Spiritual, physical food offered Douala street children

Rev. Father Antoine de Padoue Chonang, in service at the St. Louis Parish, Bonaberi, Douala, chose to commemorate 25 years of his priesthood by feeding street children with the word of God at the Mbappé Lepe Stadium in Akwa, Douala.

Rev. Fr Antoine Chonang preached the message of Christ to children after which he gave them bread on February 17, 2015.

Reading from the Gospels of St. John 1:1-12 about the rejection of Jesus, and St. Luke 22:39-40 about the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said the children’s rejection can also be a blessing to the country and their families.

Making reference to his past experience as a street child, the priest said he was rejected at the age of 11 by the entire village and sent on exile with his family for refusing to drink a traditional potion.

The rejection, he said, turned out to be a blessing as he has eventually become a priest. They too, he said, can be useful to the community by denouncing suspicious members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect terrorising the North of Cameroon and by bidding farewell to the streets and anything associated with street life.

“It is to ask them to get out of the misery they are living in the streets. No one is happy to see them stealing, begging and committing abominable acts like homosexuality and drug consumption,” he said.

Bread and drinks were distributed to the children at the end of the meeting. François Belinga, the Chief Security of Street Children living in the stadium, said he has been on the streets for 25 years and that since the death of a certain Good Samaritan, Sister Marie Nicodème, they lack adequate medical care, financial and material assistance.