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The Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Osogbo Dioceses  have just ended their second meeting during which they discussed issues regarding the Church and their nation. Please find the final communique below.

THE CHURCH AND THE TRAVAILS OF A GROWING NATION

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE SECOND MEETING OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF IBADAN PROVINCE FOR 2017 HELD AT SAINT KIZITO PASTORAL CENTRE, OKE GADA, EDE, OSUN STATE.

PREAMBLE  

We, the Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province, comprising Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Osogbo Dioceses, after our second meeting for the year 2017, having prayerfully deliberated over pertinent issues in the Church and the nation, hereby issue the following communique:

1.     The Ongoing Marian Year

As our Catholic faithful in the Province continue to celebrate the Marian year in prayer, spiritual activities and praise to Almighty God for the gift of faith, we call upon all Christians to unite in the honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary whom God chose to be the mother of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us teach by our words, prayer and example that wherever the Church is, there Mary is. We urge all Catholics to participate wholeheartedly in the spiritual and pastoral programmes laid out for the Marian Year, and thus inspire others to imbibe the virtues of Mary. The message of repentance, reconciliation and peace which Mary brought to us at Fatima, Portugal, 100 years ago is more relevant now than ever.  All Catholics must turn up during this celebration to model that message in our families, communities and nation.

2.     Enduring Commitment to Liturgical Rules

We highly commend priests, catechists, evangelizers, the choir and other agents of the Church’s liturgy for striving to heed our call for strict adherence to the Liturgical rules and regulations. Liturgical worship is the lifeblood that flows through the veins of the Church gathered as the body of Christ. When it is contaminated or diluted, the body of Christ suffers in its authentic identity. We urge all agents of liturgical worship to study well the Church’s instruction on Liturgical worship and humbly adhere to them in deference to the Holy Spirit in the Church of God. The Church does not gain anything by promoting a pop religion which accommodates every fad and whims generated by the entertainment industry.

3.     The Sad Incident in Nnewi Diocese

We commiserate with the Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, Most Reverend Hillary Okeke, and the faithful of the Diocese, the government and people of Anambra State and several families directly affected by the mass murder which occurred on Sunday 6th August, 2017, at St Philip Catholic Church, Ozubulu, Anambra State. We uphold still the sanctity of every human life given by God and not to be taken away by anyone and therefore can never denounce enough the evil of such a horrendous and callous killing of innocent worshippers right in the Church during the Holy Mass. Different accounts have been given to analyze the mayhem. The bottom line is that the security situation in Nigeria remains at best, tenuous. We strongly condemn whatever may be at the root of this and similar occurrences.  Those who are charged with securing human life and property in the nation must simply do more to protect the citizens. One must ask how murderers like the perpetrators of the Ozubulu mayhem came about such deadly weapons. The proliferation of arms in Nigeria deserves urgent and decisive action. We call on all our faithful to pray that the souls of the departed may rest in perfect peace and that God may bring enduring peace to Nigeria. We also reiterate that the right of all Nigerians to freely adhere to any religion of their choice is sacrosanct and must be protected by all legitimate means.

4.     The Resurgence of Terrorism

We regret the recent resurgence of Boko Haram activities in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. The criminal group seems to have returned with double strength. We commend the Presidential order that has returned the Nigerian Military Service Chiefs in full force to the centre of the battle. Sadly the wanton destruction of lives and property in Southern Kaduna is also yet to abate. While commending the military and other security agencies in Nigeria for their commitment to the integrity of the nation, we urge them to eschew all forms of corruption, nepotism and betrayal and fight for the unity and integrity of Nigeria. History and humanity will honour their sacrifice and commitment. All Nigerians have the responsibility to collaborate with the security agencies by giving information where necessary and obeying the rules of vigilance and personal security at all times.

5.     The Restructuring of  Nigeria

The ongoing discourse about restructuring in Nigeria has gathered considerable momentum. In the process, different definitions have emerged on what restructuring could mean and what form such a process should take. It is regrettable that an issue of such importance that should be an issue of justice can be subjected to so much intellectual gymnastics, political sentiments and personal interest. Most people in Nigeria agree that, as it is currently constituted, our country is simply not serving the development and self-realization of most of its citizens and therefore needs to be revisited. In other words, let all of us, leaders and people agree to jettison political machinations and self-serving interests and restructure Nigeria according to the laws of equity and justice. We will thus be saving our own lives and the future.

6.     Moral Decadence in our Society

We decry the degeneration of the moral fibre of our society due to many internal and external factors. The aggressive assault of new age, decadent ideologies, particularly from the Western world threaten to overwhelm our cultural and spiritual values. These seem to gain momentum everyday through strategies of intimidation and inducement of even political, traditional and religious authorities by foreign countries, international organizations and powerful individuals. The socializing institutions of society like the family, the school and the media too have been considerably weakened by economic and political forces. We appeal to families, guardians, religious, traditional and political leaders to be vigilant and work together to protect and strengthen our cultural, moral and religious values. These constitute our God-given African identity. Our youth and people need clear guidance and assistance in the face of a deluge of information and ideologies available to them through the social media and the internet. To throw up our hands and leave them to find their way alone is to shirk our responsibilities.  

7.     Lingering Challenges in the Education Sector

The education sector in our country remains in crisis. The Catholic Church, long before Nigeria’s independence, has invested her resources in education because of her commitment to the holistic development of the citizenry. This has brought great benefit to many individuals and institutions of Nigeria. We therefore demand that government at all levels recognize the status of the Catholic Church as a Missionary, non-profit institution. It is unfair and unjust therefore to penalize such an institution which serves the people, irrespective of creed or tribe, through multiple taxation and debilitating laws. We also call on the authorities to be vigilant and curb the encroaching sexualization of the education sector which is effected through the so-called Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and dubious Maternal Health procedures. Government should not spend public money on the proliferation of artificial contraceptive methods to the neglect of basic infrastructure and the grassroots health needs of our people.

8.     Rights of Workers and Unpaid Wages

Regular remuneration for work done is a matter of justice. We lament the current situation in many States of Nigeria where workers are not promptly and regularly paid for work done. Pensioners also continue to languish in painful expectation of their entitlements and many families and individuals are deprived of their legitimate livelihood. This has brought untold suffering and resentment within the society.  We strongly urge the governments of affected states to rectify this miserable situation. A resentful citizenry cannot be effectively mobilized for any meaningful development.

9.     Conclusion

Finally, we give thanks to God for His mercy upon Nigeria as we continue our daily journey of life as individuals and communities. As People of God, called to be ‘Salt of the Earth and Light of the World’ (Matthew 5:16), we are called to confront our challenges concretely as Christians with joyful hope and complete trust in God that our collective efforts will still lead to a meaningful life and a happy end. May Mary, Queen of Nigeria intercede for our country for justice peace and harmony both now and in the future.

Most Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin (President)                                                  

Most Rev. John Oyejola (Secretary).

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Religious leaders met in Japan from Aug 3 to 4 to pray for peace in the world and as a response to Pope Francis’ wish to foster dialogue, friendship and peace.

About 2,000 people, including 24 delegates from 18 countries of Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism came together in Japan at an inter-faith "Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace". The event marked the 30^th anniversary of the first ‘Religious Summit’ held on Mount Hiei in 1987. 

The religious summit was held in the temple city of Kyoto and at Mount Hiei, the most significant holy place for the Japanese Buddhist denomination Tendai.

Pope Francis sent a letter to Koei Morikawa, the present supreme priest of Tendai, whom Pope Francis met privately in the Vatican on September 16, 2016. The letter was  to be read at the annual Interreligious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace. The Pope’s letter was delivered and read to participants by Cardinal John Tong Hon, Bishop-emeritus of Hong Kong.

In his letter to this year's event in Japan, Pope Francis asked participants to work and pray to foster dialogue, friendship and peace. This annual religious summit contributes in a special way to the building up of that spirit of dialogue and friendship which allows the followers of the world’s religions to work together to open new paths for peace in our human family, the pope said.

Bishop Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Vatican-based Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, spoke as one of seven panelists at a symposium on terrorism and religion.

"We must increase our awareness that any kind of war is incompatible with true religious ethics," said Bishop Guixot. He stressed that dialogue was a necessity rather than an option.

Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, strongly appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons as a way to foster peace. The archbishop's mother survived the Aug. 9, 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, when he had been in her womb.

The annual prayer meeting closed on 6 August in commemoration of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.(UCAN)

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(Vatican Radio)  A Myanmar government commission’s report denying allegations of serious human rights abuses against ethnic Rohingyas in Rakhine state, has been denounced as “without a credible basis” by a leading human rights group. The commission’s wholesale rejection of grave abuses despite considerable evidence from independent sources, coupled with the Myanmar army’s earlier inadequate investigation, demonstrates the urgent need for the government to allow full access to the United Nations-mandated international fact-finding mission,  said Human Rights Watch (HRW).   

Commission - No evidence of crimes

Speaking at the release of the Rakhine Investigative Commission's final report on Sunday, Myint ‎Swe, Vice President of Myanmar, formerly Burma, told reporters that ``there is no evidence of crimes against humanity ‎and ethnic cleansing as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights claimed.''‎  He also denied charges that there had been gang rapes by the military as it swept through Rohingya villages in a security clearance operation.  The army was reacting to deadly attacks against border police posts by a previously unknown insurgent group in October 2016 in Rakhine.  

“The commission’s findings are just the latest attempt to sweep under the rug the massive abuses against the Rohingya last year,” HRW deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson said on Aug. 7. “These atrocities aren’t going to disappear, so the sooner the UN fact-finding mission is allowed into Burma, the sooner those responsible can be identified and redress provided to the victims,”  he added.

The commission concluded it could not confirm cases of rape, gang rape, torture, and killings in the villages it visited.  The commission found that 1152 buildings were destroyed in 13 villages, but said it was too difficult to establish who set fire to the buildings.   

Crimes against humanity

According to HRW, the security force operations caused massive displacement, with more than 70,000 Rohingya fleeing to ‎neighboring Bangladesh and temporarily displacing another 20,000 within Myanmar.  A report issued by ‎the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on February 3, concluded that the attacks ‎against the Rohingya “very likely” amounted to crimes against humanity.‎

Commission report - incomplete, inaccurate, and false ‎information

HRW said the 13-member commission used investigative methods that produced incomplete, inaccurate, and false ‎information. ‎ Rights groups have previously expressed their doubts over the commission's work, saying it lacked outside experts, had poor research methodologies and lacked credibility because it was not independent.  The U.N. has mandated its own fact-finding mission to travel to Rakhine to conduct its own inquiry, but the government has said its members will be denied entry visa. 

Robertson said “the Investigation Commission on Rakhine State’s inept inquiry provides the strongest case yet for Burma letting in the UN fact-finding mission.”  He urged Myanmar’s donors and diplomatic friends to pressure the government “to end their tactics of denial and obfuscation, and cease denying victims their right to the truth.” 

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Washington D.C., Aug 9, 2017 / 06:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- What can a missionary in North Korea do to preach the Gospel in a Communist dictatorship? Simply care for the sick patients he is there to help, says one priest in that situation.

“We are the message of the Gospel, and we try to imitate it,” Fr. Gerard Hammond, M.M. of the Maryknoll Missionaries told CNA of his work in North Korea ministering to multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis patients.

“How did people recognize the first Christians?” he asked. “Well they recognized them because they saw their love and concern for themselves and the small, tiny community.”

“If you can just show a little love and concern, say, for the multi-drug-resistant TB patients in North Korea, you are fulfilling what the early Christians did.”

Fr. Hammond was honored by the Knights of Columbus with the Gaudium et Spes Award last week for his missionary work in North Korea treating those suffering from multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.

The Knights of Columbus is an international Catholic men’s organization with over 1.9 million members worldwide. The Gaudium et Spes Award, named after one of the four constitutions of the Second Vatican Council “on the church in the modern world,” is the highest honor given by the Knights and is “awarded only in special circumstances and only to individuals of exceptional merit.”

St. Teresa of Calcutta was the first person to receive the Gaudium et Spes Award in 1992. The award includes an honorarium of $100,000.

Fr. Hammond entered the seminary for the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1947 and was ordained a priest in 1960. “I had always wanted to become a priest,” he told CNA.

He was assigned to Korea as a young missionary. “It was never said in my mission assignment ‘north’ or ‘south,’” he said, adding that same is true of assignments given to “the nuncios that come to Korea,…the Church is always thinking…not North or South, it’s Korea, or the Korean people.”

However, when he first received his assignment to Korea, Fr. Hammond realized the challenges that awaited him.

“My spiritual director said to me two things. One, he said your trust in God is weak, which is true. Another thing is to know your limitations.”

He recalled his father telling him, “Well, I don’t know what you’re going to do over there, but you can hardly screw in a lightbulb. I don’t know how you’re going to live there.”

“Thanks for the affirmation, it makes me feel good!” he laughed.

He boarded a cargo ship at San Francisco, which made the trek across the Pacific Ocean to Korea. “But as I went up to the top deck and I kept looking at San Francisco. The lights got dimmer and dimmer and I got more panic-stricken, turned around (and) there’s nothing but darkness in front of me,” he said.

“So as a human I had a lot of tears in my eyes. ‘Well, I guess I’m in involved, I guess it’s too late, I can’t swim back’.”

Yet when he arrived, he experienced the aspects of mission life in a foreign culture that can be overwhelming. “You really know your limitations when you’re in a foreign environment. You have to get used to the food, the way people think – it’s everything, it’s different. Especially in Asia,” he said.

Yet, he also felt “the romance of a mission.”

“When people are in love you notice it right away,” he said.  “And a missionary has to fall in love somehow with the people he came to serve. And one way to be able to do that is learning the language.”

Learning the language takes time, Fr. Hammond said, with a few humorous anecdotes of when he mixed up words that sound very similar to each other but have vastly different meanings.

Once in the confessional, he said he told one young person after another to pray a decade of the rosary as their penance. Yet because of how he pronounced his words, their literal translation was to go have a beer.

“So you go through the anger and frustration, all the things that any human person does, and then all of the sudden a Korean comes along and they help you say a few words, you gradually work into it,” he said.

To be a missionary is “to be like the bamboo tree,” he said, “because what’s important about the bamboo tree is they put their roots down deeply and they’re usually in a grove together. And that’s what I think a missionary is – we must put our roots in deeply, but it takes time. You can’t do it overnight.”

There are two languages missionaries must learn, he said – the language of the people they serve, and “the language of the heart.”

“I have to say this prayer every day when I get up: ‘Lord, make my heart be like a Korean’,” he said.

For decades, Fr. Hammond has served in Korea. He makes trips twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, into North Korea with the Eugene Bell Foundation to treat persons suffering from multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. Over the course of three weeks, the staff visits 12 tuberculosis centers in four provinces in the western half of the country.

Since 1995, Fr. Hammond has made 50 trips into North Korea to treat patients. “Not one of them [the trips] has ever been the same,” he said. “There’s always some difficulty or something that you don’t expect. But I like to think of them sometimes in a more spiritual way, God loves to send us surprises.”

Many people in the area test positive for tuberculosis, which is contagious through the air and can lie dormant for decades and attack when a person’s immune system is weak, Dr. Stephen Linton, founder and president of the Eugene Bell Foundation, said.

In North Korea, “virtually everyone over 20 has had a brush with TB,” he said, and several hundred thousand people per year are treated for it by the United Nations.

However, a particularly serious strain of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is able to withstand the normal six-month drug treatments, and around 4-5,000 people develop this disease per year in North Korea. Those suffering from it have “failed treatment multiple times” and are “critically ill,” Dr. Linton said, and will die within five years unless they receive the medication necessary to treat it. The international cure rate is only 48 percent.

The foundation treats around 1,200 patients per year for 18 months, at a cost 100 times that of treating regular tuberculosis, Dr. Linton said. The work must be done outside to prevent the airborne spread of the disease within an enclosed space, which means the work is sometimes done in the rain or in the North Korean winter.

“I just happened to be with people who, as our Holy Father Francis is saying, go to the peripheries,” Fr. Hammond said of his mission work. “And I think that’s where we should be, simply where suffering is.”

“That doesn’t mean everyone should or must go to North Korea,” he said. “To me, it’s very practical that anybody can be a missionary, as long as you’re not centered on yourself, but centered on ‘how can I make myself better and spiritually strong’.”

He cannot proselytize in a country where freedom of religion is ruthlessly suppressed. Yet Fr. Hammond shows the love of Christ simply through risking his own health to treat seriously ill patients.

The Korean War of 1950-53 never technically ended, but only stopped with a truce. A 2.5 mile-wide de-militarized zone separates North and South Korea, heavily armed and manned with soldiers. “Peace” between the two countries, and not just a truce, is “desperately needed,” he said.

“The result of not having peace is a catastrophe,” he said. The capital city of Seoul, South Korea, has 10 million inhabitants and stands within artillery range of the DMZ. Any military conflict between the two countries would result in a “horrendous” number of civilian casualties.

“What are the ingredients, in one sense, for peace?” the priest reflected. “Reconciliation between the peoples of the North and the South. That the people come together.” Both countries, he said, have “the same language, the same culture” and the peninsula “was never divided as a country” until the 20th century.

Families are divided as well. “There are (family members) that they’ve never heard about,” he said, “there’s no communication.”

“Dialogue” between the countries is also key, he said. “They use the word ‘dialogue’ often, but also it means people-to-people contact. So that it can be done with sports, young people meeting up, professors on a non-political area, history teachers, teachers themselves, the young people meeting each other.”

Although he has served in Korea for decades, he does not plan to stop soon. “I hope in the remaining years of my life to be, in a sense, an apostle of peace, an apostle of hope to the people who have no voice,” he said.

“I’d like to be able to die there, because these are the people I baptized,” he said of South Korea. “These are the people I’ve buried, so why shouldn’t I be part of that?”

 

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IMAGE: CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God did not choose perfect people to form his church, but rather sinners who have experienced his love and forgiveness, Pope Francis said.

The Gospel of Luke's account of Jesus forgiving the sinful woman shows how his actions went against the general mentality of his time, a way of thinking that saw a "clear separation" between the pure and impure, the pope said Aug. 9 during his weekly general audience.

"There were some scribes, those who believed they were perfect," the pope said. "And I think about so many Catholics who think they are perfect and scorn others. This is sad."

Continuing his series of audience talks about Christian hope, the pope reflected on Jesus' "scandalous gesture" of forgiving the sinful woman.

The woman, he said, was one of many poor women who were were visited secretly even by those who denounced them as sinful.

Although Jesus' love toward the sick and the marginalized "baffles his contemporaries," it reveals God's heart as the place where suffering men and women can find love, compassion and healing, Pope Francis said.

"How many people continue today in a wayward life because they find no one willing to look at them in a different way, with the eyes -- or better yet -- with the heart of God, meaning with hope," he said. But "Jesus sees the possibility of a resurrection even in those who have made so many wrong choices."

Oftentimes, the pope continued, Christians become accustomed to having their sins forgiven and receiving God's unconditional love while forgetting the heavy price Jesus paid by dying on the cross.

By forgiving sinners, Jesus doesn't seek to free them from a guilty conscience, but rather offers "people who have made mistakes the hope of a new life, a life marked by love," the pope said.

The church is a people formed "of sinners who have experienced the mercy and forgiveness of God," Pope Francis said. Christians are "all poor sinners" who need God's mercy, "which strengthens us and gives us hope."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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