{UAH} President Biya of Cameroon visits Pope Francis

President Paul Biya of Cameroon arrived in Rome three days ago to pay a special

visit to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and to the Vatican. The visit is principally aimed 

at improving the more than cordial relationship the two states have enjoyed since late sixties!

Paul Biya was last Saturday received by the Pope in a strictly private audience that lasted half

an hour. He arrived at the Vatican in a procession of 13 cars that carried all members of his delegation

who included his wife. he was very warmly received by the Vatican delegation who included a cardinal, bishops,

monsignors, and the Swiss guard. There were also some twenty journalists of the international press. 

He was very warmly received by the Pope who led him to his private library where the two exchanged in French

on several aspects that included the general situation in Africa, the conflicts in the Congo and the Central African

Republic, the need to fight poverty from the continent by throwing forward a fearless action in project that would

involve an active struggle versus the general indifference experienced today,  the need for the Vatican to establish a permanent observation status to the African Union in order to help Africa on many fronts, and the need to strengthen Afro-Vatican relationship in diplomacy. The Pope looks determined to side with Africa in order to combat poverty and misery on the continent. This has been exemplified in his repeated appeals in favour of the many African boat people who arrive penniless on the Italian coasts, and his appeal to help them because they were a visible result of the badly planned world economy which he has regularly denounced. The Italian authorities appear moved by the Pope's stand to the extent that they have allowed full state funerals for those clandestine immigrants who drawned in the Mediterranean!

Paul Biya's visit coincides with Mission Sunday celebrated yesterday, could it carry a special message? Cameroon impressed very much Pope Benedict XVI when he visited the country two years ago and was very warmly received by millions of cheerful citizens who included the intellectual elite that requested him to allow them

to open a special forum to help speed evangelization in Cameroon itself and in the neighbouring regions! And Cameroon has now got the only African candidate for beatification whose file has now passed the local diocesan study and is now in the advanced stages within the Vatican. It's the cause of late Rev Fr Baba Simon, popularly known as Cameroon's St Francis of Assisi. He was one of the first native priests in the country, and died in 1975 after leading a very exemplary virtuous life. Naturally the Pope didn't say anything about this Paul Biya visit when he presided over the Sunday noon Angelus prayer and addressed and blessed the 150,000 pilgrims assembled in St Peter's Square!.

At the end of the Papal audience there was the exchange of gifts between the two leaders, absorbed in a gamut of incessant camera flashes! And then the President and his group were hosted to a luncheon by a senior cardinal who had once been Papal Nuncio in Cameroon. Then Paul Biya passed a special note intended for retired Pope Benedict XVI to whom the people of Cameroon wished a very nice retirement and thanked him for the very good work he did for the Church and the world during his pontificate.

Important also to recall another audience accorded to another outstanding African leader a few months ago. that was when Pope Francis received the respected President of Benin, Dr Thomas Boni Yayi who too very warmly

received retired Pope Benedict XVI two years ago when he led millions of countrymen to give a very triumphant welcome to the Pope. The intellectual President, who was once director at the World Bank, had also come to Rome to attend the inauguration of Benin's late Cardinal Bernard Gantin Chair at the Pontifical Latran University.

This Chair will be the central point in leading debates, discussions, etc and in giving concrete proposals aimed

at fighting against poverty and misery in Africa. It will indeed be a central forum of pragmatic activity in favour of the continent. President Yayi is said to have requested the Pope to appoint a cardinal for Benin to continue with the memory of the powerful Cardinal Gantin whose death five years ago moved the entire West African nation.

Pope Francis's very intelligent and pragmatic outlook on Africa has won the entire continent on his side. It's now no longer a surprise to see many African pilgrimages in Rome, practically every other day!

Dr G.H. Kkolokolo ( Paris / France )