On 1 August 2026, the Chapel of St Anne in Obili, Yaoundé (Cameroon) hosted a joint ordination for the African District of the Society of Mary, presided by Bishop Emmanuel Dassi Youfang. Deacons Lewis Kum Mvo sm and Ondoua Joseph Arnaud sm were ordained to the priesthood, while Robert Badjeck Degrandauth sm was ordained a deacon. Joseph has been appointed to the Marist Parish in Bambili, Bamenda, which is located in the English speaking North-West of Cameroun, while Lewis and Robert are taking up their appointment in the Marist mission in Voundou. Congratulations and our prayers for them as they begin their new ministry in the Society of Mary!
Fr Joseph shares a few thoughts about his journey:
We experienced this time of ordination with a spirit of gratitude, for, throughout our formation, we were the first to witness God’s kindness and above all, His providence. We have not forgotten the marvellous spiritual and human journey He led us on two years ago, when Lewis and I were undertaking our missionary placement in the Marist community in London (Leicester Square). That pilgrimage with the young people of Notre Dame de France, which took us through several Spanish towns in the footsteps of St James and ultimately enabled us to experience World Youth Day in Portugal… It is a memory that has left an indelible mark on us. Our ordination, two years later, is imbued with that beautiful sense of brotherhood which our closeness to such diversity has helped to strengthen.
We undertook a wonderful preparatory retreat led by one of our Marist confreres on the priest’s likeness to Christ: the Servant, the Teacher, the Priest. We now know ourselves to be endowed with a strength that is mission; mission as God’s very will to communicate himself to his people, a mission to make us brothers with other Christians but also mediators of God’s mercy towards all.
The life of a priest today comes with various challenges which make this ministry difficult to carry out at times, yet we embrace it with hope and humility. We are like the servants at the wedding feast in Cana, to whom Mary still says today within her Society: ‘Do whatever He tells you’.
Pray for us!
