Official visit to the Notre-Dame-des-Apôtres Region_20
We got back very late on Wednesday, feeling very emotional and tired. The Yaoundé community was the last place we visited during our official visit.
Yesterday afternoon, we visited a sacred site in Cameroon in a Yaoundé suburb: the Marian shrine Marie-Reine-de-la-Paix in Nsimalen. On May 13, 1986, the Virgin Mary appeared here to six school children, including a young deaf girl, Jacqueline Doumou Atangana, at around 1:25 p.m. during recess. In that moment, her classmates heard Jacqueline speak clearly for the first time in her life, crying out “Maria! Maria! Maria!” as she pointed at the luminous apparition.
For nine days and nine nights, the Virgin, a weak and fragile woman, clung to a tree there (named Akondog), with her hands clasped together and a chaplet hanging from her right arm. She had come to bring the Lord’s peace and mercy. At nightfall, between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., the surrounding earth, trees, grass, twigs and dead leaves sparkle, people are healed and some worshippers, in a state of ecstasy, reveal messages.
Jacqueline passed away this year at age 45, after celebrating the 37th anniversary of the apparition of Mary, Queen of Peace. During her burial, the many worshippers and onlookers say that they witnessed a bright light and a troop of knights appear for this woman who, for 37 years, devoted her life to prayer and worship in this place.
Father Antoine Roger Evouna, the rector of the Marie-Reine-de-la-Paix de Nsimalen shrine, told us that being the rector of a sanctuary is even more demanding than being a parish priest.
The Council is grateful to the sisters of the Notre-Dame-des-Apôtres Region for showing us why visitors are moved by the faith of this people who experiences interculturality through the reality of their cultural diversity.
This morning during breakfast, we received a symbolic apron and accessories with explanations from the eldest sister of the region, Sister Annie Hélène Mballa N’Nang, nicknamed Mbom Aloko, which affectionately means grandmother in one of our mother tongues. Each member of the General Council received a symbol evoking their role in the CND kitchen. Maybe the Council can, at some point, share with the entire Congregation what they learned and what service mission they received.
