In May 1935, the issue of the vicariate of Buea starting its own seminary (it was not stated whether what was meant was a minor or Major seminary) was discussed at the Third General Meeting held in Soppo from May 13 to May 17, 1935. The Meeting, however, resolved that the time was not opportuned to start own seminary. Notwithstanding other efforts that were already in place, Bishop Rogan Minor Seminary (Bishop Rogan College) admitted its first batch of students in September 1964. These included George Kevin Mbayu, Michael Yuh, Evaristus Yufanyi and Patrick Nchuwa. The batch of the following year included Patrick Lafon, William Neba, John Ambe, Polycarp Fonjock, Benedict Ekang and Peter Manicap. The group that was admitted in 1964 completed Form V in 1969 but did not leave for the Major Seminary in Nigeria immediately. However, in January 1970 the two groups left for SS. Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Ibadan. They could not go to Enugu because the Nigerian Civil war was still going on. The batch of 1966 of Bishop Rogan College completed Form V in June 1971. Lower and Upper VIth Forms were introduced in Bishop Rogan College in September 1971. Among these were: Joseph Akem, John Bintum, Richard Diangha, Peter Ewang, Stephen Tanyi, Decimal Okorie, Edward Ngalame, William Tardze, Moses Tazoh, Joseph Veranso and Anthony Viban. Richard Diangha, Peter Ewang and Edward Ngalame were crossing over from Bishop Rogan College. The rest came from other secondary schools in the country.

The Beginning of St Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary, Bambui

Since Bishop Rogan College, the then lone minor seminary of the Dioceses of Buea and Bamenda had started the Lower and Upper Sixth Forms, it was logical to begin to make arrangements to start a Major seminary: the Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Major Seminary, Bambui. In November 1966, with the full authorization of Bishop Jules Peeters, Bishop of Buea, the few Cameroonian Priests of his diocese held their first meeting at Our Lady of Good Counsel Presbytery, Tombel, where Father Clemens Ndze was Acting Parish Priest. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Father Pius Awa, the then Vicar General of Buea. At the meeting a significant number of Cameroonian Priests strongly advanced the view that the time had come for the Diocese of Buea to send any candidates for the ministerial priesthood that it might have to the Major Seminary at Otele, in the then Federated State of East Cameroun. These priests maintained that Reunification had already been achieved and that Cameroon was one country; the diocese of Buea was no longer a suffragan See of the Archdiocese of Onitsha (Nigeria) as had been the case up to 1961, but had become a suffragan See of the Metropolitan See of Yaounde. And there was no longer any justification for continuing to send candidates from West Cameroon for priestly formation to Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, Nigeria. There were some members who did not agree with this proposal. Father Pius Awa, Vicar General, duly reported to the Bishop of Buea about the discussion held at the Meeting in Tombel. The issue seemed to have stalled for a while. Father Christian Tumi, who was present at the Tombel Meeting and who eventually became the first Rector of the Major Seminary, left for studies in France and Switzerland in 1969. He later explained: "When I left for France in August 1969 for further studies in Philosophy and Theology, there was no talk of founding a major seminary in the English-speaking part of Cameroon. The idea was brought up during the episcopal ordination of Bishop Pius Awa in 1971 ... "

It was at this occasion that the Organizing Committee inspired by so much foresight and representing the Catholic Laity of the Diocese of Buea and in the name of the Catholic Church in West Cameroon, requested in the Address, the erection of a Major Seminary in "West Cameroon". There were seven well-thought out requests in all in the Address but the first three are particularly relevant here and which in fact have been granted in the course of a very short time. “… we cannot end this address without laying the following requests at the feet of our Mother, the Catholic Church in West Cameroon: "First and foremost, that in consideration of the growing needs of the Catholic Church in West Cameroon, together with the problems attendant on its growth and development, taking particular cognizance of the linguistic and cultural problems peculiar to this part of the country, the faithful strongly feel that we urgently need the guiding hand of an Archbishop and therefore requesting the inauguration of an Archdiocese NOW to serve the needs of West Cameroon. Second, that the Lordships, Bishops Peeters, Verdzekov and Awa would do well to acknowledge the formidable character of the mighty task before them, and girth themselves afresh for a new launching of Catholic Evangelism in this land and of rallying the faithful round the banner of Truth, Hope and Salvation. Third, that a strong request be made to the competent authorities on behalf of the faithful of this Diocese, for the establishment of a Senior Seminary in West Cameroon." A Dutch Missionary Bishop who had taken part at the Episcopal Ordination ceremony openly expressed his utter shock and dismay that someone should have dared to make, openly, such a totally unacceptable request as the demand for the erection of a Major Seminary in the then Diocese of Buea. “In reply to this strongly-expressed objection, the Bishop of Buea, the Right Reverend Jules Peeters, MHM, literally beat his chest, saying: "I am proud of my people!" Bishop Peeters had no part whatsoever in the drafting of the Address prepared by the Organising Committee of the Episcopal Ordination. But he trusted his Christians, and saw nothing wrong whatsoever in their publicly requesting the immediate erection of a Major Seminary in the then Diocese of Buea.” Archbishop Paul Verdzekov explained that the next day after the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop Pius Awa, he left for Nigeria with Fr Martin van der Werff. Even though, Archbishop Paul Verzekov does not mention the project of a Major Seminary at the beginning of this trip to Nigeria, it is obvious that the trip was planned before the episcopal ordination of Bishop Pius Awa. He writes: “On Monday, 31 May 1971, together with Father Martin van der Werff, I left Soppo for Enugu (Nigeria) where we arrived on Tuesday evening, 01 June 1971. We were kindly welcomed at Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, by the then Rector, Mgr. John Ogbonna, a Nigerian Diocesan Priest. The purpose of my visit was to plead with the Rector and his Formation Staff that they agree to take back our Seminarians who had been undergoing their formation for the priesthood at Bigard Seminary, Enugu, right up to July 1967, but whom we had been obliged to send to SS Peter and Paul's Major Seminary, Ibadan, on account of the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War. In reply to my request, Mgr. Ogbonna said. "Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, will only accept your Seminarians because you and Bishop Pius Awa of Buea are also Past Students of this Seminary. We shall also make the same concession for the Seminarians of your classmate, Bishop Joseph Ganda of the Diocese of Kenema, Sierra Leone. Were it not because the three of you are Past Students, we would feel obliged to reject your request outright. You have seen for yourself how extremely overcrowded our Seminarians are in the Chapel, in the classrooms, in the Dormitories and in the Dining Hall. On the following day, Wednesday, 03 June 1971, I went to Onitsha to pay a courtesy call on the Archbishop, the Most Reverend Francis Arinze (later Cardinal Arinze) in order to let him know the purpose of my visit. I returned to Enugu later on the same day. The following day, Thursday, 04th June 1971, Father van der Werff and myself travelled back to Mamfe.” It would seem that up to this point Archbishop Paul Verdzekov did not hold the conviction that West Cameroon could start its own Seminary. He explains: “At no time had I really believed that we would be capable of running a Major Seminary. I imagined that we would probably have to continue to send our Seminarians to Enugu, and that we would have to continue to play second fiddle to somebody else.” It was only after this trip to Nigeria that he suddenly changed his mind on the way back. “On Friday morning, 05th June 1971, as Father van der Werff and myself were driving up between Widikum and Batibo, I said to him: "I am now absolutely convinced that the time has come for us to start our own Major Seminary for the English-Speaking Dioceses of Buea and Bamenda. It is true that Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, is willing to take back our Seminarians. But mindful of the extremely high enrolment in Enugu; mindful of the fact that there is only one Spiritual Director for hundreds and hundreds of Seminarians in that Institution, and mindful of the excessive overcrowding in the Dormitories, in the Chapel, in the Classrooms and in the Dining Hall, I believe that Bigard Memorial Seminary will, sooner or later run into serious problems and difficulties. Therefore we had better start our own Major Seminary." Once he had taken this decision, things moved really fast. It was one decision after the other. At the Annual plenary Assembly of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference which was held in Yaounde in April 1971, Bishop Paul had been chosen to represent Cameroon at the Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which was held in October 1971. In the meantime, Bishop Jules Peeters, Bishop Pius Suh Awa and Bishop Paul Verdzekov agreed that they ought to submit a request to the Holy See, asking for the authorization necessary for the erection of a Regional Major Seminary to serve the needs of the English-Speaking Dioceses of Cameroon. So when Paul Verdzekov left for Rome in late September 1971 to participate in the Synodal Assembly of October 1971, the bishops authorized him to prepare and submit an application to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, asking that Dicastery for permission to enable them to erect a Regional Major Seminary for the above-mentioned purpose. The Archbishop explained what happened in Rome following the above dispositions: “In the course of the month of October 1971, while I was at Rome attending the Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, I prepared an Application addressed to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples asking for the necessary authorization to enable us to erect a Major Seminary in the English-Speaking part of Cameroon. This Application was typed for me by Father Frans Baartmans, a Dutch Mill Hill Missionary. I submitted this Application to the Most Reverend Sergio Pignedoli, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. He knew Cameroon fairly well, having been the Apostolic Delegate for Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo/Brazzaville. In fact, accompanied by Bishop Jules Peeters, Archbishop Pignedoli had once toured the length and breath of the former Diocese of Buea in the early nineteen sixties. Archbishop Pignedoli (later, Cardinal Pignedoli) read my application in my presence. He expressed immediate satisfaction, and, to my utter surprise, he said: "You will have your Major Seminary. Your boys cannot go to Yaounde. Come back and see me once more before the end of the Synodal Assembly." I paid a second visit to Archbishop Pignedoli in the course of the Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. He took me for lunch in a restaurant near Piazza di Spagna, and again reassured me that we would definitely have the necessary authorization, and soon, for the erection of a Major Seminary in this part of our country. He also asked me to have a talk with Mgr. Antonio Mazza, a Major Official of the Pontifical Mission Societies at the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide. I did so. I did not realize, then, that the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon would have to have its say in the case of a request for the erection of a REGIONAL Major Seminary. Being ignorant of the mind and of the procedures of the Church in such matters, I foolishly imagined that the whole process would be a matter exclusively involving the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda on the one hand and the Holy See on the other hand. However, I left Rome in November 1971, with the oral assurance from Archbishop Pignedoli that our Application would eventually be fully approved by the Holy See.” It was to pursue the same cause that Bishop Paul Verdzekov went from Rome after the Synod of Bishops to England. It can be said the project was already in full gear. He explains: “Soon after the end of the Second Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, I travelled to Mill Hill, London, where I was warmly received by Father Noel Hanrahan, MHM, seventh Superior General of Saint Joseph's Missionary Society, and by Father Ignatius Desmond Sullivan, then an elected member of the General Council of the Society. I informed them of the readiness of the Holy See to permit us to erect a Major Seminary in the English-Speaking part of Cameroon, and of my ardent hope and desire that they would assist us to staff and to run such an Institution. I considered it as absolutely normal, then, that Saint Joseph's Missionary Society would supply the Rector and the Formation Staff of the nascent Major Seminary, especially as I did not believe that in the early nineteen seventies we would be capable of supplying the first Rector of such an Institution. After listening to me with exemplary patience, and assuring me of the good will and support of Saint Joseph's Missionary Society, Father Noel Hanrahan concluded by saying: "We shall do everything possible to give you some Mill Hill Fathers as our contribution to enable you to start the Major Seminary. But there is one thing which we of Mill Hill cannot and will not accept. It is this. We simply will not accept to give you someone to be the First Rector of your Major Seminary. Times have changed. Right from the very beginning, the First Rector of the Major Seminary must be one of your own Diocesan Priests. He must be a Cameroonian." I was utterly stunned by Father Hanrahan's uncompromising insistence on the fact that the first Rector of the new Major Seminary must be one of our own Diocesan Priests. But the Superior General of Mill Hill was absolutely right. He was aware, then, of something of which I was then totally ignorant, namely, that in 1969, the Ius Commissionis, whereby the Holy See entrusted a specific territory to a clearly specified Missionary Institute had been changed to a new law, Relationes in Territoriis. This was more in the spirit and in the letter of the Documents of the Second Vatican Council.” As all the bishops of West Cameroon were working on the project, so too was the Holy See busy to ensure its realization in record time. The total commitment of the Holy See to the project can be seen in the visit of Archbishop Jean Jadot, the then Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Cameroon. “Early in 1972, Archbishop Jean Jadot, the then Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Cameroon, paid an official visit to Bamenda. By then he had received his instructions from the Holy See concerning our application for a Major Seminary, an application towards which the Holy See was very favourable. In the course of our conversation in what was later to become Saint Clare's Convent, Mankon, Archbishop Jean Jadot strongly advised me to be aware of the fact that our application would come up for a full scale discussion at the Plenary Assembly of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference due to be held in April 1972. He told me that our request for a Major Seminary would encounter stiff and determined opposition in some unidentified quarters of the Episcopal Conference. The reasons for such opposition and resistance would be essentially political, not ecclesial. I should be prepared, he said, and duly armed for that situation. He himself helped me by giving me some reasons or arguments which Bishop Jules Peeters, Bishop Pius Awa and myself would most probably need in order to argue for the feasibility and the ‘opportuness’ of the creation of a Major Seminary in the English-Speaking Region of Cameroon.” This caution was extremely important and the three bishops prepared themselves for the upcoming ordeal at the Episcopal Conference in Yaounde. Their preparations were apparently facilitated by the Third Catholic Convention and the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Mill Hill Missionary presence and activity in Cameroon. These celebrations took place in Bamenda and therefore the three bishops were present in one place for more than one week. Though they were busy with these events, they could find time to prepare as a group for the Conference in Yaounde. Bishop Paul Verdzekov writes: “In April 1972, the Dioceses of Buea and Bamenda held the Third Catholic Convention at Sacred Heart College Mankon, a convention in which Father Noel Hanrahan, MHM, took part. He gave a marvelous Address to the Convention. On the Second Sunday of Easter, 9th April 1972, we celebrated the Golden Jubilee (1922 - 1972) of Mill Hill Missionary presence and activity in Cameroon. Soon after that celebration which took place in the open air on the grounds of Saint Joseph's Cathedral Parish, Mankon, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda travelled to Yaounde for that year's Plenary Assembly of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon.” Due to the concerted action of the Bishops of West Cameroon they were able to nip the opposition to the project in the bud. At the end of the day those who were ready to oppose the project were not able to voice their opposition. “Whenever I went to Yaounde for any business whatsoever, I normally stayed with Bernard Nsokika Fonlon. He was then the Head of the Department of African Literature at the University of Yaounde, a State Institution. Bernard Fonlon furnished me with solid arguments and reasons of a theological, philosophical and cultural nature, arguments which I could use to defend the justice and ‘opportuness’ of our cause in front of the Bench of Bishops of Cameroon. On the given occasion, the President of the Episcopal Conference placed our request for a Major Seminary on the table for discussion, in accordance with a written request which he had received from Mgr. Antonio Mazza. The Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop Jean Jadot, also attended this specific session of the Conference, in accordance with specific instructions from the Holy See. He was to say nothing, his mission being merely to be a qualified witness in order to inform the Holy See on the outcome of the discussion of an issue of such historic importance. When the President of the Episcopal Conference asked the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda to explain their request to the Conference, Bishops Peeters and Awa asked me to take the floor and explain why we were asking for a Regional Major Seminary for the English-Speaking part of Cameroon. To our very pleasant surprise, it became evident that, with the exception of one or two Bishops, the overwhelming majority of the Bishops, who were hearing of our application for the first time, spontaneously and unreservedly approved our application and explicitly requested that the Holy See be informed of this approval immediately. Someone then suggested that even though the application for the erection of a Major Seminary on this side of the Mungo was accepted by the Conference, it should be on the proviso that such a Major Seminary be "un projet fédéral." This suggestion was immediately rejected by the Conference. The Bishops of Buea and Bamenda had asked for the Conference's approval for their request for authorization to erect a Regional Major Seminary, and the Conference should simply inform the Holy See that it fully and unreservedly approved, unconditionally, the request of the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda.” Consequent to the unqualified consent and approval of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference for the erection of a Regional Major Seminary in the English-Speaking part of Cameroon and with the assurance of the benevolence of the Holy See for the project, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda pursued preparations in earnest for the realization of the project. For this purpose, therefore, Bishop Pius Awa travelled to Rome, to Münster in Germany and to Fribourg in Switzerland. “The purpose of the visit was to inform Father Engelbert Kofon who was then studying in Rome; Father Clemens Ndze who was then studying in Münster in Germany; and Father Christian Tumi who was then studying at Fribourg in Switzerland, that all three of them would be expected to serve as Formators in the projected Major Seminary on their return. In the meantime, it became obvious that on account of financial constraints, and the manifest strategy of the Cameroon Government to starve the Grants-in-Aid system out of existence, the Catholic Church was forced to close down some of our Teacher Training Centres. That is why the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda agreed that the Saint Peter's Teachers' Training Centre, Bambui, should be transferred to Tatum and merged with Saint Pius X Teachers' Training Centre, Tatum, to form one Teachers' Training College. The buildings, premises, etc of Saint Peter's Training Centre, Bambui, would then be used for the new Major Seminary.” It would seem that it was possibly at around this same time that Bishop Paul Verdzekov and Fr. Martin van der Werf (the Secretary of the Bishop of Buea) undertook a second trip to Nigeria. This first trip had taken them to Enugu and Onitsha and this second trip took them to Ibadan. It would have been an urgent study and assessment mission and meant to familiarize themselves with an on-the-spot implications of founding and running a Major Seminary. This would have been a second visit to Nigeria because during the visit of May/June 1971, they did not go to Ibadan and the visit had another purpose. Those who were in Ibadan at the time had no doubt that Bishop Paul Verdzekov and Fr Martin van der Werff came to Ibadan. Bishop Cornelius Esua also confirmed that he was in Mamfe at the time when they passed on their way to Nigeria. This could only be after January 1972. They were about 25 West Cameroonian seminarians in Saints Peter and Paul Seminary. Fr Pius Awa, the vicar General of the Diocese of Buea had visited them earlier. Fr Cornelius Esua who was serving in Mamfe at the time reports on this visit in the following words: “In the meantime, just after the civil war in Nigeria, the atmosphere in the Major Seminary in Ibadan, where some of the Seminarians of Buea and Bamenda had been transferred because of the Biafran War, was not very good. Bishop Paul Verdzekov and Rev. Father Martin van der Werff, the Bishop’s Secretary of Buea Diocese had to go on an urgent mission to Ibadan to assess the situation. When they came back the Bishops decided that a Major Seminary should be opened in the then West Cameroon so that Seminarians from the Dioceses of Buea and Bamenda would no longer be sent to study at Ibadan or Enugu in Nigeria. I was working as a Curate in Mamfe at the time. I played host to Bishop Paul Verdzekov and Father Martin Van der Werff when they passed through Mamfe on this exploratory visit to Nigeria to see firsthand the situation in which our students were studying. When they came back, they decided that we must start our own Major Seminary.” It is in the context of the immediate preparation for the erection of the Major Seminary that the resignation of Bishop Jules Peeters as the Bishop of Buea is considered here. “On 29th January 1973, the resignation of Right Reverend Jules Peeters, MHM who had been ordained as Bishop of Buea at Soppo on 24th August 1962, was accepted by the Holy Father, Pope Paul VI. He had earlier made up his mind after he was elected as Bishop of Buea that he would serve in that position for no more than one decade, at the end of which he would hand over to a Cameroonian. On that same day, his Co-Adjutor cum iure successionis, the Right Reverend Pius Suh Awa, automatically became the Bishop of Buea. Preparations for the erection of a Major Seminary to serve the English-Speaking Dioceses of Buea and Bamenda which had been undertaken since 1972 continued as before. Before handing in his resignation to the Successor of Saint Peter, Bishop Jules Peeters, MHM, the then Bishop of Buea, gave us what appeared to me as a very timely warning, a warning of perennial value. He said that while the new Major Seminary must be, and be seen to be, authentically Cameroonian, and authentically Catholic, the Custodians of the Major Seminary, as well as the Seminary Formators, should gently, courteously but very firmly reject any attempt to impose any foreign model on the Major Seminary, no matter how well-intended such an imposition might at first appear. Inspired by this warning and timely advice of Bishop Peeters, and considering some of the ideas which were floating around at the time, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda addressed a joint letter to the Rector, Father Christian Tumi, urging him to exercise unrelenting vigilance, and to see to it that the Major Seminary, Bambui, be run, on a daily basis, according to the Norms, Guidelines and Orientations laid down by the competent Dicasteries of the Holy See, and periodically updated and revised by the same Holy See.” Fr Christian Tumi who had been contacted earlier by Bishop Pius Awa returned to Cameroon in good time. “In May 1973, Father Christian Tumi returned to Bamenda after having completed his studies at the Catholic University of Fribourg. He was officially informed by me that he would be the first Rector of the Major Seminary. In the meantime, he would serve for a few months as Assistant in Saint Joseph's Parish, Bafut, pending the beginning of the Major Seminary at Bambui in September 1973.” It is clear from what has been seen above that the Bishops did not waste any time to take necessary action on the project. The application for the creation of the Major Seminary to the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples was ready in October 1971. After hearing a favourable view of the Cameroon National Episcopal Conference, expressed at its Annual Plenary Assembly in April 1972, the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples granted the permission for the erection of the Regional Major Seminary at Bambui, in the diocese of Bamenda. The original intention of the bishops and the people of West Cameroon to have a seminary which would primarily serve the needs of the English speaking dioceses of Cameroon did not disappear or lose its steam in the entire process leading up to its realization. The permission from the Holy See was granted “ad experimentum et ad triennium”, and was communicated to the Ordinary of Bamenda by letter No. 2439/72 of October 18, 1972 through the Apostolic Nunciature at Yaoundé. Herewith an excerpt from the letter: “The Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples has given its consent for the establishment of the Regional Major Seminary at Bambui, destined for Seminarians of the English-speaking ecclesiastical circumscription of Cameroon. The Sacred Congregation ‘De Propaganda Fide’ has decided to approve the establishment of this Seminary ‘ad experimentum’ and ‘ad triennium.’ Every year the Rector will have to submit a report to the Sacred Congregation and to the Episcopal Conference concerning the running of the Seminary, and at the end of the “triennium,’ the definitive decree establishing the Seminary could be obtained, as well as the approval of the Statutes.” In the meantime, at the Third West Cameroon Catholic Convention which was held at Sacred Heart College, Mankon from 6th to 9th April, 1972, the faithful reiterated their request for a Major Seminary among the suggestions or recommendations they made to the Bishops. It may be necessary to note the following suggestions: i) To encourage young Cameroonians into vocations, parents must encourage (not discourage) their children who have a call. ii) Parishes must organize certain periods (e.g. Vocation Week) to educate Christians on the need for children to be encouraged, stressing that it is an honour for a member of their family to be called to clerical or religious duties. iii) Parents should be encouraged to pay fees for their seminarian just as they pay for children pursuing other careers. iv) The Vocations Committee of every Parish Council should look into the possibility of sponsoring seminarians whose families are incapable of defraying the cost of training. The recommendations of the Third West Cameroon Catholic Convention on this question spurred the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda to continue the process which they had initiated since 1971, that is, the project of establishing a Major Seminary in this part of our country. Following these appeals of the Catholic Laity, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda were absolutely convinced that the early establishment of a Major Seminary in this part of the country was the only adequate answer to the self evident needs. Following this state of affairs, the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda published a Joint Pastoral Letter on the Proposed Major Seminary on December 3, 1972, the First Sunday of Advent. This was the first public reaction to the persistent requests made by the Laity of the two dioceses. By this time a lot of important groundwork had been done behind the scenes. In this Pastoral Letter the Bishops justified the necessity for beginning own Major Seminary. There was a great shortage of priests in the two dioceses and reliable forecasts predict an escalation of the number of Catholics in the area. The two dioceses could not continue indefinitely to send seminarians to be trained in Nigeria because the seminaries in Nigeria were themselves short of space even for their own seminarians. In the same Joint Pastoral Letter the Bishops informed the catholic faithful that Rome had granted their request after due consultation with the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. It was also a cause of great joy to note that the Mill Hill Missionary Society had assured them of collaboration and to supply some professors even if this was for the time being. At the same time, the Catholic faithful were challenged to take up the responsibility to support the project both financially and spiritually. Funding was not to be expected from outside as recent popes have told Africans that they “must now be missionaries” to themselves as they “are now an adult community”. This is why the bishops could assert: “Fortunately, all of you are now convinced that the Church is the People of God, Laity and Clergy, which is why we need no longer persuade anyone that financial responsibility for our proposed seminary belongs to each and everyone of us.” This project was committed to the Catholic Women’s Association in a special way. The bishops also announced both the location and when the proposed Seminary would open its doors for the first formation year. “It is therefore our intention to start this Major Seminary at Bambui in the fourth quarter of next year, 1973, that is to say, in about ten months from now. This is why we earnestly ask all our Christians to keep this vital project in their prayers, so that it may commence properly under God's blessing, and bear good fruits for the Church which is in our midst.” As soon as this pastoral letter was published on the First Sunday of Advent 1972, it was clear that things had heated up to a hectic start of the Seminary. There were reactions and outstanding among them was the “Open Letter to the Bishops of Buea and Bamenda” of Professor Bernard Fonlon. Though Professor Fonlon’s Letter is dated September 16, 1973, the day after the Seminary opened for the first year it actually belongs to the interim period between the Joint Pastoral Letter of the Bishops and the opening of the Seminary. Prof. Fonlon had been a candidate for the Priesthood for Buea Diocese and was going to be the second West Cameroonian priest after Father Aloysius Wankuy. He had spent about 14 years in Priestly Formation right to the Major Seminary when just before the Diaconate Ordination he was asked to withdraw. In his letter he expressed his opinion about the type of Priests whom the people were expecting from the new Major Seminary, what should be the Curriculum of studies and the type of formation that should be given to the candidates. He believed that the candidates for the priesthood must be trained to be both saints and scholars. Bishop Paul Verdzekov made very remarkable comments about the open Letter. He wrote: “Bernard Fonlon's "Open Letter" was, in my humble opinion, an exceptionally well-thought out document, written by someone who thoroughly knew what he was talking about, and in which he outlined, with his customary clarity, what Catholics in particular, and Cameroonians in general, could and should expect our Major Seminary to be. He expected our Major Seminary to produce nothing less than Saints and Scholars.” This required both a solid spiritual formation and scholarly formation. It is in this context that Bernard Fonlon wrote the following: “There are those who would strive to convince you that, since it is in Africa, what your Seminary should produce is a Curé de Campagne, a sort of rural parish priest; and they will quote the venerable St. John Vianney to support a thesis, which would lead to mediocrity. I say that there is no place for shallowness in present-day Africa. My humble but firm conviction is that, next to being a saint, our future African priest should be such a scholar, that he should be respected by the world of learning, whether they like it or not. Once in Russia, as a guest of the Soviet Writers Union, I was taken by one of their members to visit the Major Seminary of the Orthodox Church. To my astonishment, this writer, an avowed atheist, remarked: "The chaps that come out of here are extremely learned men." "How come?" said I in surprise. "They have no choice but to be," he replied "for they have to spend their whole life in relentless warfare against atheism." I do not need to remind Your Lordships that the so-called Western Civilization is saturated, through and through, by a very pernicious godlessness - pernicious precisely because, it is loud in mouthing their faith in God, in contrast to the atheism of Marxism-Leninism. In Learning, as in Saintliness, the motto of our priest should be the single word: Thorough; no superficiality should be given quarter. But what Learning, you may ask? The answer is simple: it should be first and foremost, Learning in the special fields of clerical studies - Philosophy and Theology. I have heard it said the age-long custom of basing these studies on select textbooks is being dismissed in certain quarters as old-fashioned I do not share this view. I have kept with me, for the past twenty-five years, wherever I roved, my Philosophy textbooks Cursus Philosophiae by the Gregorian Professor Charles Boyer. Today, Boyer may be dismissed, out of hand, as old-fashioned. Indeed, there are theses in Boyer which I completely reject today. But most of his thought has been the basis of my other studies, ever since. Personally, as a schoolmaster, I believe that a course based on a standard textbook, supported by other works for wider reading, would be more solid than one based on haphazard lectures. If the Church has taught Philosophy for centuries, if she has produced eminent scholars thereby, if Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are revered today as the fathers and founders of Western thought, if after the Second Vatican Council, more stress has been laid on conscientious thinking, as opposed to a mindless submission to authority, do you need again to be convinced that our future priest should be a scholar and philosopher? Do you need to be convinced that a sound, thorough course in philosophy should be a sine qua non in his formation? What goes for Philosophy applies, a fortiori, to Theology, and there is no need for me to hold forth on that. But I would add that the more profound his knowledge in Philosophy, the deeper and faster would be the student’s grasp, not only of Theology, but of the other disciplines that come after. Hindsight brings to light, in my mind, certain defects in the method of our study of Philosophy back in the nineteen-forties. First, the texts were in Latin, a language we had not fully mastered and, therefore, a thorough mastery of the subject of which this language was the vehicle, was a hard-going task. So I believe that the basic lectures, if not the texts, should be in English. Do 1 ask you to banish Latin from your institute? Far be it from me! But I would prefer that the courses should be based, at least for a start, not on the Latin of Virgil and Cicero, but on the Latin of the Breviary, of the Missal, of the Vulgate, of the Fathers, on the soul-stirring hymns of the Liturgy and on the recent Papal Encyclicals. The firm grasp of this Latin would be made easier by the fact that these texts have excellent translations in English; it would foster and simplify the study of Horace and Virgil, later, for those with a thirst for them. I would even go further and advocate the study of Greek and Hebrew for those who intend to make Sacred Scripture their special field of further studies. The second fault I find in the study of Philosophy, in our days, is that we were narrowly limited to the study of the texts, and, apart from emphasizing that Philosophy was an ancilla to Theology, hardly one word was said on how philosophical principles could be applied in the study of other disciplines, and in the solution of the problems of life. It was only later, when I went to study Literature and Education that I discovered, to my joy, how priceless was the course I had done in Logic, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Psychology and Ethics. Indeed, after seven years of further University studies, I came away with the conviction that I had learnt nothing essentially new. I believe, therefore, my Lords, in a priest who is a thinker and scholar, with a scientific and philosophical turn of mind. For more information on this head, I would refer you to parts two and three of my booklets: To Every African Freshman. The advocates and protagonists of the formation of a Curé de Campagne would consider my proposals preposterous, seeing that the end of the formation of these priests is the pastoral care and guidance of unlettered African folk. Let them know that there are thinkers among these unlettered folks; let them remember that the number of University men among us, today, is yearly on the rise, and most of them are turned away from the Church. Let them remember that the future lettered African Intellectuals would have no patience with, or no respect for, mediocrity among clergy-men. For my part, I do not see it as a waste of talent if a priest with a Ph.D. or a D.D. is sent to man a rural parish. I am convinced that in our days and in the coming years, his influence will be as needful and as useful there, as it would be in city or college.” Another area in which the proposals of Professor Fonlon are pertinent is the area of the study of Sacred Scripture. In his words and in a way, he reiterates the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Optatam Totius: “Students should receive a most careful training in holy Scripture which should be the soul, as it were, of all theology. After a suitable introductory course, they should receive an accurate initiation in exegetical methods. They should study closely the principal themes of divine revelation and should find inspiration and nourishment in daily reading and meditation upon the sacred books.”(Optatam Totius, 16) In this connection Professor Fonlon writes: “The next thing I say, my Lords, may not please your ears, and may raise wrath against me from some of your clerics. But I think it must be said. It is this: I have heard morning after morning, five-minute homilies over the B.B.C., delivered by Anglican Divines; I have heard, here in Cameroon, Cameroon Protestant preachers preach. On one such occasion, when a Presbyterian clergyman was invited to preach to us, in the University Chaplaincy here in Yaoundé, the Rev. Pere de Rosny, SJ, the Superior, was so moved that he said with deep sincerity, after the sermon, that we Catholics have something to learn from the Protestants in the field of preaching. I say in all candour, my Lords, that when I put this side by side with what we hear from catholic pulpits, even in developed countries, where I lived and listened, I rate our performance paltry and I give high marks to the protestant preachers. And 1 have been pondering and wondering why this should be so, what makes the difference. The reasons may be several, but one seems to me to be more certain. In my humble opinion, it is that the protestant students are steeped in Sacred Scripture. In our days in the Seminary, Scripture did not figure prominently in the curriculum. We were required to go through the Bible by ourselves, at least once in the seven-year course. I ask you, my Lords: does it not strike you as odd that four whole years should be spent in drudging at an abstract, hair splitting, syllogistic, theological course, after the manner of Medieval Disputations, while so little time is spent on the study of the living, soul-stirring Word of God himself? Does it not strike you as odd that a glib Jehovah's Witness should cite chapter and verse to support his twisted theory, while a catholic stands dumb before him? Which would be more penetrating, which is capable of rousing hearts and wills: a sermon on the Eucharist, based on the dry-as-dust theories of Hylomorphism and Hypostasis, or one steeped in the Gospel of the Last Supper? Do not misunderstand me. I am not asking you to throw Traditional Theology out of the window. 1 am only saying, from real personal experience, that a prominent place should be given to the study of the New Testament and of the Old (especially the Psalms, the Prophets, the Canticle of Canticles. the Book of Proverbs and such like) in the curriculum (in my opinion), from the first year to the last. Catholic authorities were accused in the past of deliberately preventing the faithful from searching deep into the Sacred Scriptures, and I have heard it said that, at one period in Church History the passage of the woman taken in adultery was dropped out of the text by some holier than Christ ecclesiastical zealots. The time has come to reverse the trend.” One cannot overemphasize the relevance of the presentation of Professor Fonlon here. However, it would seem that the Bishops themselves had anticipated the central place of Sacred Scripture in the study of theology. As noted already, Fonlon published these reflections on September 16, 1973. It was about the same time that Fr Cornelius Esua left for Rome to specialize in Sacred Scripture. In fact, he remembers the Open Letter vividly: “Yes, I remember the Letter very well. It was published on 16th September 1973, the same month and year I left for Rome to specialize in Sacred Scriptures in the Pontifical Biblical Institute. It is a rich and scholarly letter on the formation of Priests. The opening of this Major Seminary marks an important milestone in the history of the Church in our Ecclesiastical Province. The Letter does not only indicate the purpose of a Major Seminary but also the type of Priests whom our Local Church should expect to come out from the new Seminary the Bishops were about to establish.” The mission of Fr. Cornelius Esua to specialize in Sacred Scripture coming at the same time with the publication of the Open Letter and its insistence on the centrality of Sacred Scripture in the study of theology cannot be seen as mere coincidence but rather as something that was pre-meditated by the Founding Fathers of the seminary. In this particular and specific context, one cannot end a consideration of Prof. Fonlon’s “Open Letter” with reference to the founding of the Major Seminary in West Cameroon without a reference to the fact that he believed very strongly that the Major Seminary must be a citadel of learning and a “veritable university’. He explained elaborately: “I studied for six years in the Seminary and about seven in several universities. And I have inside knowledge of both institutions; and I say that a well-staffed and organized Seminary is a veritable university; it is even more, because it lays serious stress on moral as well as intellectual education: and in my mind, a thorough moral education takes the first place. My firm conviction is that after three years of serious philosophical studies, a student who merits well should obtain a B. A. in philosophy, and after his four years in Theology, a Bachelor in Divinity. They do that in Maynooth, in Ireland. Why not in Cameroon? I know what I am talking about; for having to begin University studies all over again, after leaving the Seminary, I had to start all from scratch; thus I wasted seven precious years of my life and obtained, at thirty-six, what I should have obtained at thirty years of age. No; a well staffed and serious Seminary has nothing to envy from a secular academy. To create a Tradition of high standards, I believe that our Seminary should begin by affiliating itself to a well-established University abroad; while modifying its curriculum to suit African realities. The yearly falling of standards in our institutes of learning, the mediocrity and the laissez-faire that are fast taking root in them, should be a warning to us in the running of this Seminary. It should become an example for all to admire and imitate for its high standards of Learning and Discipline. On this head, care should be taken to see to it that the right attitude and mentality and effort should be instilled, right from the start. No quarter should be given to a lackadaisical approach, on the part of all concerned, to things of such serious import. Remember the time-tested adage in the stamping out of pernicious tendencies: Principiis obsta: kill the evil at its birth. Remember too the wise and pertinent warning of Aristotle: Parvus error in principio magnus est in fine: a little error at the start attains staggering proportions at the end.”

I do not need to remind Your Lordships that the so-called Western Civilization is saturated, through and through, by a very pernicious godlessness - pernicious precisely because, it is loud in mouthing their faith in God, in contrast to the atheism of Marxism-Leninism. In Learning, as in Saintliness, the motto of our priest should be the single word: Thorough; no superficiality should be given quarter. But what Learning, you may ask? The answer is simple: it should be first and foremost, Learning in the special fields of clerical studies - Philosophy and Theology. I have heard it said the age-long custom of basing these studies on select textbooks is being dismissed in certain quarters as old-fashioned I do not share this view. I have kept with me, for the past twenty-five years, wherever I roved, my Philosophy textbooks Cursus Philosophiae by the Gregorian Professor Charles Boyer. Today, Boyer may be dismissed, out of hand, as old-fashioned. Indeed, there are theses in Boyer which I completely reject today. But most of his thought has been the basis of my other studies, ever since. Personally, as a schoolmaster, I believe that a course based on a standard textbook, supported by other works for wider reading, would be more solid than one based on haphazard lectures. If the Church has taught Philosophy for centuries, if she has produced eminent scholars thereby, if Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are revered today as the fathers and founders of Western thought, if after the Second Vatican Council, more stress has been laid on conscientious thinking, as opposed to a mindless submission to authority, do you need again to be convinced that our future priest should be a scholar and philosopher? Do you need to be convinced that a sound, thorough course in philosophy should be a sine qua non in his formation? What goes for Philosophy applies, a fortiori, to Theology, and there is no need for me to hold forth on that. But I would add that the more profound his knowledge in Philosophy, the deeper and faster would be the student’s grasp, not only of Theology, but of the other disciplines that come after. Hindsight brings to light, in my mind, certain defects in the method of our study of Philosophy back in the nineteen-forties. First, the texts were in Latin, a language we had not fully mastered and, therefore, a thorough mastery of the subject of which this language was the vehicle, was a hard-going task. So I believe that the basic lectures, if not the texts, should be in English. Do 1 ask you to banish Latin from your institute? Far be it from me! But I would prefer that the courses should be based, at least for a start, not on the Latin of Virgil and Cicero, but on the Latin of the Breviary, of the Missal, of the Vulgate, of the Fathers, on the soul-stirring hymns of the Liturgy and on the recent Papal Encyclicals. The firm grasp of this Latin would be made easier by the fact that these texts have excellent translations in English; it would foster and simplify the study of Horace and Virgil, later, for those with a thirst for them. I would even go further and advocate the study of Greek and Hebrew for those who intend to make Sacred Scripture their special field of further studies. The second fault I find in the study of Philosophy, in our days, is that we were narrowly limited to the study of the texts, and, apart from emphasizing that Philosophy was an ancilla to Theology, hardly one word was said on how philosophical principles could be applied in the study of other disciplines, and in the solution of the problems of life. It was only later, when I went to study Literature and Education that I discovered, to my joy, how priceless was the course I had done in Logic, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Psychology and Ethics. Indeed, after seven years of further University studies, I came away with the conviction that I had learnt nothing essentially new. I believe, therefore, my Lords, in a priest who is a thinker and scholar, with a scientific and philosophical turn of mind. For more information on this head, I would refer you to parts two and three of my booklets: To Every African Freshman. The advocates and protagonists of the formation of a Curé de Campagne would consider my proposals preposterous, seeing that the end of the formation of these priests is the pastoral care and guidance of unlettered African folk. Let them know that there are thinkers among these unlettered folks; let them remember that the number of University men among us, today, is yearly on the rise, and most of them are turned away from the Church. Let them remember that the future lettered African Intellectuals would have no patience with, or no respect for, mediocrity among clergy-men. For my part, I do not see it as a waste of talent if a priest with a Ph.D. or a D.D. is sent to man a rural parish. I am convinced that in our days and in the coming years, his influence will be as needful and as useful there, as it would be in city or college.” Another area in which the proposals of Professor Fonlon are pertinent is the area of the study of Sacred Scripture. In his words and in a way, he reiterates the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Optatam Totius: “Students should receive a most careful training in holy Scripture which should be the soul, as it were, of all theology. After a suitable introductory course, they should receive an accurate initiation in exegetical methods. They should study closely the principal themes of divine revelation and should find inspiration and nourishment in daily reading and meditation upon the sacred books.”(Optatam Totius, 16) In this connection Professor Fonlon writes: “The next thing I say, my Lords, may not please your ears, and may raise wrath against me from some of your clerics. But I think it must be said. It is this: I have heard morning after morning, five-minute homilies over the B.B.C., delivered by Anglican Divines; I have heard, here in Cameroon, Cameroon Protestant preachers preach. On one such occasion, when a Presbyterian clergyman was invited to preach to us, in the University Chaplaincy here in Yaoundé, the Rev. Pere de Rosny, SJ, the Superior, was so moved that he said with deep sincerity, after the sermon, that we Catholics have something to learn from the Protestants in the field of preaching. I say in all candour, my Lords, that when I put this side by side with what we hear from catholic pulpits, even in developed countries, where I lived and listened, I rate our performance paltry and I give high marks to the protestant preachers. And 1 have been pondering and wondering why this should be so, what makes the difference. The reasons may be several, but one seems to me to be more certain. In my humble opinion, it is that the protestant students are steeped in Sacred Scripture. In our days in the Seminary, Scripture did not figure prominently in the curriculum. We were required to go through the Bible by ourselves, at least once in the seven-year course. I ask you, my Lords: does it not strike you as odd that four whole years should be spent in drudging at an abstract, hair splitting, syllogistic, theological course, after the manner of Medieval Disputations, while so little time is spent on the study of the living, soul-stirring Word of God himself? Does it not strike you as odd that a glib Jehovah's Witness should cite chapter and verse to support his twisted theory, while a catholic stands dumb before him? Which would be more penetrating, which is capable of rousing hearts and wills: a sermon on the Eucharist, based on the dry-as-dust theories of Hylomorphism and Hypostasis, or one steeped in the Gospel of the Last Supper? Do not misunderstand me. I am not asking you to throw Traditional Theology out of the window. 1 am only saying, from real personal experience, that a prominent place should be given to the study of the New Testament and of the Old (especially the Psalms, the Prophets, the Canticle of Canticles. the Book of Proverbs and such like) in the curriculum (in my opinion), from the first year to the last. Catholic authorities were accused in the past of deliberately preventing the faithful from searching deep into the Sacred Scriptures, and I have heard it said that, at one period in Church History the passage of the woman taken in adultery was dropped out of the text by some holier than Christ ecclesiastical zealots. The time has come to reverse the trend.” One cannot overemphasize the relevance of the presentation of Professor Fonlon here. However, it would seem that the Bishops themselves had anticipated the central place of Sacred Scripture in the study of theology. As noted already, Fonlon published these reflections on September 16, 1973. It was about the same time that Fr Cornelius Esua left for Rome to specialize in Sacred Scripture. In fact, he remembers the Open Letter vividly: “Yes, I remember the Letter very well. It was published on 16th September 1973, the same month and year I left for Rome to specialize in Sacred Scriptures in the Pontifical Biblical Institute. It is a rich and scholarly letter on the formation of Priests. The opening of this Major Seminary marks an important milestone in the history of the Church in our Ecclesiastical Province. The Letter does not only indicate the purpose of a Major Seminary but also the type of Priests whom our Local Church should expect to come out from the new Seminary the Bishops were about to establish.” The mission of Fr. Cornelius Esua to specialize in Sacred Scripture coming at the same time with the publication of the Open Letter and its insistence on the centrality of Sacred Scripture in the study of theology cannot be seen as mere coincidence but rather as something that was pre-meditated by the Founding Fathers of the seminary.

In this particular and specific context, one cannot end a consideration of Prof. Fonlon’s “Open Letter” with reference to the founding of the Major Seminary in West Cameroon without a reference to the fact that he believed very strongly that the Major Seminary must be a citadel of learning and a “veritable university’. He explained elaborately: “I studied for six years in the Seminary and about seven in several universities. And I have inside knowledge of both institutions; and I say that a well-staffed and organized Seminary is a veritable university; it is even more, because it lays serious stress on moral as well as intellectual education: and in my mind, a thorough moral education takes the first place. My firm conviction is that after three years of serious philosophical studies, a student who merits well should obtain a B. A. in philosophy, and after his four years in Theology, a Bachelor in Divinity. They do that in Maynooth, in Ireland. Why not in Cameroon? I know what I am talking about; for having to begin University studies all over again, after leaving the Seminary, I had to start all from scratch; thus I wasted seven precious years of my life and obtained, at thirty-six, what I should have obtained at thirty years of age. No; a well staffed and serious Seminary has nothing to envy from a secular academy. To create a Tradition of high standards, I believe that our Seminary should begin by affiliating itself to a well-established University abroad; while modifying its curriculum to suit African realities. The yearly falling of standards in our institutes of learning, the mediocrity and the laissez-faire that are fast taking root in them, should be a warning to us in the running of this Seminary. It should become an example for all to admire and imitate for its high standards of Learning and Discipline. On this head, care should be taken to see to it that the right attitude and mentality and effort should be instilled, right from the start. No quarter should be given to a lackadaisical approach, on the part of all concerned, to things of such serious import. Remember the time-tested adage in the stamping out of pernicious tendencies: Principiis obsta: kill the evil at its birth. Remember too the wise and pertinent warning of Aristotle: Parvus error in principio magnus est in fine: a little error at the start attains staggering proportions at the end.”