PP. II Familiaris Consortio, 45).” It is worth indicating that marriage and family stand as an integral pillar of the papal ministry of Pope John Paul II, partly evident in the institutes named after him, dedicated specifically to study marriage and family life. 

Taking his cue from the 1985 Mass in Bamenda, the Mass in which he was privileged to take part as an altar server, now as Bishop, Bibi called on African families in the Diaspora to embrace the challenge of “Ecclesia in Africa” to African families, namely “the evangelization of families through families.” 

Bishop Bibi reminded the assembly that the sacrament of matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church (CCC 1661), and the sublime teaching of “Ecclesia in Africa” on the family as the domestic church, and hence “the future of the world and of the Church passes through the family (EIA, # 80). 

Addressing the challenge of divorce prevalent in the world, Bishop Bibi noted that this stems from the failure to understand marriage “as a lifelong covenant between a baptized man and a baptized woman, which Christ has raised to the dignity of a sacrament (Canon 1055). He relished the many opportunities he has had – the privilege to celebrate wedding anniversaries for couples – and decried the alarming number of marriages hitting the rocks, leaving behind a lot of pain and consequences on victims, often children.

“No marriage is perfect. But at the same time, by the grace of God and human cooperation and commitment of spouses, two imperfect persons can make a bond that lasts till death separates them.” He appealed to parents to take up their duty of raising children, especially in this society, very seriously, inculcating in them values that include respect, especially of the elderly.

Central to the mission of evangelization through inculturation and the vocation of the family is the person of Jesus Christ which, as Pope John Paul II, in his first encyclical affirmed: “The redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history.” In the face of the temptation of secularism, which appeals to some Africans who have moved to Western Society, enticing them with false assurance of self-sufficiency, and hence dispensing them of the need to create time for God, prayers, sacraments and the life of faith, in general, the Bishop offered the memorable words of Pope John Paul II, pronounced on the day he took over as Pope: “Do not be afraid! – Open wide the doors to Christ”. “Thus, Pope John Paul taught us that when we open up to Christ, and his saving power, we lose nothing! Instead, we gain everything,” concluded the Prelate.

From the Redemptor Hominis Chapel, named after Pope John Paul II’s first encyclical, where the celebration of Mass took place, the second phase took place in the auditorium, during which Rev. Dr. Michael Niba delivered the keynote address, followed by a panel of discussants who shared reflections drawn from the keynote address.

The Personalism of St. Pope John Paul II

The keynote address highlighted Rev. Dr. Niba’s personal “Encounters with John Paul II” (title of his recent publication), first through articles and books, in 1978 while he studied in the minor seminary, and Karol Wojtyla had just been elected Pope; then as a major seminarian, who played the xylophone in 1985 during the Pontiff’s first visit to Cameroon, and 1991 as a priest studying in Rome when he had an audience with Pope John Paul II, and finally when the Supreme Pontiff died in 2005. This is a classic example of the philosophy peculiar to Pope St. John Paul II, namely phenomenology. “When you truly encounter a person, you also want to know what the person thinks,” stated Rev. Dr. Niba. 

Ordained a priest in 1988, Rev. Dr. Niba, a priest now for 37 years, 17 of which he served during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, has been shaped and moulded by the philosophy and theology, so to speak, of John Paul II. Even though he studied the hermeneutics of the German philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer for his Ph.D in Philosophy, the personalism of John Paul II has left a mark on him. From his treasury of encounters and study of the Holy Father, Rev. Dr. Niba defines him as the “fearless theorizer and defender of who the human person is.” Unmistakably, the mystery of the human person occupied the intellectual and spiritual journey of Pope John Paul II. 

“Karol Wojtyla salvaged the concept and reality of the human person – debased and defaced, used, abused, refused and dumped into disuse from the tyrannies of the negative, oppressive isms of our time,” said Dr. Niba. “He theorized it, taught it with a conviction that was corroborated in and through the witness and testimony of his life – all the way to the very end. We are irrevocably, indisputably condemned to be human from the first moment of conception to our last breath in natural death,” he added. John Paul II thus unapologetically championed the prolife cause. 

What is more, Dr. Niba affirmed that in Pope John Paul II, there is an emphasis on the dignity of the human person as an image of God. He expressed this thus: “I, you, we, every member of the biological species homo sapiens is an ‘Imago Dei,’ an image of God, who bears a divinely crafted, imprinted and bequeathed dignity and respect that is non-negotiable, not subject to the ideological, exploitative, divisive, and discriminatory caprices of economics, politics, social class, race, gender or religion.”

Consequently, “We are never answers to what we have; God who is love and mercy, in each of us, defines who we are, commands what we do to, what we do with one another and to and with the rest of his awesome creation,” the address stipulated. In his first encyclical, John Paul II wrote that man “remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love” (Redemptor Hominis, 10).

Having set the stage for the key to understanding Pope John Paul II, Dr. Niba proceeded to highlight another truism of the Pope’s teaching, namely: “I know too, thanks to him, that Jesus is not some exotic abstract idea, some moral ideal beyond our reach, or some social construct. Jesus, God, are real. They are for real. God is a Person”. And in this light, he echoed what Vatican II teaches, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light…. Christ… by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to himself, and makes his supreme calling clear” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 22). 

Rev. Niba affirmed that thanks to John Paul II he has come to understand and continues to contemplate the expression: “The Human Person – gift and mystery.” In line with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which states that since man is created in the image of God, he cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self, Fr. Niba noted that for John Paul II then, “The path to godliness and holiness is essentially a human path. To be holy is to be authentically human; simply human; sacrificially human through humble love and service of one another.” Therefore, sainthood is not foreign to Africa, Dr. Niba added.

“I know that John Paul II believed that holiness is not the privilege of a few. He recognized and promoted holiness wherever he saw it. Adding to the list of African saints of the early centuries, he beatified Isidore Bakanja of the Congos, Cyprain Tansi of Nigeria, Josephine Bakhita of Sudan, and canonized many others. In this way, he invited us to realize that holiness is always in season, that God has no favourites, but that anyone of any nationality or race who believes in him, is material for sanctity.”

And so, Ecclesia in Africa then transcends, goes beyond the title of a papal encyclical; it no longer remains a book. Ecclesia in Africa, which translates as “The Church in Africa”, is a living reality, a strong vibrant family. The Church in Africa is alive and well. May that Church lead and inspire our world to rediscover our humanity, our divine personhood, origins and destiny, in Christ, who for a time was an African refugee and immigrant, through the intercession of Pope Saint John Paul the Great. 

Two panel discussions helped the assembly to digest and concretize the ceremony. In the first, Deogratias Kawunde from Uganda and Sr Joanna Okereke from Nigeria spoke of the necessity of encouraging devotions to existing African saints and promoting the cause of future ones. In the second panel, Couple Emmanuel and Therese Mulumba (from DR Congo) spoke about the need for evangelizing Families in the African Diaspora. John Paul II loved young people and so Chioma Chidume, the youth on the panel, spoke about the pressures youths of African origin have in a secular society. The panels were the icing, as they showed the assembly practical ways to own their faith, and to bear witness to it in the family, community and by a sacramental way of living. Sir Barbie Orusakwe, a fourth degree Knight and President of the African Catholics Association (ACA) of the DC Metro area describes the celebration as well attended and very good. “I saw it as an addition to what ACA may consider hosting in the future. It brought back the good memories of this traveling pope. The officiating Bishop's sermon was very good,” he added.

The sermon and the keynote address touched, Kenneth Wirlen, chairman of the Good Shepherd Cameroon Catholic Community of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He could picture the events through the stories shared by the Bishop and Rev Dr Niba as “They both highlighted the role they played during that visit and how this impacted their lives today in what they are both doing. While Bishop Bibi mentioned how he was privileged to serve at mass that day, Fr. Mike illustrated how those who greeted the Pope directly proudly shared the greetings.”

This event came to fruition thanks to Rev. Fr Herbert Niba, a priest of Buea Diocese in Cameroon, who is currently studying for a PHD in Theology, with specialization in Person, Marriage and Family, at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies. It is yet another milestone on his growing expertise on Pope St. John Paul II. Even though he never met Pope John Paul II during his two visits to Cameroon, he lived the memories especially through his parents who were part of the pilgrims who trekked to the Bafut airport for Mass in 1985. When John Paul II died in 2005, Fr. Herbert Niba had just started priestly formation in the Major Seminary. The canonization of John Paul II took place on the same day he celebrated his first Mass as a priest, and seemed to have been the lightning rod for his foray into the life and teachings of the saint. Fr. Herbert Niba taught in the St. John Paul II Major Seminary, Bachuo Ntai, Mamfe, Cameroon, and has also served as Director of the John Paul II Theological Institute, Buea, which trains lay people. His devotional, “The Way of the Cross with Pope John Paul II” published by Our Sunday Visitor, is a Lenten resource used at the National Shrine of St. John Paul II, in the course of which the idea of this twin anniversary celebration came to light. 

This celebration brought to light and life the legacy and memory of Pope St. John Paul II from an African perspective, against the backdrop of the Pope’s visits to Cameroon.

Dr Sofia Maurette, Director of Intercultural Ministry at the National Shrine of St John Paul II under whose inspirational aegis and direction this celebration took form expressed her satisfaction thus: “With the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ecclesia in Africa, the Saint John Paul II National Shrine is blessed to continue to preserve our Patron Saint's legacy and his vision for the African Church.”

To ensure that this is not a one off event especially given that Pope John Paul II visited 39 countries in eleven visits to the continent during his 26 year long pontificate, the director affirmed “We are grateful for the active participation of the African communities and hope to make this an annual celebration of Africa's gifts to the Church following Saint John Paul II's prophetic call for the ‘hour of Africa’ a favorable time which urgently invites Christ's messengers to launch into the deep and to cast their nets for the catch." (Ecclesia in Africa, 5)