Bamenda, Cameroon: Fr Erwin Hain MHM Remembered and Celebrated

The Christians of the Archdiocese of Bamenda, Wednesday 15th June 2022 assembled in their Cathedral for a Requiem Mass in honour of Rev Fr. Erwin Hain who passed on to eternity last April 1, 2022 in Austria.

The Chief Celebrant was His Grace Andrew Nkea, in the presence of the Mill Hill superior in Cameroon.

In his homily, the Vicar General, Msgr. William Neba revealed that Fr. Hain was among the 3rd batch of 146 Mill Hill Missionary Priests who arrived Cameroon in the late fifties.

For his 65 years as Priest, Fr Hain of blessed memory served the Church Province of Bamenda for 40 years, 35 of those years, as Bishop’s Secretary and Financial Secretary to the Bishop of Bamenda, from creation in 1970 to 2005.

He also served in St Theresa – Kumbo, and St Mary – Nkar in the early sixties on arrival in Cameroon. In 1963, he was called to serve abroad.  He returned to Bamenda and served in Babanki Tungoh and Ntambeng before his appointment to the Bishop’s House.

The departed clergyman is described as one who daily struggled to live the beatitudes.  He was gentle, meek, peaceful, dedicated, available and principled, using all his talents in serving the local church.

He will be remembered as an exemplary accountant, who put in place a system of book keeping in the Archdiocese of Bamenda which is in use till today.  He was a household name, and in every Parish his name was synonymous to money.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea used the come together to extend his profound condolences and that of the Church in Bamenda to the Mill Hill Missionaries, regretting that he has lost a dear Priest.    

After Mass, there were traditional dances followed by ‘cry die corn’ a memorable way of celebrating the dead in Cameroon by eating maize and groundnuts.

Anthony Ndang MHM. Friends of Mill Hill Cameroon.