Tribute of service to the Nigerian Catholic Faith

The Nigerian Catholic Church is a product of intrepid missionaries, who committed their lives in sacrifice, leaving their homes in France, Ireland, Italy, Canada, and all over to carry on the ministry of transplantation of the Church on Nigerian soil. Many of them died, some barely managed to return to Europe, but in all of these they were fervent in their mission to evangelize, to civilize, and to nurture the faith until they raised the sons and daughters of the land to carry on their ministry as "scions" of the gospel. Today, we are grateful for the ministry of these committed men and women, who in spite of their human suffering and deprivation planted an ethics of hardwork and courageous spirit for evangelizing souls. True to the mission of these intrepid and valliant souls, upon their labor the Nigerian Church has become self-generating, at least in terms of personnel, and are trying in terms of maintaining their ecclessial structures, within their best possible means. Today, within few years, Nigerian missionaries, especially priests and nuns are all over the world, following in the footsteps of their missionary progenitors. Within the womb of time, they are adding to the spirit of faith and vitality of mission fields and even offering their support to the pastoral needs of older Churches. Today, we recognize the fact that the Nigerian Catholic Church is growing, but yet challenged by the existential contours of the society that encase it. Living out her witness to Christ, her savior, the Church presents Christ as a glowing and resplendent treasure to the faithful, while also calling the faithful, as God's people, on pilgrimage to preserve the gospel values and the teachings of Christ through the teaching magisterium within the template of their bodies and daily activities. The Church is energizing the faithful to live out their calling in the world courageously, without regrets, but full of joy. It is no wonder, however, that the vitality and convivality of the Nigerian laity is simply amazing. Nonetheless, in spite of these commendation and awesome development, we nuance certain elements within the Nigerian Catholic Church that needs urgent redressing. We note, first and foremost, the issue of the equation of magic with the tennets of our faith. The aspiration to seek wonders, acts more associated with magic than faith, has begulfed the imagination of many Catholics, that they are neglecting the sacramental pedestal upon which the Church's ministry is predicated. They are equally, neglecting the agents of these faith, through certain ascriptions that demarcate "holy" priests from the ones thought as "profane" "polluted", or "sinful" simply through the norm of possession of magical qualities. Such arbitary distillation is harmful to the existential hinges upon which the Catholic faith hangs. We also note sadly about the overtly materialistic attitudes of the priests, who running from the reality of the ideal of poverty, an ideal that has its expressions even in the life of Christ, are into all source of Machiavelli charades, trying to outwit each other, through unnecessary competition, creating spiritual farce to win popular sympathy, and above all alienating themselves from the fountain of grace and constitutive spirituality that is essential to priestly poverty. These are decriable and pitiful facts that has afflicted our Church, and inflicted massive injury to the identity of our faith, built by Christ upon rocks, and cemented through the ages by the bodily and mental sacrifices of the saints and loyal followers, who committed prefered death to live. Tertullian, notes that the "blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity." Yes, the sacrifices of our founder and forebears constitute the very foundation of our faith. This webblog therefore, is a testimony to that living faith as expressed by Christ through the ages. It is committed to expousing and expounding the tennets of our beloved faith, within its truest understanding, within the constructions of the teaching magisterium of the Church. We owe absolute and undivided allegiance to the Holy Father, as the representative of Christ on earth. However, we would because and in spite of our allegiance, call attention to any element and instrumentality that attempt to dent the faith from within and from without. We shall in this commitment, not sanction blind obedience, but call for constructive dialogue, given that even within the history of our Church, while the reformation reins, another vital aspiration, the counterreformation, without being blind, reformulated the vitality of the Church from within. In this sense, we call on the intercession of some great persons, Blessed Cyprian Tansi, our own blood, a tireless man of faith, St. Charles Borromeo, and also the saintly intercession of a true worker and sufferer for the faith, our immediate Pope John II in sanctioning this unique experience. May these saintly icons of our faith guide our weak hands and feable self to help the Church of Christ and the community of grace for his people.