Buea, 17 June, 2020 / 11:11 pm (ACI Africa).
The Holy Father has, through the Vatican-based Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples, clarified the mandate of Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi as the Apostolic Administrator of Cameroon’s Buea Diocese, amid ongoing controversy in the country’s oldest diocese.
The June 15 clarification that was announced by the Apostolic Nuncio in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, Archbishop Julio Murat follows controversies triggered by changes, which Bishop Bibi made at the Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB).
“The Apostolic Administrator is having jurisdiction to act for and on behalf of the Diocese of Buea in all matters concerning the Diocese and all other Institutions belonging to the Diocese,” Archbishop Murat writes and indicates that his declaration follows “the high instructions of the Congregation of the Holy See for the Evangelization of the Peoples.”
The representative of the Holy Father in Cameroon since March 2018 adds, “The same Apostolic Administrator is responsible for all the temporal goods and patrimony of the Diocese of Buea and of all the Diocesan Institutions and is answerable directly to the Holy Father through the Apostolic Nunciature in Yaounde.”
On June 11, Bishop Bibi made changes at CUIB, appointing Professor Victor Julius Ngoh as Vice Chancellor, a position previously held by Fr. George Nkeze Jingwa, whom the Bishop asked to take a sabbatical leave.
