Cameroon Catholic Community

Following immigration to the United States of America, many Cameroonians have found it spiritually enriching to establish native church communities where they can experience liturgical worship in ways that are consistent and meaningful to their native cultural experiences. Such immigrant church communities are known to serve as avenues for community building, experiencing togetherness, overcoming cultural isolation, and providing a stronghold for advocacy programs that help children of immigrants and their families. While the American culture might be new to many Cameroonian immigrants, the tenets of the Holy Mass remain the same but many people have expressed that attending regular Mass at the local parishes is not spiritually as uplifting as they experience back home. The isolating nature of their environment, coupled with language difficulties, make appreciating the celebration of Holy Mass in that setting very difficult.​

It is for the above reasons that immigrant communities from Africa and other parts of the world have begun working together with the dioceses of their various localities to find ways of experiencing their spirituality within the context of their cultures of origin. This initiative started for the Cameroonian community in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia (DMV) metro area ten years ago, when the Maryland community was able to begin a Cameroonian Catholic Community hosted by the Church of the Resurrection Parish in Burtonsville, MD.​

While the community in Burtonsville served all Cameroonians around the wider DMV metropolitan area, the Cameroonian Catholic population in Virginia began growing steadily and the need for their own community became inevitable. Rev. Father Eugen Nkardzedze would be the pioneer priest who would make this dream come true as he worked with the Office of Multicultural Ministries of the Diocese of Arlington. On July 6, 2013, the first Virginian Cameroon Catholic Community Mass would be celebrated at our host parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna, Virginia.​

This community will never forget the effort of Rev. Fr. Eugen, Corinne Monogue, the Director of the Multicultural Ministries in the Diocese of Arlington, and the Pastors of O.L.G.C. parish. Since this community started, we have always had our Mass on the first Sunday of every month. The community is growing in numbers and it is run by volunteers who make up the community council. Our current priest is Rev. Fr. Ghenghan Mbinkar.

Our Mission
Believing that a community of Catholic Christians is called together by God through Baptism to share in the mission of Jesus, we, the Cameroon Catholic Community of Virginia come together as immigrants to celebrate Mass with the goal of experiencing our spirituality within the framework of our culture of origin.

Contact Information

To contact the Cameroon Catholic Community, email info@camerooncatholicsva.com or call 571-358-2826.