Reflections on “The St. Mary’s Difference”

Dear Father Brown,

I hope this email finds you well. I am grateful for the valuable knowledge I gained at St. Mary’s Seminary thanks to your leadership. The balanced education I received at St. Mary’s has greatly benefited the parish I currently serve at.

The holistic approach to formation at St. Mary’s has equipped me with the knowledge, skills, and spiritual discernment necessary to navigate the complexities of parish ministry. By prioritizing theological depth, pastoral care, and spiritual formation, I’ve been able to connect with parishioners in meaningful ways and support them on their spiritual paths with empathy and compassion.

I hope St. Mary’s and the amazing Sulpician tradition continue, always teaching us to stand with Jesus’ favorite ones, and that we do not look for those king-like behaviors that foster and validate segregation and divisions.

As I serve in my parish community, I constantly find myself drawing upon the rich teachings and traditions of St. Mary’s, integrating them into my pastoral approach and advocating for the values and principles that define our beloved seminary. The profound impact that St. Mary’s has had on my formation is evident in the ways I engage with parishioners, in my preaching and teaching, and in the compassion and empathy I know I need to approach anyone.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the St. Mary’s community, and I carry with me the experiences I gained during my time there with profound gratitude and humility. Please know that I will continue to advocate for St. Mary’s and to uphold its mission and values in all aspects of my ministry.

Once again, thank you, Father Brown, for your leadership and guidance, and for the transformative impact that St. Mary’s Seminary has had on my life and ministry.

With gratitude,
José Carvajal
Associate Pastor (St Mary’s Seminary Class of 2021)

Fall 2023

It is always good to be back at St. Mary’s. It feels like visiting the boys’ room in the house in which you were raised. Everything about St Mary’s is a firework of wonderful memories. My visit at St Mary’s on the occasion of my 20th Anniversary is way of reconnecting with the best of my priestly ideals. The inscriptions on the chapel walls which spoke to me when I was instituted lector and acolyte still speak to me today. The coldness of the marble floor of the St Mary’s chapel on which I laid face-down, at my diaconate ordination, has a way of connecting me once more to the deepest meaning of my ordination promises.

The Atrium reminds me of the African celebratory folk dance that followed my diaconate ordination. This is not so much about the dance, that it is about St Mary’s. St Mary’s in my days was a place where an African Seminarian felt at home. The community at the time accepted me together with my culture, with my people that I brought along. The dance at my diaconate was that unique moment when everything pulled together: the positive regard of the community towards me, on the one hand, and the joyful expression of who I was in my host community, on the other hand.

I left St Mary’s and went straight to Rome for biblical studies, and subsequently to England for further studies. As a young priest during those long years of travels and studies, I had to negotiate my path into several cultures and into several communities of priests and Christian faithful. Apart from the academia, I have had experience in forming future priests at the local seminary. I have made contributions in the continuing formation of priests in my diocese. As an aid to Cardinal Tumi of blessed memory, I found myself at some point mediating political conflicts between rival groups alongside other Christian and Muslim leaders. Today I am a pastor, an episcopal vicar, vicar for priests and vicar for the laity in my diocese. There could not have been a better preparation for these experiences than the dynamic multicultural community of St Mary’s. Throughout my 20 years of priesthood, life has never been about giving up who I am. Rather it has always been about affirming myself in a way that adds value and meaning to the lives of people that I come across. My experience as a foreign student at St Mary’s prepared me for this better than I could have ever imagined.

My relationship with St Mary’s has grown over the years. My bishop, Cardinal Tumi, of blessed memory came to America to meet benefactors of St Mary’s, and to share with them his vision on the formation of a new generation of African leaders through a university project. Other Cameroonian dioceses have benefited from the partnership that my diocese had established with St Mary’s, like the diocese of Kumbo. Through priestly formation, St Mary’s has made and is still in the process of making great contributions the development and growth of the Church in Cameroon. As a priest today, I see myself at the forefront of positive change in Africa, not only in the Church but also in the wider society.

The Church in Cameroon is doing great, in terms of numbers. This is true in all aspects and all over Africa. Compared to the Church in America and elsewhere, the African Church is different. Our faith is the same. But our issues are different. Each time I come out here and meet fellow alumni and friends, I am often amazed at how different our pastoral issues are. The gospels speak to us differently because our priorities are different. In America you worry about the declining vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In Africa we worry about right discernment of the many vocations that we have. Abortion and prolife are strong moral concepts here. In Cameroon we are at the most radical expression of prolife: basic survival from the grip of poverty and all that go with it. Think of it in any way possible: from conflict and war-stricken existence to poverty and corruption-stricken existence; from hunger and youth unemployment to a migration-oriented population. With the gospel in hand, the priest in Africa is often expected to play different social, cultural and sometimes political roles in their communities. Does this make the African priest better than a prolife crusader in America? Certainly not! We just happen to thread on different terrains.

This also applies to how African read and interpret the political landscape of the world in which we live. We approach the world politics with issues that affect us as Africans. Today a new form of pan-Africanism is pushing for a New African Independence, free from the rent-seeking attitude of some powerful western nations, with the complicity of some corrupt African dictators. We have newer powers coming into Africa, like the Chinese and the Russians. They are not any better than the French and Americans, but they seem to offer more favorable grounds for negotiations. Different political changes in recent times in Africa are strong signals that a new world order is here. There is growing consciousness that Africa must be developed by Africans themselves. Successful Africans that we see around the United States and elsewhere have vital roles to play. Younger African leaders are eager to be part of that new order. African scholars in all areas including technology are eager to be part of it. Even as a priest, I feel that urge. The urge to be different. To urge to be part of the new story of Africa already exemplified by flourishing African nations like Rwanda and Ghana.

There is a lot of distant suspicions about political changes in the western world. The internal political squabbles in America are distant realities to us. It does not matter who becomes president in America, there is hardly a noticeable change in the livelihood of the average African. International politics is a chess game of interests. We know that. Africans are also suspicious about some cultural aspects of globalization. Some acceptable cultural practices in Europe and America are strongly resisted in Africa. Normalizing same-sex marriage and LGBT culture in some parts of America does not necessarily make it acceptable in Africa. The Church and the civil societies in Africa are actively in the lookout for such excesses, of the power of their lobby groups and sometimes with the complicity of Western governments. In most parts of Africa, the civil society is relentless in resisting the cultural colonization of the West. Words like globalization are highly suspect.

African seminaries today are very much alive. Most of them are seeking to increase capacity owing to the growing number of vocations. They are equally well attended to by bishops who are in dire need of good and holy priests, capable of living up to the challenges of the growing Church in African Countries. At the same time, our bishops are aware that African priests are not for Africa alone. The Universal Church needs missionaries from Africa. It is an inevitable sign of our times.

The Church in Africa is aware of the mission that it has to preach a realistic gospel, one that appeals to the integral need of people including non-Christians. Education, healthcare and other social projects for the wellbeing of the local population are synonyms for evangelization in Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa. How do you preach Christ as living-water in a village without a borehole and without a reliable source of water? Within a period of less than two decades, two Synods of Bishops were convened to discuss the Church’s mission in Africa. In recent times, Pope Francis’ synodal approach to evangelization is awakening a new sense of mission within the Church in Africa. Pope Francis offers us a way of naming and talking about actions that were already part of the Church’s mission in Africa. In a society of great material and social needs, Christians and Muslims have been working together for the benefit of the local population. That is synodality in action. Initiating and mediating Justice and peace are crucial parts of the Church’s mission in Africa. As a young priest, I have been part of interreligious religious commissions including Muslim, other Christian and Church leaders working for the end of political conflicts and violence between rival groups.

The church in America has been on an extended crisis because of the clergy abuse scandals. In Africa there are sexual scandals as well, and from time to time they make headlines. But they are not at a national crisis level. The crisis in America and in Europe has served as lesson to Church authorities in African and as a prophetic warning to clergies themselves against the abuse of power of any sort. Seminaries and formation houses are more careful in discerning priestly vocations, while measure taken by the universal Church to protect children and vulnerable adults are contributing towards a pro-active approach to sexual scandals in the Church. There is certainly need for deeper reflections on these issues and on many others related to the role and social identity of the priesthood in Africa today. I am certain that the future of the Church in Africa stands to benefit from such discussions. As a priest working in Cameroon and concerned about the future of the Church in the continent, I feel the weight of responsibility about the right use of power, the healthy use of the priestly privilege and the urgent need to protect and preserve the prophetic image of the Church that I serve.

Rev. Michel Tchombou