{"id":24629,"date":"2017-09-12T06:27:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T06:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=24629"},"modified":"2017-09-12T06:27:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T06:27:18","slug":"cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>CAMEROON<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances is desecrated<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Beno\u00eet Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops\u2019 conference claims were murdered, was desecrated with traces of blood. San Sebastian Cathedral where his body rests has been temporarily closed as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;There was a clear act of desecration in the cathedral of Bafia in the night\u2026Traces of blood were found in the cathedral. The cathedral is closed to public worship until a penitential rite will be celebrated as prescribed by the Code and the liturgical rite\u201d because of the nature of the desecration said Bishop Sosth\u00e8ne L\u00e9opold Bayemi Matjei of Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Bishop Bala disappeared the evening of 30 May after being seen leaving his residence alone. His body was discovered several days later in the Sanga River about 10 miles from his car. The authorities found a fake suicide note in his car that reportedly read: \u201cDo not look for me! I am in the water.\u201d The note initially suggested that Bishop Bala had committed suicide, but the Cameroonian bishops later determined that he had been murdered because an autopsy report indicated that he did not die from drowning and his body showed evidence of torture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">While local government authorities ordered investigations into the death, they have maintained that Bishop Bala committed suicide. An investigation commissioned by the intergovernmental organization Interpol concluded Bishop Bala had died by drowning. The results of two autopsies conducted by Cameroon&#8217;s bishops were never made public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The bishops of Cameroon have called on the government \u201cto shed complete light on the circumstances and the motives\u201d for Bishop Bala&#8217;s murder and that those responsible be identified and handed over to the authorities. They urged further investigation to determine the true cause of Bishop Bala\u2019s death. The bishops also noted there have been a number of priests and religious in the country whose murders have never been solved. These include Fr. Joseph Mbassi, killed in 1988; Fr. Antony Fontegh, 1990; Archbishop Yves-Joseph-Marie Plumey, 1991; a group of religious sisters in Djoum, 1992; and Fr. Engelbert Mveng, 1995.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAMEROON Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances is desecrated &nbsp; The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Beno\u00eet Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops\u2019 conference claims were murdered, was desecrated with traces of blood. San Sebastian Cathedral where his body rests has been temporarily closed as a result. &#8220;There was a clear act&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CAMEROON Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances is desecrated &nbsp; The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Beno\u00eet Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops\u2019 conference claims were murdered, was desecrated with traces of blood. San Sebastian Cathedral where his body rests has been temporarily closed as a result. &#8220;There was a clear act...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":563},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated &#8211; ACN Malta\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"CAMEROON Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances is desecrated &nbsp; The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Beno\u00eet Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops\u2019 conference claims were murdered, was desecrated with traces of blood. San Sebastian Cathedral where his body rests has been temporarily closed as a result. &#8220;There was a clear act...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":563,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/","name":"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-12T06:27:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bishop-Jean-Marie-Beno\u00eet-Balla-of-Bafia.jpg","width":1000,"height":563},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/09\/12\/cameroon-grave-bishop-died-suspicious-circumstances-desecrated-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CAMEROON- Grave of bishop who died under suspicious circumstances desecrated &#8211; ACN Malta"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24657,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24629\/revisions\/24657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}