It's a Mystery, Right?

 

 

CNA Staff, Jan 1, 2021 / 10:42 pm MT (CNA).- A Catholic bishop in Nigeria, who was kidnapped on Sunday, has been released unharmed, according to the Archdiocese of Owerri.

The diocese, which is in southeastern Nigeria, announced in a social media post late on Jan. 1 that Bishop Moses Chikwe and his driver, Ndubuisi Robert, had been released by their abductors “unhurt and without ransom.”

“More details to come,” the announcement continued. “To GOD be the glory.” The post was accompanied by a photo, with the words “welcome back our beloved Bishop, God heard [the] prayers of his people.”

Chikwe, the auxiliary bishop of Owerri archdiocese, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 27, in Owerri, the capital of Imo State in southeastern Nigeria.

The website of the Nigerian newspaper The Sun reported that the bishop was kidnapped “alongside his driver in his official car” and that the vehicle “was later returned to Assumpta roundabout, while the occupants were believed to have been taken to an unknown destination.”

 

Let's ask our C.I.A.

 What is the religious make up of Nigeria? 

 Muslim 53.5%, Roman Catholic 10.6%

Any Terrorists?

 Boko Haram; Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham – West Africa; Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis-Sudan (Ansaru) (2020)

Islamic Outreach, Part CXV

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

MEANWHILE...

BLOODTHIRSTY ISIS terrorists have reportedly beheaded 11 Christian hostages on Christmas Day in Nigeria.

The militants said in a sickening video that the mass killing was in revenge for the deaths “of our leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”.


Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which includes supporters from Boko Haram, released a shocking 56-second video.

Claiming to show their captives’ execution, the clip was produced by ISIS's media arm, Amaq, reports the BBC.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was deeply concerned about reports that civilians have been executed, and others abducted, by an armed group in northern Borno State, northeastern Nigeria.

To show their concern, the U.N. passed a resolution condemning Israel.

I Guess There Are Now 11 Lost Tribes

 Maybe Bishop Braxton can recruit him!

Pope Francis backed down Monday and accepted the resignation of Nigerian bishop who had been rejected for years by the priests of his diocese, setting a precedent that could have repercussions in Chile and elsewhere when papal authority is challenged.
The announcement came after Francis in June issued a harsh ultimatum to the priests of Nigeria’s southern Ahiara diocese, warning they would lose their jobs if they didn’t obey him and accept Monsignor Peter Okpaleke as their bishop. Francis gave each priest 30 days to pledge their obedience.
The Vatican said Monday that 200 priests obeyed, but some still expressed problems in working with Okpaleke.
Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Okpaleke to Ahiara in 2012, but the local clergy rejected him. Ahiara is in the Mbaise region, and its faithful objected to the appointment of an outsider from the Anambra region to lead them. In protest, the Mbaise blocked access to the cathedral when Okpaleke was to be formally installed, and he was installed outside the diocese.

The Farmer and the Cowman,Should Be Friends!

Jos, Nigeria, Jun 25, 2018 / 06:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- More than 80 people were killed over the weekend in clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria's central Plateau State.
This series of clashes is the latest in a several-years' conflict between nomadic Fulani herdsmen, most of whom are Muslim, and the largely Christian farmers of the region, over resources.

This weekend's violence was reportedly begun by an attack of Berom farmers on Fulani herders June 21, AFP reports. The farmers attacked a group of five herdsmen travelling with their cattle in the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, fewer than 30 miles south of Jos.

The following day two Berom children were killed in area villages in apparent reprisal attacks.

OK, I know this is deadly serious business. But I can't help myself...



 

Bishop Gregory...NO, Not THAT One!

I was surprised tor read this in the New York Times, until I saw who wrote it (Matthew Schmitz is senior editor of First Things and a Robert Novak journalism fellow). Read the whole thing!

UMUAKA, Nigeria — In August, under a bright blue sky and in front of 2,500 worshipers, Bishop Gregory Ochiagha performed the first traditional Latin ordination in Nigeria since the vernacular liturgy was introduced after Vatican II. Near the end of the Mass, the 86-year-old bishop nearly fainted. “I am so happy, I am so happy,” he whispered as he was led to a chair.

Catholics attached to the Latin Mass have suffered a great deal since the introduction of the vernacular liturgy after Vatican II. But 10 years ago, they enjoyed a sublime vindication. Pope Benedict XVI declared in his document “Summorum Pontificatum” that all Catholics have the right to the traditional liturgy. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too,” Benedict wrote. Bishop Ochiagha generously distributed copies of “Summorum” to his brother bishops in Nigeria, many of whom had criticized his support for the Latin Mass.

Bishop Gregory Ochiagha

  Though traditionalists remain a tiny minority in Nigeria, as throughout the world, their number is growing. Catholic traditionalists see the ancient language of the Latin Mass as a sign of their faith’s stability and unity, an indication that Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. They would like to see it return worldwide, but for now, some of its strongest adherents have been in places like Nigeria, where historical tumult and ethnic strife have given traditionalists special reason to value this aspect of their faith. Six years ago, Bishop Ochiagha buried his friend Emeka Ojukwu, who had led the Biafran Republic in its rebellion against the Nigerian state. Bishop Ochiagha served Biafra as a diplomat and watched the rape and pillage that accompanied its defeat in 1970.

At that fraught moment, foreign priests were expelled from Nigeria by the government, and the vernacular liturgy was introduced by the Vatican. “The time of the liturgical change was not easy,” Bishop Ochiagha told me. “People thought the church was collapsing.” In one stroke, Catholics were cut off from their past. They also found it harder to pray. “The traditional Mass encourages reflection and prayer,” he said. “The new Mass gives itself to jamboree.”

 Traditional Catholicism is sometimes considered superstitious for the stress it places on formal devotions like the Rosary and meatless Fridays, but such practices are what have made the faith appealing to all nations and classes. When bishops began to discard traditional devotions at the time of Vatican II, the British anthropologist Mary Douglas accused them of turning the faith into an airy set of bourgeois ethical commitments. Liturgical change was a kind of class war. Available statistics bear her argument out: In the United States, Mass attendance remained stable among rich Catholics when the Latin Mass was abandoned, but dipped among the poor.