“I feel very happy,” says Deacon Ezekiel Yisi Banla. “Every feeling is upon me, and I don’t know which is which, but the good thing is that I am a deacon today by the grace of God. I cannot stop thanking God for this great gift that He has given to me and to the Church.”

“I can only thank God for the graces that He has bestowed on me today. All I can do is to render thanks to all those who came here to celebrate with us this gift that God has given us, not through our own merits but because God has deemed us fit and capable to empower us to carry this gift,” says Deacon Evans Bongwun-nyuy Yongyee. “Our hearts are filled with joy.”

Deacon Banla and Deacon Yongyee were ordained to the transitional diaconate by Bishop James Ruggieri on June 21 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. Transitional deacons are men aspiring to the priesthood, but the bishop emphasized that their ordination is more than a step on that journey.

“You are being ordained and configured to Christ the Servant. Through this sacrament of holy orders, your life is now more deeply and publicly anchored in Christ’s paschal mystery. Your gaze, like His, must be fixed on the cross and resurrection. This is not simply a step toward the priesthood; it is a radical consecration of your life to Christ’s saving work,” the bishop told them.

Although they were ordained by Bishop Ruggieri, Deacons Banla and Yongyee are members of the Diocese of Kumbo in Cameroon, their home country. They are finishing their seminary studies here through a partnership that has also brought Cameroonian priests to Maine. While the Diocese of Portland receives the gift of their service, the priests and seminarians get valuable experience outside their homeland.

“It is a good experience for us because we are going to bring our experiences from here to enrich our own culture,” says Deacon Yongyee. “I render immense thanks to Bishop George Nkuo, the bishop of the Diocese of Kumbo, for sending us here.”

Deacon Yongyee grew up in the village of Roontong, where he was active in the church at a young age.

“At six years old, I was already playing drums in the church. That is how I involved myself with the choir. I used to go for practice and sing songs, and when I came back to the house, I would sing,” he says.

Deacon Yongyee says one day a priest visited their school and asked the students what they would like to be, and, influenced by the priest’s cassock and the candy and bananas he would hand out, he voiced a desire to become a priest.

 “I said I also want to wear what you are wearing and then share candies with other people. He laughed and he said, ‘You don’t know what you are asking for,’ but he told my parents about it and said, ‘Keep an eye on your child. I believe God is speaking to him.’”

As an altar server, Deacon Yongyee says he started learning more about the role of the priest, and after attending Mass, he would return home and act it out. 

“I would look for a chair and climb on it. In my mind, that was my altar because the altar is elevated. Then I would stand there, and I would mimic a priest celebrating Mass,” he says.

 In high school, he served as altar server president, training the younger children, and accompanied priests to Masses in other churches.

“Upon graduation, I had made up my mind and knew that I wanted to become a priest. I prayed about it, and I spoke to the priest,” says Deacon Yongyee.

He studied at St. John Paul II Major Seminary in Mamfe for several years before learning that his bishop wanted him to go to the United States.

“I was, like, ‘It seems like I am Abraham here. God is saying leave your family, leave your people, leave everybody, and go to a land that I will show you.’ To me, that land is Portland, Maine,” Deacon Yongyee says.

His first stop, however, was not Maine but St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland.

“They were so kind to me. They took my luggage to my room, showed me around, asking me whether I needed anything,” he says. “From that day, I felt like it was a second home to me.”

Deacon Banla says he was also warmly welcomed at the seminary, but he says by the time he arrived, studies had already begun, making the transition especially difficult.

“The way things were done was very different from Cameroon,” he says. “I’ve not been used to emails all my life. I’ve not been used to following a school schedule from Canvas or things like that. So, often, I was missing activities.”

Like Deacon Yongyee, Deacon Banla says he never expected to be studying abroad.

“It was shocking, but I just went on and did what I needed to do,” he says.

Deacon Banla was born in Lassin-Noni Subdivision and says his grandmother was an especially powerful witness to the faith.

He says one of the most impactful moments in his vocation journey occurred when he was around 10 years old. He watched the movie The Passion of Christ, with accompanying catechesis, and was powerfully moved by it.

“I told my grandma that this is what I have witnessed today, and I’m so sad that Jesus was treated the way that He was treated. So, I am ready to grow up and become another Jesus. She told me that I cannot become another Jesus, and I did not understand, so I was always thinking about it and asking myself, ‘How can I become another Jesus?’” he says. “I watched that movie over and over again.”

Deacon Banla was not baptized until he was a teenager, but once he received the initiation sacraments, he began attending Mass daily and became an altar server and reader. He says the more he learned about the role of the priest, the more he believed that was his path.

“When the teacher asked us, the students, ‘What do you want to become in the future?,’ people would say all different professions, and I would always say that I want to become a priest. From there, they started calling me ‘father’ at an early age,” he says.

He feared he would not be able to afford seminary but applied anyway and was accepted. He says he survived with the help of charitable contributions.

“I am grateful to the charitable nature of all those who came across — Christians back in my home, outside of my home,” he says. “Those people may not know what they did, but what they did is priceless.”

Deacon Yongyee says he, too, had a generous benefactor, Elizabeth Ndisang, who is originally from Cameroon but now lives in the United States. He says she was looking for a seminarian to support, and he was the fortunate one chosen. Such was the bond they formed that she traveled from Ohio to attend his ordination Mass and ceremonially helped to present him to the bishop at the beginning of the ordination rite.

Also traveling to the Mass were members of the Cameroon Community Choir from Baltimore, Maryland, and other Cameroonian Catholics, who joined in singing and dancing and bringing the spirit of the deacons’ homeland to the cathedral.

While the deacons joined in the festivities at the end of the Mass, Deacon Yongyee says, for him, the most moving part of the ordination rite was prostrating himself while the Litany of Saints was sung.

“I was really emotional there because I couldn’t imagine the whole Church on earth and in heaven praying for me, honoring me. Who am I that the Church should pray for me?” says Deacon Yongyee.

Deacon Banla says what he found most transformative was when the bishop laid hands on him in silence and then prayed the Prayer of Ordination, asking God to “send forth the Holy Spirit” upon them.

“I cried. I felt the power of God, and all glory to God. I cannot thank God enough,” says Deacon Banla.

After being ordained, Deacon Banla and Deacon Yongyee were vested with stoles and dalmatics and then each presented with the Book of Gospels by the bishop, who told them, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”

They are words that Deacon Banla and Deacon Yongyee say they have taken to heart.

“What I pray for and ask God for is to help me live faithfully the promises I made,” says Deacon Yongyee. “We have our limitations, but with the grace of God and with constant prayer, we can serve true.”

“I’m happy that I’m taking up this new role, this new responsibility to serve the people of God,” says Deacon Banla. “My hope is to bring Christ to our world by my words and my humble example.”