Bafia, Cameroon, Sep 2, 2017 / 15:02 pm
The grave of Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala of Bafia, whom the Cameroonian bishops' conference claims was murdered, was found desecrated with traces of blood on Monday, prompting the temporary closing of the cathedral where his body rests.
Bishop Bala disappeared in late May, and his body was found a few days later in the Sanga River. The Cameroonian bishops' conference has asserted he was murdered, based on autopsy results, though civil authorities do not share the bishops' conclusion.
Local sources have now reported that Bishop Bala's grave in Bafia's San Sebastian Cathedral was desecrated sometime between the night of Aug. 27 and the morning of Aug. 28.
"There was a clear act of desecration in the cathedral of Bafia in the night...Traces of blood were found in the cathedral" on the grave of Bishop Bala, said Bishop Sosthène Léopold Bayemi Matjei of Obala, according to Agenzia Fides, a news service of the Pontifical Mission Societies.