The decomposing body of a priest discovered in Yaoundé
The lifeless remains of Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga, priest of the diocese of Kribi, were discovered yesterday in the Ekoumdoum district of Yaoundé. The remains of Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga, priest of the diocese of Kribi, now rest in the Mvolyé cemetery in Yaounde. His remains were discovered yesterday in the Ekoumdoum district of Yaoundé. Given his advanced level of putrefaction, he was immediately buried alongside the other priests who left this world and whose remains rest in Mvolyé. A former resident of the minor seminary of Mbalmayo, promotion 99, Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga was a brilliant subject as his comrades testify. After his ordination, he suffered for several years. Interned several times in Jamot Hospital because of certain symptoms that suggested that he was crazy, he finally returned to his family and never regained his health until his death.
Father Armel Bissi, who knew him at the minor seminary, thinks that his downfall came from ecclesial maneuvers away from Christianity which traumatized the young priest. “In December 2013, he was ordained priest in Kribi by Bishop Befe who asked him to spend a few months in the diocese before returning to Rome to pursue specialized studies. Unfortunately, Bishop Befe died a few months later before returning the new priest Auguste Mballa Mebenga to Rome. There will follow ecclesial maneuvers which I believe are unchristian and whose aim will be to never again show him the path that leads to Rome. This will cause major traumas in him which he continually spoke to me about and which will make him incoherent at times. People will say he is crazy. Several times often interned at the Jamot hospital in Yaoundé, he liked to say that he did not know what he did to those who refused to see him return to Rome as Bishop Befe had wanted. His heart was still in Rome, but no one showed him the way anymore,” says Father Bissi. Father Jean Armel Bissi is clear, his late colleague “was a frustrated soul. Regrets got the better of him and corroded his complete balance to the point where for those who did not take into account his inner suffering: he was a priest whose head could no longer hold up. All the gratitude of his childhood friends that we are to his Bishop, his fellow priests of Kribi, the faithful, and his family for each effort made to relieve the sorrows of our brother Auguste whose hope was to see him rediscover the beautiful soul with which he was invested on the day of his priestly ordination in December 2013.”
Father Auguste Mballa Mebenga entered the major seminary in the diocese of Kribi which had just split from that of Ebolowa, after the baccalaureate in 2006. After the major seminary of Otele for philosophy studies, Mgr Befe, the very first bishop of the diocese of Kribi choose him to study theology in Rome.
