“Another priest killed in Nigeria, the fourth this year”
This headline from La Croix International this week is confronting.
Four priests have been murdered this year in Nigeria, and more than 20 have been kidnapped since the start of 2022.
Fathers John Mark Cheitnum and Donatus Cleopas were kidnapped on July 15 while travelling between parishes.
Father Joseph Aketeh Bako (48) was abducted on March 8. His funeral was celebrated without his body.
Father Vitus Borogo (50) was killed on June 25, and Father Christopher Odia (41) on June 26.
Nigeria’s Catholic bishops are looking for a change and are asking the United States to stand with them against the “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto wrote:
‘priests are killed… extremists kidnapped our children and forcefully converted them to Muslims… there is palpable fear and tension across the country.’
Internationally, there is little interest in the problem. Here in New Zealand, it barely rates a mention.
Well, that’s Africa, I hear you say! It’s a violent place.
So what about France?
Do you remember the 2016 murder of 85-year-old Fr. Jacques Hamel while celebrating Mass in the parish church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy?
Two young men shot him and seriously injured an elderly parishioner.
This situation sums up France; I hear you say.
France is a place of religious tension and secularism resulting from the French Revolution.
So what about Catholic Mexico?
Jesuit Fathers Javier Campos, 79, and Joaquín Mora, 80, were killed on June 20, 2022, in Cerocahui, Tarahumara, Mexico.
A place we’d struggle to find on Google maps.
They were killed in a church where they offered shelter to a man who was ‘fleeing from an armed individual.’
Well, it’s a remote, gang-infested area and ‘a major drug producing region’ of Mexico, so it’s understandable, you say.
Putting the focus on priests is not to detract from others.
Highlighting the fate of these priests will suggest to some that I don’t care about women, children, men, laity, religious and many more victims of crime.
Nothing is further from the truth, but having to say it….
We must never take our position for granted.
Let us not forget that New Zealand is not immune from sectarian violence and religious hatred.
Photo from La Croix International used with permission
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