By Steve Jalsevac
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, July 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, Cameroon, in an interview with LifeSiteNews at the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City on June 21 said the West is afraid of population growth in Third World nations.
LifeSiteNews asked the Cardinal, who earlier in the day gave a Congress catechesis talk, what his views were on the fact that Africa has been a major target for population controllers. The Cardinal responded with little hesitation, “I think the West is afraid.” When asked, “afraid of what”, he stated, “of the Third World becoming more populous.”
He continued, referring to North American society, “And since the families here have two or three children that already is (considered) much. In our Third World we have families with 12, 13, 14, 15 children and these are young men and women growing up. So, I have the impression that the West is panicking because their population is becoming old.” And the reason for that panic, explained the Cardinal, is that “they are afraid that other countries might invade the West and reduce their standard of living.”
Earlier that day Tumi, a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples and the Pontifical Council for the Family, gave a passionate and at times humorous catechesis talk at the Pepsi Coliseum that received much applause and endeared him to the crowd. His main theme was that Eucharistic worship can only be genuine if the worshippers follow through in their daily lives with loving and serving others, especially those who may not love them or are not in any way related to them.
Although the Cardinal did not mention abortion, euthanasia or related issues, likely because they are not a significant factor in Cameroon society, some of his statements were still seen as definitely related to the obligations of North American Catholics regarding those crucial issues.
Tumi intimated that while “the Church cannot remain aloof from the struggle for justice in the world,” those who attempt to bring about such justice often fail because of a secular attitude. “Without the spiritual dimension, the world cannot do anything,” he proclaimed to applause.
With the spiritual dimension, he indicated, true seekers of justice can have a substantial positive affect. He stated, “The Eucharistic person is a dangerous person, burning with the fire of the spirit and whose only purpose is to extend that fire and to become fire for others. This person is a person of daring, a person of confrontation, a person of radicalism, gospel radicalism, and of the absolute.”
That last word addresses what many leaders of faithful Christian and pro-life, pro-family organizations have found severely undermining their efforts to restore the Judeo/Christian social and moral culture – persistent complicity in the anti-Christian culture by weak, compromising and corrupt Christians.
Tumi, announced, to the applause of his listeners, “The person of the Eucharist is a person who never compromises – who only opts for God, opts for humans.”
Such a person, he emphasized, is not welcomed by those who do not want to hear his message, but nevertheless has a Christian obligation of charity to live and speak the truth.
Tumi stated, “The person of the Eucharist who loves, disturbs everybody, shakes everybody and might even give them a bad conscience or the feeling of a bad conscience. Our vocation as witnesses to the gospel is to give others a bad conscience so that the other person knows how to distinguish bad from good, evil from good and when a person does evil their conscience accuses them.”
Cardinal Tumi received a standing ovation from the crowd of over 10,000 listeners that morning.