Msgr. Jean Mbarga is Bishop of Ebolowa in Cameroon and a lover of nature. “It’s our strength,” he said during a recent visit to the Dicastery. This is so even with regard to questions concerning the family and life, in Cameroon as well, which are increasingly becoming the subject of discussion and, sometimes, of conflict. The tension is twofold: cultural and generational, African tradition and Western influences, adults and young people. It’s not, however, religious, because with respect to the idea of family “all faiths are united.”
 
The family has thus become one of the central themes of Cameroon’s episcopate:
first of all, thanks to the publication of a document (attached): “a strong statement on the current situation of the family,” on its general position in the vast majority of the population, on the problems that injure and weaken it (incest, abortion, abuse and homosexuality);
then, with some very concrete pastoral decisions, such as involving all the country’s parishes in prayer specifically, during Lent, for the family and life.
Family and life: are two closely related concepts; they don’t exist one without the other. Msgr. Mbarga, combative African bishop, is convinced of this.