Middle East – Africa

Abuja, Nigeria, Feb 17, 2018 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Women religious in Nigeria held a National Day of Prayer and Fasting for the respect of human life on Ash Wednesday, in light of the ongoing violence within the country.

The Feb. 14 day of prayer and fasting was facilitated by the Nigeria Conference of Women Religious and the African Faith & Justice Network’s women empowerment project, with the theme “Nigeria Catholic nuns uphold the sacredness of life through prayer.”

The event included women from multiple religious congregations throughout the country, according to CANAA.

The sisters gathered reflected on the increasing “communal clashings” within Nigeria, including the alarming conflicts between farmers and herdsmen. They also pointed to the various killings, kidnappings, and particular violence against women that has been ongoing within the country.

The sisters additionally noted personal experiences of violations against human dignity, including multiple kidnappings within their own religious communities. One community recalled having their major superiors and councilors kidnapped and held for ransom in a dungeon for weeks, while another group of sisters expressed a similar occurrence.

Other instances of kidnapped or killed religious have surfaced over the past few years in Nigeria, causing further concern over the ongoing violence produced mainly by ethnic or religious conflicts, as well as the insurgency of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.

As violations against human dignity continue to plague Nigeria, the sisters encouraged the government and officials to enact measures of security for the defenseless and to create a safe environment for the people of Nigeria that would safeguard the lives of all people.

Prompted by the AFJN to use their influence for the good of human life, the sisters have taken up the mission to defend life within the country by bringing these issues to the public square – particularly through their most recent day of prayer and fasting.

While overwhelmed by the gravity of the challenge, the sisters said that after prayer, they have risen to the call to give public witness to the sacredness of life. AFJN also asked for prayers for the sisters’ challenge ahead in promoting human dignity in Nigeria.

“May the sisters’ boldness and courage to act on behalf of justice in the public forum bring change of hearts, move the government and elected officials to act for the common good, and bring consolation to many who have lost their loved ones to violence in Nigeria.”

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Cape Town, South Africa, Feb 15, 2018 / 11:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders in South Africa applauded news of President Jacob Zuma’s resignation, stressing the need to root out corruption at all levels of government.

A Feb. 14 statement … […]

Nairobi, Kenya, Feb 14, 2018 / 05:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Kenya’s government has shut down several TV stations after the leader of an opposition political party declared himself the “people’s president” in January. The country’s bishops condemned the actions of both parties and insisted on the importance of free speech and respect for law and order.  

“As a Church whose mandate is to promote justice and peace, we are categorically concerned with acts of both the government and the opposition that are unconstitutional and a bridge to law and order,” the bishops wrote in a Feb. 2 statement.

The situation follows a disputed August 2017 election. President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected Aug. 11, but it was nullified and a new election was ordered by the Supreme Court, which said the vote wasn’t transparent.

Raila Odinga, Kenyatta’s challenger, boycotted the October re-run, claiming it would also be neither free nor fair, and Kenyatta won overwhelmingly, with only 39 percent turnout.

Odinga then held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony in Nairobi Jan. 30 where he called himself the “people’s president.”

Kenyatta’s government then shut down several TV channels so as to prevent coverage of the swearing-in. The stations were still able to live-stream online, however. Only two stations have now been allowed to resume broadcasting to subscribers.

The Kenyan bishops responded saying that the restrictions on the TV stations did “not augur well for the freedom of expression and press in the country.”

“This is in itself is retrogressive and deliberate effort toward eroding the positive steps the Country and her people have laid down in the Constitution as a social contract.”

The bishops encouraged the government to resume the proper media functions, as Kenya’s constitution allows. The statement also emphasized the responsibility of journalists “to inform and educate the public.”

Additionally, the bishops insisted that “both opposition and the government should desist from any acts that can incite the public and cause deeper divisions among the people of Kenya and the Country at large.”

Citing the fact that “no state agency or individual is above the law,” they called on all state agencies and all duty bearers to respect and adhere to the tenets and spirit of the Constitution, respect human rights and the fundamental freedoms.”

As an organization committed to peaceful solutions, the bishops offered their support to help facilitate dialogue and encouraged Kenyans to join a 2018 Lenten campaign for peace.

About 50 people have reportedly been killed in violence related to protests following the August 2017 election.

Kenya’s 2007 elections resulted in nationwide ethnic violence that killed 1,300 people and displaced as many as 700,000.

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Dodoma, Tanzania, Feb 14, 2018 / 04:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of Tanzania spoke out this week against the suppression of several constitutional freedoms within the country, saying the government is becoming responsible for threatening nationa… […]

Minya, Egypt, Feb 13, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Coptic Orthodox Church will dedicate on Thursday a new church to the 21 Martyrs of Libya, who were beheaded by the Islamic State, three years after their deaths.

 
The church will be opened Feb. 15, according to Fides News Agency. It is located in the village of al-Our in Egypt’s Minya Governorate. The village was home to 13 of the martyred men.

“Any way that the Church of today can honor her martyrs is a blessing. The story of these 21 brave men is worth telling. In way too many places Christians are under siege from the dark forces of extreme hatred, and their freedom is conditioned by this hatred,” Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn told CNA.

The church may someday house the 21 martyrs’ remains, which were identified in a mass grave on the Libyan coast in September.

The Coptic Orthodox Church recognized the 21 Coptic Christians as martyrs to be commemorated every Feb. 15 within only a week of their murder in 2015 along the Libyan coast, which was filmed by the Islamic State and released in an internet video.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church, meaning it rejected the 451 Council of Chalcedon, and its followers had historically been considered monophysites – those who believe Christ has only one nature – by Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, though they are not considered so any longer.

Although Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi authorized the building of the new church, its construction in a village that is 70 percent Muslim has faced resistance.

“Some of the villagers protested and threw stones when construction started on the church. Churches are a sensitive subject throughout Egypt, even though about 10 percent of the population is Christian. It’s hard to get permits to build them,” Jane Arraf of NPR reported from al-Our.

Christians in Egypt face a constant threat of violence. Earlier this week, a man was found guilty of stabbing Coptic Orthodox priest, Samaan Shehata, to death last October.

On Palm Sunday last year, two Islamic State suicide bombings at Coptic churches in Egypt claimed the lives of 47 people.

“We pray for our Coptic brethren as they continue to witness to their beautiful faith and way of life in Christ Jesus. They live in the most terrifying of circumstances, never knowing the hour or the place of the next attack. May the prayers of the Mother of God be their comfort and strength,” said Bishop Mansour, who continued: “Egypt was the first place of refuge for the holy family and continues to be a place of refuge for God’s holy family, mystically present in his Coptic Christians.”

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Abuja, Nigeria, Feb 10, 2018 / 12:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amidst violent clashes between nomadic-herdsmen and settled farmers in central Nigeria, Catholic bishops met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to work towards a peaceful, equ… […]

Damascus, Syria, Feb 7, 2018 / 08:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the first time in nearly six years, Christians from the eastern city of Deir Ezzor in Syria were able to celebrate a liturgy at the local church of St. Mary’s.

“It’s an in… […]

Denver, Colo., Feb 7, 2018 / 03:00 pm (CNA).- While the transition of the American embassy to Jerusalem has exacerbated regional tension in recent months, the number of Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land has increased.

Last month 770 registered pilgrimage groups, some 26,000 people, visited Jerusalem, while 529 groups visited in the same time period last year, and 390 visited in January 2016. The statistics were recently released by Israel’s Christian Information Center,

A priest who recently took a group of young adults to the Holy Land told CNA that the pilgrimage was peaceful, and seemed to be unaffected by political tensions.

“The experience for everyone was very peaceful. You don’t necessarily experience any conflict in the environment,” said Father Daniel Cardo, pastor of Holy Name Church in Englewood, CO.

Sobhy Makhoul, deacon of the Maronite Patriarchate of Jerusalem, told Asia News that the rise in pilgrims began at the end of 2017. “Between November and mid-December there were many pilgrims, so many that for the first time we had to house some of them in the city like Hebron, almost 30 km south of Bethlehem,” he said.

There has also been a notable increase in pilgrims from China, Russia, and Eastern Europe, among them are many pilgrims from Eastern Orthodox churches, Makhoul told Asia News.

Makhoul also said that a peaceful reaction in Palestine to the US Embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has reassured pilgrims that Israel is a safe place to travel.

He said that most people in the region want peace, and that most recognize the economic importance of pilgrimage trips.

Fr. Cardo told CNA that there is also a general respect in the region for the sacredness of pilgrimages to Holy Land, which he called the “father land” to many religions.

“People from the Holy Land, whether they are Christians or not, and actually a vast majority as we know aren’t Christians, recognize … the sacredness of the practice of pilgrimage,” he said.

“It is moving to me to see how many people, whether they are fully into the spiritual experience or not, are attracted to” sacred sites in the Holy Land, he said.

“The experience of going to Holy Sepulchre in particular … It’s just entering into a mystery, pointing to the place that reflects the mystery of God’s victory, but such a stark contrast, with the craziness of our humanity – the many languages [and] the noise of the place.”

Father Cardo encouraged more groups of Catholics to travel to the Holy Land. He said the experience allows pilgrims to envision the reality of  Scripture’s settings, and that pilgrimages help Christians in the Holy Land, who only make up a small fraction of the population.

“To visit Christian places and support local Christian businesses is a very important thing we have to do in order to maintain the life of the Church in those holy places,” he said.

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Bamako, Mali, Jan 30, 2018 / 04:59 pm (ACI Prensa).- A reported video message from a Colombian nun kidnapped almost a year ago in Mali appeals to Pope Francis for his help in securing her release.

The video was reportedly created by two local terrorist organizations that are linked to Al Qaeda.

According to the online edition of the Spanish newspaper El País, the video, which may have been recorded in December, would prove that Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti
is still alive. In the video, Sister Cecelia reportedly mentions Christmas and the pope’s trip to Chile and Peru that concluded a few days ago.

The Al Akhbar agency published the contents of the message, although it has not released the video itself. It says that the video lasts 4:44 minutes and that “the Colombian hostage pleads with the Pope of the Vatican to intervene to free her.”

Sister Cecelia was kidnapped Feb. 7, 2017 in southern Mali.

The Colombian National Police told RCN Radio earlier this month that they are collaborating with the Vatican police to obtain the 56-year-old nun’s release and met in Holland to exchange information.

 “The pope is aware of what Colombia is doing and to what point we’ve come to obtain her release,” said General Fernando Murillo of the Colombian National Police’s hostage and extortion unit. He said the Colombian police are in ongoing contact with the Catholic Church in Mali to expedite negotiations.

Murillo said that the kidnapping was done for ransom purposes and that the authorities do not know the specific amount being asked for the release of the religious, nor of any communication the terrorists may have had with relatives.

At the end of the video, the terrorists reportedly propose “to negotiate through independent charitable organizations outside the colonialist force.”

Sister Cecilia has served in Mali for 12 years. Her community administers a large health center in the country, as well as a home where they care for some 30 orphans between one and two years of age.

The children were all orphaned at birth, and the sisters pick them up and take care of them, along with some moms that work with them, Sister Noemi Quesada, the superior of Sister Cecelia’s order in Colombi, told Colombia La FM Radio last February.

In addition to their pastoral ministry, they teach literacy to some 700 Muslim women and are working on a barn project for times of food shortages, as many mothers in the region die from malnutrition.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Kaduna, Nigeria, Jan 27, 2018 / 06:01 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- It is common in Nigeria that nomadic herdsmen clash with farmers over the use of land. However, in the past year in particular, raids by Muslim Fulani herdsmen have become more violent and have targeted Christians.

Mysteriously, the herdsmen carry sophisticated weaponry, which has led to speculation that assaults are financed, planned and instigated by anti-Christian elements.

Fourteen-year-old Rejoice James, a Catholic student at St. Kizito’s primary and secondary school in Samaru Kataf, Kaduna State, tells the story of two such attacks:

“It was a Thursday morning, March 16, 2017 at exactly 1:30am; I heard people shouting ‘fire! fire!’ My mother and father and my two siblings rushed out of the house. Fulani herdsmen had come to our village, killing some people and setting houses on fire, including ours. It was burned to ashes. We couldn’t do anything to stop the fire; we lost everything. It felt like God was really silent and life was not fair. Still, we were unharmed.

“As we stood around, wondering what to do, God sent us a helper, a Muslim man who ran toward us and shouted: ‘run for your lives! You people were good to me and I decided to reciprocate. Run, I say, as fast as your legs can carry you – the Fulani herdsmen are already on their way to kill you.’ I came close to see who the man was and was shocked to discover it was my school’s security guard.

“So we ran. In the bush everyone was selfish; we ran as if there was a competition; we were exhausted and absolutely afraid, but we kept on running and later found ourselves in Samaru Kataf, which is almost 80 miles from where we lived. We seemed to have gotten there in a twinkle of an eye and I wondered how; it was a mystery that I can’t explain.

“We went to a Catholic church where we were fed and clothed for few days. Afterward, we moved into the home of my father’s cousin. My parents could no longer afford to send my siblings and me to Catholic school, so I began attending a state school.

“One early morning, May 9, 2017, my principal sent a message to my dad, telling him we should not come to school that day, that all was not well in the community. That afternoon, my dad took his bicycle to go to the marketplace; it was market day. A few hours later, I saw people screaming, shouting – some were crying – and running all over. Women ran to our house and yelled out: ‘we are doomed again.’

“We heard that Fulani herdsmen had come to the marketplace and killed three Christians, and badly wounded four others. The violence had been triggered by the killing of a Fulani taxi driver by some our youth, who were taking revenge for the attack on Fanda Kaje. I began to shiver, thinking of my dad who had gone to the marketplace; my mother was shaking, as we both wondered if my father would still be alive.

“My mother held my hand and we began to run toward the marketplace. We found chaos; tomatoes, peppers, onions and other food stuffs were scattered everywhere; some shops were burned down. I was very scared; we did not know where to look for my dad. Then we heard a voice: ‘if you move, I will shoot you.’ We ran away along with other people; my mother carried me in her arms and ran as fast as her legs could carry her; a woman pushed her and she tripped, injuring her leg. But the pain did not stop her.

“Just as we were about to get back into our house, there came cries of young people, screaming. We turned around and saw my dad on the ground, lifeless. The boys had carried his body from the marketplace. They rushed over to my mother, who had fainted; they poured water on her face and she regained consciousness; she began to shout and cry at the top of her voice. I could feel my mother’s pain as she held my siblings and me very tightly; we all cried our eyes out. I wondered why God remained silent.

“After my father’s burial, I helped my mother sell tomatoes for six months. Thanks to my uncle I am now attending a Catholic school again. I am happy because I made new friends and because my two sisters, my mother and I survived the attack.

“We finally are enjoying peace in the community; the army has stepped in to protect us. The hatred between Christians and the Fulani herdsmen is unbearable – but I still thank God there is a bit of sunshine after the rain in our community.”

Patience Nibile writes for Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries.

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