Charles, a 33-year-old father of a family who is a refugee at Pulka in Nigeria’s Borno State. / Credit: Aid to the Church in Need
Nairobi, Kenya, Dec 15, 2021 / 13:48 pm (CNA).
Not every Catholic priest risks mortal danger every time he visits his people. But a priest identified only as Father Christopher, who ministers in the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria, risks his life daily to serve hundreds of refugees who have been displaced by terrorism.
The priest told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) United States, a Catholic Pontifical charity foundation, last week that thousands of people who have been displaced by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Northern Nigeria are forced to live as refugees in tents, scattered around the small town of Pulka.
The priest noted that the refugees cannot stray far from the camps because of security concerns, and because of the difficulties in moving around during the rainy season. The town is located close to the border with Cameroon and some 75 miles from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Northeast Nigeria.
“There are continuing attacks, and some people get killed. It is by no means easy, and it is not easy for me either, simply getting here,” Father Christopher told ACN.
“Coming and going is always a risk, but it is important to me to do everything I can to help these people.”
Father Christopher himself is currently living in an abandoned house, since Boko Haram destroyed his church and the rectory in Pulka in 2014, ACN reports.
ACN reports that many of the victims of Boko Haram’s campaigns of violence are still refugees in their own country, and face daily trauma and anxiety. There are some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pulka alone.
“The danger has not passed, but the Church is bringing them consolation and hope,” the foundation says.
The foundation recounts the story of Naomi, a Nigerian woman who watched as her mother was killed and at one point was forced to “marry” a terrorist after being abducted. The image of Boko Haram’s brutality, Naomi told ACN, is still fresh in her mind and it causes her to experience nightmares.
“I don’t want there to be any night-time. I wish it was always daytime. My nights are full of fear, anxiety, nightmare,” Naomi says, and adds, “I get frightened as soon as night falls.”
Similarly, Charles, a young father of a family who is 33 and a refugee in the same place, also admits to having recurrent nightmares.
He told ACN in the December 13 report, “I relive the time when we were living in hiding. Since the terrorists used to attack by night, we would get out of the town as soon as night began to fall and hide in the bush. Many nights I still dream that I’m in hiding.”
ACN reports that Charles and Naomi are now living in one of the 20 refugee camps in Borno State.
“Muslims are a majority in Borno State… but Naomi and Charles are Christians. Without their faith, many people would have not been able to endure so much suffering,” Father Christopher said.
He explained that the Islamic militants first tried to frighten and threaten the Christians, trying to force them to convert. When that failed, they began to get more violent, he said, and added, “The priests had to hide in the mountains, but the insurgents of Boko Haram continued to harass and persecute the people.”
“Eventually, the situation became so difficult that between 2015 and 2016 many people decided to pack up their belongings and leave the country, crossing the frontier and seeking refuge in Cameroon.”
Naomi recounted fleeing to Cameroon and leaving everything behind.
“It was by no means easy,” she told ACN, and added, “Our feet were swollen and blistered, and it was too much for us. My sister was captured by Boko Haram, but she had a baby in her arms and that was the only reason they let her go. It wasn’t her baby, as it happens, she was only carrying it at that moment, but it saved her life. Many other people, like my mother, were murdered.”
In Minawao, Cameroon, alone, there were at one point more than 60,000 Nigerian refugees, the charity foundation reports, and adds, “They stayed there for several years, until the Nigerian army succeeded in recapturing the towns and villages … and persuaded them to return.”
However, the situation back home in Nigeria is still very precarious, Charles tells ACN, and explains, “We were refugees in Cameroon, then we returned and have been living here for two years now, but the situation is still unsafe.”
“We are once again living in our own country, in our own area, in our beloved Pulka, but we are living as refugees. We are nearer to our home than when we were living in Cameroon, but once again we are living in danger,” Charles says.
Naomi praised Father Christopher for working selflessly to restore hope among the refugees who had lost everything in the Boko Haram attacks.
“Life in Cameroon was so difficult that we thought we would never hope again,” she said, and added, “Father Christopher is a source of inspiration for us. When we are down, he gives us courage. He is a true father to all of us and is trying to fill the gaps in our lives left by our missing family members, because many of them were murdered. He cares for us as if we were his own family.”
Naomi continues, “God is providing and helping us, thanks to so many people around the world who have not forgotten us. We pray that God may give strength to all these benefactors and that you may be able to continue doing your work and supporting us.”
According to Naomi, Christmas is a particularly difficult time for the Catholic community in Pulka.
She says, “Before the crisis, Christmas was a time of great joy, because our relatives used to come from a long way away and celebrate together with us. When the attacks began, Christmas stopped being what it had been before; we couldn’t sing Christmas carols in the community or visit other people’s houses; we couldn’t even go out of our houses at night-time. The situation was so dangerous that Christmas stopped being a festival, and we couldn’t celebrate it.”
Charles, a father of four, adds, “Celebrating Christmas is hard in our situation. Most of us who once lived in Pulka, have lost everything.”
He continues, “The Gospel gives me the strength to face all this suffering and to endure everything we confront each day. Jesus Christ foretold the suffering that we are going through. Suffering is part of being Christian. Our lives are in His hands. I am filled with hope when I remember the words of Jesus, that He will reward us at the end of our lives. Jesus Christ is my salvation, and that is what I celebrate at Christmas.”
According to Naomi, what the refugees need most, as the rest of the world celebrates Christmas, are basic necessities such as food and medication.
“What we most need here is food, tents and clothing. We are even seeing some cases of cholera now and we don’t have any place to go for medical treatment. It would also be a gift to get help with our academic studies; some of us were students before the extremist attacks, and we had to give it up because we had no money to continue,” she says.
Father Christopher says his wish for Christmas is for many people to feel the desire to help the refugees in Pulka, and for them to regain their physical, spiritual and mental health.
He says, in reference to the refugees, “They long for peace in their lives, for peace to return to their homes. Our desire is a very simple one; we simply want to live a normal life and return to the life we had before.”
ACN reports that the foundation is seeking help for a range of projects to help the “uprooted” people of Pulka, who include around 14,000 Catholics.
The envisioned ACN projects include a borehole to provide water for the refugees, the rebuilding of the St. Paul’s Parish house in Pulka, so that Father Christopher can return to live there, and help 23 Catechists who are working among the refugees from Pulka, both in Nigeria and in Cameroon.
This article first appeared on ACI Africa, CNA’s sister news agency based in Kenya.
[…]
Mass of reparation….have fr rippinger back [he was just there] to exercise the building and rededicate it…and remove the faculties of the priest…[who may need an exorcism himself…]
There are reports that the Mass of Reparation does reconsecrate the cathedral, despite the official statement from its pastor not making that clear. Example: this story at The Postmillennial:
NYC Cathedral offers official Mass of Reparation to reconsecrate St Patrick’s after outcry over trans activist funeral
Yes! That would be a fantastic move!
Now will the Archdiocese rewrite its policies, which seem to allow congregants to take control of liturgies, so that such a scandal cannot reoccur?
As long as eulogizing is allowed at a funeral, rather than being limited to a non-church wake where it belongs, we’ll see such scandals continuing. This one is only more egregious than what is common.
In our parish you/someone in family have/has to generally be a member for a funeral; there’s quite a few where there’s a service at the funeral home/graveside if they’ve fallen away. A priest or deacon usually presides.
Is this somehow following the recent ‘blessings are okay’ directive?
Why does the secular world want to use our facilities for such strange events or videotaping for “artists” that also happened recently?
The decision to do this outrageous blasphemy was given permission for Dolan, he should resign immediately! But this just shows how diabolical the LGBTQ crowd are! They want things like this to show contempt to the Church and her Sacraments, since they are totally dedicated to the world, the flesh and the devil!!!
Doesn’t the priest or the funeral home, presumably in accord with the parish, meet with the family to plan the funeral – the visitation, the procession, the readings, the hymns, etc.?
Was this person a parishioner? Can anybody just walk in off the street and demand a “celebration of life”?
Rev. Salvo says that they “didn’t know” what these people had planned.
I for one DON’T believe that, and, if it IS true – there is NO excuse for their ignorance.
You cannot “request “a funeral mass. Money has to change hands. How much did it cost to sell catholic values?????
Who paid? Who accepted the payment without proper vetting?
Deep connections have to be involved.
A “sorry” mass cannot be the end of it!
I imagine that Cardinal Dolan himself approved the service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Perhaps he thought that it would be more “normal” than it turned out? Well, I think that he must be embarrassed about the whole thing now. Does he owe an apology to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York? It might be wise to do so.
Fr. Edward is the culprit who encouraged, profane, and participated in the sacrilegious mass. He was the celebrant, leader, and shepherd leading all these folks into grave egregious mortal sin. Father Edward Dougherty must be admonished appropriately to his actions.
Or was this clandestinely approved by the Vatican for a fellow countrymen from Argentina?
Are the “wild beasts” located in the Vatican?
Tragic and unnecessary failure to protect the faithful
Matthew 23:9-11 KJV And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Incredibly irreverent. Somebody of note took payment for this charade, without regard to what planned intentions were.
Why didn’t the celebrant of the funeral mass put a stop to it when he saw what was happening?? And why has Cardinal Dolan not made a public statement and apology to Catholics in the US? It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain a faithful Catholic in light of what’s been going on since Covid. The church did nothing and continues to marginalize the faithful while applauding the radicals.
I read elsewhere that where as the original plan was for a mass, during the “celebration” the director of liturgy saw what was going on and informed the presiding priest to limit it to a simple service instead of a mass. I hope that was the case. Inappropriate regardless.
I cannot understand how this was allowed to continue throughout its entirety. This should have been stopped at the first mention or sight of anything subversive. Throughout all of these videos I kept wondering the same thing, ‘why is the presiding authority not demanding cessation and those taking part out of the church?’ Let us all pray for the intercession of the saints of the past who fought heresy without fear and stood face to face against those who persecuted them. Mother Mary, pray for us!
It’s important to note that this sacrilege is the direct result of Bergoglio’s apostatic directive, ‘Sfiducia Supplicans.’
I fear we have a pope who is in the service of an unholy spirit.
We read: “’At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,’ Salvo said. [AND] Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.”
Reparation after the fact? What about foresight and guardianship?
Yours truly recalls a high cleric from New York who confided (on EWTN) about endorsing Obama Care only to find six months later that the conscientious objection clause had been deleted. “They lied to me,” he said. Of course!!! Why is it that pious clerics are the last to notice in advance the web of mendacity in a fallen world?
Happily, about “tone,” we now see what we need from continental Africa and and many other points of surviving coherence across the globe, but from the inner circle what do we still get: a “tone” that is out of tune, a “blessing” that is not a blessing, a “couple” that is not a couple, a doctrinally “universal Church” that in practice is not universal, and likely endorsement from a “synod” that is not a synod…
Instead, this: “When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world which was full of the ambushes of evil, He told them, ‘Be ye therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves’ (Mt 10:16). By mentioning the two virtues, prudence and simplicity, together, He clearly shows that they must never be separated from one another, nor should one be used as a pretext for failing in the other” (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, “Divine Intimacy,” 1964/1996).
Given the insidiousness of evil and even infiltration into the Church, needed training for bishops might well include a seminar on Mt. 10:16 and counterinsurgency.
CARDINAL DOLAN MUST MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT OIF REPENTANCE AND RECOMMITMENT