From 9 to 12 January 2025, 27 young sisters from several Congregations present in Cameroon and Chad met at the John Paul II Pastoral and Spiritual Centre in Garoua for their usual formation session on the theme: ‘Abuse in the Church and consecrated life’.
We were 4 Daughters of the Holy Spirit -Pascaline SOMDA, Christine MAÏDOKLE, Serlette GAOBAWAÏ and myself, Denise MBAFI- to benefit from this time of formation. A grace for us: at the start of the Jubilee Year, we meet not only to wish each other a ‘Happy New Year’, but also to share on this topical theme and to plunge ourselves even deeper into the search for a new dynamism in our life consecrated to the Lord and to live as authentic witnesses of HOPE with our brothers and sisters.
Thursday evening’s get-togethers gave us the opportunity to talk with each other on a number of subjects that increased our thirst to learn more about the theme of the session. Indeed, throughout her talk, Sister Blandine TODIA, facilitator and psychologist (Mother Superior of the Pious Association of the Sisters of Mary Queen of Apostles, Yagoua) found words and ways to edify us further on the subject. Sister Blandine spoke in turn about the etymology of the word abuse, the types of abuse, the consequences of abuse, the categories of people who can be abused and the abusers and, finally, the means of achieving ‘Zero Abuse’. For us, the session more or less echoed what we had received at our vice-provincial assembly in October 2024, where Sister Vedette NDAOKAÏ had presented ‘Abuse in the Church and in society’. At the end of the session, we became more aware that we must be pilgrims of hope and peacemakers. Each of us found ourselves called to respond, in our own souls and consciences, to these questions: is it possible to eradicate abuse? What is the path to liberation? In the community, what is my personal way out of abuse?
Thanks to the wealth of information and tools we continue to receive, we have great hope of achieving ‘Zero Abuse’. We have also been given weapons to fight through the sharing of experiences from our different missions and the support of our accompanying sisters: Sister Faustine (Sister Servant of Mary Immaculate) and Sister Agnès (Daughter of the Holy Spirit). Without forgetting to put God at the centre of our lives, to give priority to our life choices, to review them, to make firm decisions, to be prudent and to be true to ourselves and to others. Thank you to you, our religious leaders and benefactors, who are always concerned to give us the means to keep the vocational flame burning. May the Holy Spirit always go before us and may Mary, our advocate before the Holy Spirit, always intercede for us!
Sister Denise MBAFI, Doukoula community. Published on 19 January 2025
Photos.
1. Recreational evening
2.3. End of session photos.
