The questioning is from Edouard Kingue, journalist and columnist for the private daily Le Messager.
At the start of the years of independence, a collective of pastors, traditional practitioners, masters of the night, gathered in Ndoungue in Moungo under the leadership of pastors Moungole and Kingue, to select plants, bark and herbs. of our forests and make an inventory of common pathologies likely to be relieved.
Two hand-written notebooks were made: one for traditional pharmacopoeia and the other less known for esoteric interventions. With the analysis of these notebooks which we consulted under the seal of the secrecy, we can say that Africa is full of an ancestral wisdom which waits only for instruments of scientific analysis to deliver its secrets, as regards the visible and invisible powers of healing.
A few decades later, the Jesuit Father Eric de Rosny, drawing on these veins, published several books, the best known of which is entitled: ” the eyes of my goat, in the footsteps of the masters of the night in the Douala country »1981. Do we need therapeutic wisdom less than medical science when we know that we are delivered to laboratories whose immoral conceptions sometimes border on charlatanism?
In 2006, Mgr Kleda published an excellent work on “Treatment of diseases by plants in Cameroon”. A fairly documented book including: identification, picking, drying of plants, preparation methods and recipes. With in addition, the index of plants in different languages. When the Covid 19, which came from ‘nowhere’ began to be rife, faced with medical posturing here and elsewhere, Bishop Kleda took the threat head on, opening the health facilities of the church to patients for his potions.
Can we then consider his appointment to the Vatican as a recognition and a reward for his efforts in terms of treatment and in particular in the fight against Covid 19? “In this kind of think tank of the Roman curia, there is a strategic commission for the pontifical response to Covid 19. Isn’t the great danger for us that the Vatican will steal the treatment of Bishop Kleda? We wonder.
The appointment of Bishop Kleda, who took office at the Archdiocese of Douala in 2009, could be seen as a good thing for the simple reason that being a member of the dicastery in charge of health, he will know how to rub his knowledge of naturopath to Vatican scientists, if their aim is not to fight it, but to help better rationalize its discoveries.
It can also turn against him if those around him ‘want to discover shortcomings’ or trial and error in his compositions. These scientists are people of faith just like Bishop Kleda, but only they are still much more rational and do not swallow an herb potion or a bizarre mixture of roots as easily, even if the results seem convincing.
Moreover, perhaps Bishop Kleda will come out with all the honors and recognition of the universal Catholic Church for his contribution to human health, or then he will be asked very delicately to stop selling wind.
The most emblematic case is that of Bishop Emmanuel Milingo, long archbishop of Lusaka in Zambia, who because of his gifts as a miracle worker, healer and exorcist, so that the Vatican could better control him, had appointed him to Rome ” special delegate of the Pontifical Commission for the pastoral care of migrants ”.
The Vatican is a master in the skilful use of the principle “Promoveatur ut amoveatur” whose literal translation is “He is promoted so that he may be removed.”
In Rome, put to the test, it has been said, ‘discovered’ its limits. With the inconvenience of pointing out Mgr Milingo who left the Church making a lot of noise. He was not after all a parish priest, but an archbishop from the most important diocese of his country where he enjoyed a certain notoriety. Since the standoff between Bishop Milingo and Rome, Vatican authorities have become much finer in pulling the rug under a bishop’s feet. ” Although I have been appointed member of the dicastery for the service of integral human development in Rome by the Holy Father Pope Francis Kleda said. I remain Metropolitan Archbishop of Douala because this post does not necessarily require my continued presence in Rome “. Even …
But the Kleda does not stop there, underlines a committed layman, Mgr Kleda ” seems to have multiplied too many odds with regard to its predecessor. We had the impression that he wanted to see the image of the Cardinal erased. First he brutally stifled the birth of the “Cardinal Tumi Foundation » by vetoing it; a few years later, he abruptly removed the Cardinal’s name from the canon of the Mass by secretly animating the publicity about the deletion of the name of his predecessor ».
However, Pope Francis, unlike the Popes Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, developed the technique of the “soft painful embrace” which is an attitude typical of the good Jesuit. Moreover and very important to underline, in the order of cardinals, Tumi is in two ways an elder of Pope Francis: he was born in 1930 and created cardinal in 1988 while Pope Francis was born in 1936, created cardinal of Buenos Aires in 2001 and elected Pope in 2013. “ No doubt the two high prelates know and appreciate each other. Which suggests that the insults that Cardinal Tumi has suffered since his departure from the archdiocese have not fallen on deaf ears. ».
In fact, each dicastery is absolutely dependent on the Pope and can only act in his name and with his consent.
Which might lead one to believe that for Kleda the principle “promoceatur ut amoveatur” would be triggered. The days to come will help us better understand…
But can we, in a decade, take stock of Bishop Kleda at the head of the Archdiocese of Douala? For his detractors, “How can we explain that there is no Rector at the head of Saint Jérôme University? »« Macacos, which was a fine jewel in the printing industry in Douala, is constantly struggling; Veritas television which has been announced with a great deal of publicity cannot be found in the network of television channels operating in Cameroon ”.
However, this analysis has flaws. From the pastoral point of view, Bishop Kleda knew how to extend the installation of parishes in almost every nook and cranny of the city and he continues to occupy the land admirably with the construction here and there of new churches and the number of priests continues to increase, which is to its credit …
Taking into account his ‘promotion’ at the dicastery, do we believe that a new archbishop is being downloaded where his relatives were waiting for him to be created Cardinal… like Mgr Tumi yesterday? Rome is never in a hurry but the Jesuits hold a stubborn grudge …
But for MGR Kleda, let’s hope as it says “Deuteronomy 11:24” Every place that the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: your border shall stretch from the desert to Lebanon, and from the river Euphrates to the western sea. ».
Edking
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