Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide was reportedly abducted from Nigeria’s Enugu Diocese on Sept. 17, 2023. / Credit: Enugu Diocese
ACI Africa, Sep 19, 2023 / 16:20 pm (CNA).
Prayers are being sought for the safe release of Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide, who was reportedly abducted from Nigeria’s Enugu Diocese on Sept. 17.
In a Sept. 19 statement obtained by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, the diocese’s chancellor provided details about the abduction. Okide, who serves as a parish priest at St. Mary Amofia-Agu Affa Parish, was on his way back to the parish in the late afternoon when he was kidnapped along the road.
“The diocese requests your prayers for the quick and wholesome release of Father Okide and for a change of heart on the part of the kidnappers,” Father Wilfred Chidi Agubuchie said.
“It is quite disheartening that this evil scheme is still plaguing our people,” Agubuchie continued. “May the Lord who came to set captives free (Lk 4:18) deliver our brother from the hands of our enemies and save our country Nigeria.”
Nigeria has experienced insecurity since 2009 when Boko Haram insurgency began with the aim of turning the country into an Islamic state.
Since then, the group, one of largest Islamist groups in Africa, has been orchestrating indiscriminate terrorist attacks on various targets, including religious and political groups as well as civilians.
The situation in the country has further been complicated by the involvement of the predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen, also referred to as the Fulani Militia.
The Sept. 17 abduction of Okide is the latest of a series of kidnappings of members of the clergy in Africa’s most populous nation.
On Aug. 2, a priest and seminarian were abducted from the Diocese of Minna. Father Paul Sanogo from Mali and seminarian Melchior Mahinini from Tanzania were released on Aug. 23 after three weeks in captivity.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
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CNA Staff, Mar 15, 2021 / 05:00 am (CNA).- On the 10th anniversary of Syria’s war, a Catholic charity urged the United States and the European Union to remove obstacles to aid reaching the country’s neediest people.
Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. / Credit: ACI Africa
Kampala, Uganda, Jun 4, 2024 / 12:25 pm (CNA).
Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged believers gathered at the Namugongo Shrine in Kampala, Uganda, for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on Monday to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region.
Speaking after the Eucharistic celebration for the event celebrated annually on June 3, Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country who have embraced unity and rallied under their religious leaders to foster unity and religious tolerance.
“A Christian must be an example to other people. A Christian must lead by example in fighting for peace,” the Ugandan president said during the event, which was hosted by the Diocese of Nebbi.
Museveni urged Christians to give reconciliation and dialogue a chance, saying: “Our countries have a challenge of peace, and a lack of peace many times is caused by unresolved issues.”
Priests, religious, and laypeople from across Africa gather at the Namugongo Shrine in Uganda for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
He lamented that rather than fostering peace and unity, many in the region, including some Christians, resort to guns and violence to solve issues.
“Therefore, I besiege all believers to do all that is necessary to bring peace in our East African countries,” Museveni said. “It is only after fostering peace in our region that we should now embark on eradicating poverty.”
In his speech, the president also acknowledged with appreciation the collaboration of religious leaders and the government of the East African country in curbing religious and tribal divisions.
“I want to thank the believers in Uganda and their religious leaders… this is because, before the 1960s and even after, Ugandans were divided according to tribes and religion,” he said. “This was part of the chaos that engulfed Uganda.”
Museveni chastised those who have sowed division, decrying what he described as “hypocrisy among religious leaders in the country,” saying: “You who claim to be religious are more unreligious than those who are irreligious, and you were dividing our people.”
But he also added: “I want to thank Ugandans very much because they embraced the call for unity that we are still enjoying up to now.”
Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Museveni lauded Christians and other believers in the country for “embracing unity” and fostering religious tolerance. Credit: ACI Africa
The Ugandan president further lauded the Nebbi Diocese for organizing this year’s pilgrimage, which he described as “enriching.”
He also acknowledged the presence of Mary Nyerere, who he said always attends the pilgrimage at Namugongo to pray for the beatification and canonization of her spouse, Servant of God Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who was former prime minister and then president of what is now Tanzania.
Pope Benedict XVI declared Nyerere a servant of God on May 13, 2005.
“I want to thank Mary Nyerere for coming here every moment we have this pilgrimage to pray for the beatification of Julius Nyerere,” Museveni said. “I am a witness to the good work of Julius Nyerere.”
Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, urged all those gathered at the event to emulate the late Tanzanian president for his heroic virtues.
Priests, religious, and laypeople gather at the Namugongo Shrine for this year’s Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, where the country’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urged them to be at the forefront of fostering peace in the East African region. Credit: ACI Africa
Ugandan Martyrs’ Day dates back to the first decade of Christian presence in the East African nation when 45 men between the ages of 14 and 50 were killed because of their faith between 1885 and 1887.
Among the 45 were 22 Catholics who were beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1964. These martyrs continue to inspire the Catholic faith in Uganda and around the world.
Nairobi, Kenya, Jun 15, 2019 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- Kenya’s High Court ruled Wednesday that rape victims whose pregnancy threatens their life or health have a right to procure abortion.
The June 12 ruling regarded a case brought on b ehalf of a young woman who died in June 2018 from complications related to a back-alley abortion she procured in 2014.
“Pregnancy resulting from rape or defilement, if in the opinion of a trained medical profession poses a danger to life or the health – that is physical, mental and social well-being of the mother – maybe terminated under … sections of the constitution,” said Justice Aggrey Muchelule, the Thompson Reuters Foundation reported.
The Standard, a Nairobi daily, reported that the judges ruled: “The apparent blanket prohibition of abortion in the penal code cannot stand while the Constitution gives the right to a woman to abort when their life and health are in danger.”
The 2010 Kenyan constitution made abortion legal in certain circumstances – in the cases of emergencies and when the woman’s health is in jeopardy.
The girl at the center of the case, known by her initials JMM, was raped in 2014 at the age of 15. In December of that year, her guardian was told by a relative that JMM was vomiting and bleeding heavily at a clinic where she had gone for treatment.
JMM had told clinic staff she had procured an unsafe abortion and that she had been sent to a variety of hospitals for post-abortive care.
In 2015, JMM’s mother, along with the Federation of Women Lawyers and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, filed a suit against the Ministry of Health claiming JMM was not provided with proper post-abortion care and calling on the government to provide access to safe abortions.
JMM developed kidney failure, and died June 10, 2018.
The suit filed on JMM’s behalf maintains that the poor care she received following her abortion was a result of the lack of safe abortion services.
In its ruling, the court awarded JMM’s mother damage of 3 million Kenyan shillings ($29,500).
The court also ordered the health ministry to reinstate guidelines on conducting ‘safe’ abortions. In 2013 the ministry had withdrawn the guidelines, and banned health workers from training in the procedure, after it emerged they were being used to unintended purposes.
The court had heard three days of testimony in the case in July 2018. It had been expected to deliver a verdict before January 2019.
Among the testimonies heard by the court was that of Dr. Wahome Ngari, who said that figures on the number of back-alley abortions procured, which are used to argue for the expansion of abortion rights, are wildly inflated, and that similar inflation was used to push the Malawian government to repeal its abortion law.
Ngari said the focus on health care for pregnant women in Kenya should begin with blood loss.
“The reason pregnant mothers die in the country is haemorrhage, followed by infections, hyperactive disorders, prolonged or obstructed labour and lastly abortion. Anyone who wants to offer a solution should follow that order.”
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