CHARLOTTE — Three members of a Catholic university in Cameroon had a unique opportunity to live in the U.S. for four months, participating in a fellowship program with Charlotte-based Catholic publisher Saint Benedict Press.
The three fellows – Mbog Pierre Alain, Tchana Franklin and Catherin-Kelly Ako Taku – took part in a Saint Benedict Press Publishing Fellowship designed to teach college students and young adults how to run a Catholic publishing operation. They learned about book design and production, sales and marketing, order taking and fulfillment, accounting and general management.
The fellowship program with the Catholic University Institute of Buea arose from a friendship between Saint Benedict Press CEO Bob Gallagher, a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte, and Father Basil Sede, former parochial vicar at the parish.
Father Sede, a visiting priest from the Diocese of Buea in Cameroon, recently talked about the rapid growth of the Church in his country, as well as his bishop’s efforts to train Catholic business leaders and entrepreneurs through CUIB.
“While Cameroon is blessed with abundant natural resources and a well-educated workforce, employment opportunities for young people are limited,” he said. “Bishop Balango Bushu hopes to change that. CUIB trains students to become not employees, but employers – ones formed by Catholic moral and social teaching.”
When Bishop Bushu and CUIB’s president Father George Nkeze came to Charlotte to visit Father Sede and call on diocesan officials in 2015, Gallagher and his son Conor Gallagher invited them to their offices. There, the idea for the fellowship was hatched.
“It is a privilege and blessing to partner with Bishop Bushu, Father Nkeze, Mbog Alain and our outstanding Saint Benedict Press Fellows to develop a publishing operation to spread the faith in Africa,” Bob Gallagher said. “The Catholic University Institute of Buea is unique in training its students to be not just employees, but transformative employers with outstanding moral and spiritual values. CUIB is a beacon of hope for Africa.”
During the fellowship, the three met CEOs of local businesses, toured a printing operation, participated in a film production, and conducted event sales at the diocesan Eucharistic Congress.
Alain, a CUIB employee, said, “It has been an amazing experience to come to the U.S. to get the knowledge and skills especially in this area of publication. On a personal note, I think I got a lot in terms of the appropriate skills to go back to contribute to the development of the partnership between Saint Benedict Press and the Catholic University Institute of Buea.”
“It has been an enriching experience, being able to come to the U.S. for the first time,” Taku, a senior at CUIB, said. “Being able to do everything with the printing press and everything else has been amazing. It is not in my line of study, but I have been able to do so many things, to discover so many things. It was really enlightening.”
Franklin works in IT at the university, maintaining the school’s website. “It has been wonderful,” he said. “I don’t know how to qualify the experience, but it was very fruitful. I learned how to handle an IT department for a Catholic publisher. I really thank God for us coming to the U.S., coming to Charlotte. I think we are very blessed.”
Besides the friendships they developed at Saint Benedict Press, the fellows attest that they received a warm welcome from the community, with special welcomes at St. Vincent de Paul Church and St. Benedict the Moor Church, where Father Sede is now pastor, as well as by Monsignor Mauricio West, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte.
They were appreciative of the volunteers with the housing ministry of St. Matthew, St. Peter and St. Vincent de Paul parishes, which provided furnishings and thoughtful homelike touches for the fellows’ temporary apartment.
The fellows returned to Cameroon Dec. 13.
In Cameroon they will help launch a publishing joint venture between CUIB and Saint Benedict Press. The venture will start with a bookstore and showroom at the university, and fulfill bulk orders from schools and parishes in Buea and Cameroon.
Saint Benedict Press and CUIB expect the publishing venture will expand to serve other countries in the region, where the Catholic Church is growing faster than anywhere else. More than 17 percent of the Church’s nearly 1.3 billion Catholics live in Africa.
Saint Benedict Press is continuing its fellowship program in 2017, with two new fellows scheduled to arrive in February. Alain will also return to Charlotte for an additional term as executive fellow.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. Saint Benedict Press contributed.
GREENSBORO — Members of the Guilford County Na Cara Division 1 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians recently distributed $9,000 to charities from proceeds generated from its annual Patrick J. Rooney Charity Raffle.
In furtherance of their commitment to direct Catholic action, members also led a Hurricane Matthew relief drive that raised more than $1,000 to buy non-perishable food items and baby care items for families affected by the recent hurricane in eastern North Carolina.
As a result, a St. Vincent de Paul truckload of these items as well as bags of clothing was delivered to St. Francis de Sales Church in Lumberton.
— John Malmfelt