Nigerian Bishops Call for Removal of Sharia Law from Constitution

In the first 4 months of 2021 alone, 1470 Nigerian Christians were murdered for their faith.

One group, International Christian Concern, has claimed that as many as 50,000 to 70,000 Christians have been killed for their faith in the past two decades.

In recent weeks, Father Alphonsus Bello was kidnapped and murdered alongside an another priest, who is still missing. ArchbishopMatthew Man-oso Ndagoso called for forgiveness of the killers at his funeral, stating:

Pray that God will give the victims of these criminal activities and their loved ones the grace to forgive so that they do not become victims twice.

Painful as it is, if we are not to remain victims forever, we have to take the right step moving forward, namely, forgive those who have done this to us even if we do not know them.

The violence has mostly continued unabated, though there has been some good news this week with the death of Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau.

Now, Catholic Bishops are calling for Sharia Law to be removed from the 1999 Constitution.

In a statement, they have written:

Regarding the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we state in the first place that there was no time Nigerians convened as individual stakeholders or as represented citizens to decide on or give it to them as a binding law or constitution. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a product of and an imposition of the military.

“Bearing this in mind, therefore, the particular aspect we want to address for this Review of the 1999 Constitution has to do with the place Islam as a religion has assumed in our Constitution vis-à-vis our national life, to the extent that the 1999 Constitution has put Christians and adherents of other religions at a disadvantage in any place with a Muslim majority.

“Complaints abound about the lack of adequate compliance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria against the establishment of any state religion, respect for the freedom of religion, including the right to freely change one’s religion, and equality of all religions before the law. In particular, there have been complaints about the special bias, recognition and prominence accorded to Islam in the Constitution of this nation, Nigeria.

“The framers of the 1999 Constitution created Sharia Courts for Muslims. This explains why a Christian cannot be appointed as Kadi under the laws of the States or Grand Kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal.

“Thus, we conclude that while Muslims exclusively have a Court that regulates their affairs and to which they can exclusively be appointed as Judges, the same cannot be said for the Christians, or people of other religions. This shows a constitutionally backed gap of inequality and under-representation in the Nigerian judiciary

“The establishment of Sharia Courts of Appeal in our Constitution is therefore inconsistent with Sections 10 and 38 of the 1999 Constitution. It amounts to the adoption of a State religion which Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution forbids and prohibits.

“It translates to the adoption of Islam as a State religion. Of course, the enforcement of Sharia laws with public funds amounts to those States adopting Islam as a religion. We submit that adopting sharia law(s) as a State laws(s) amounts to adopting the religion founding those laws as state religion; and this violates Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution.

“To ensure peace and unity of the nation, there must be an end to the practically established status that Islam enjoys in our Constitution. We note in this regard that while Islam is mentioned very many times in the Constitution, there is not a single mention of Christianity or any other religion in the Constitution. This should be redressed.

“For the sustenance unity and fairness in this country, the Senate has to take seriously this stand of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in response to its call for memoranda on the Review of the 1999 Constitution; and has to see this Constitution review exercise as an opportunity to give sincere listening ear to Nigerians to whom the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended) later referred to as ‘The 1999 Constitution’ remains an imposition.

“Consequently, we, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, speaking in the name of the Catholic community in Nigeria, hereby submit that Nigerians do not have one law as one people in one nation.

“To correct this, all references to Sharia and any other discriminatory or divisive law(s) should be expunged from the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended).”

Pray that they may have success and that they persecutions of Nigerian Christians will soon cease.

Pope Francis Rejects Marx Resignation

Last week, we reported on the offer of resignation from ultra liberal German Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

Now, the Vatican has printed Pope Francis’s reply in which he rejects the offer.

You can read it below:

First of all thank you for your courage.

It is a Christian courage that does not fear the cross, is not afraid to be stunned in front of the tremendous reality of sin. So did the Lord (Phil 2. 5-8). It is a grace that the Lord has given you and I see that you want to assume and guard it so that it may bear fruit. Thank you.

You tell me that you are going through a moment of crisis, and not only you but also the Church in Germany is living it. The whole Church is in crisis because of the issue of abuse; moreover, the Church today cannot take a step forward without taking on this crisis. The politics of the ostrich leads nowhere, and the crisis has to be assumed from our Paschal faith. Sociologisms, psychologisms, do not work. Assuming the crisis, personally and communally, is the only fruitful way because a crisis does not come out alone but in community and we must also take into account that a crisis comes out or better or worse, but never the same[1].

You tell me that since last year you have been reflecting: you set out on your way, seeking god's will with the decision to accept it whatever it was.

I agree with you in describing as a catastrophe the sad history of sexual abuse and the way in which the Church dealt with it until recently. To realize this hypocrisy in the way of living faith is a grace, it is a first step that we must take. We have to take charge of history, both personally and communally. We cannot remain indifferent to this crime. To assume it is to put oneself in crisis.

Not everyone wants to accept this reality, but it is the only way, because making "purposes" of life change without "putting the flesh on the grill" does not lead to anything. Personal, social and historical realities are concrete and should not be assumed with ideas; because ideas are discussed (and it's okay to do so) but reality must always be assumed and discerned. It is true that historical situations have to be interpreted with the hermeneutics of the time in which they happened, but this does not exempt us from taking charge and assuming them as the story of the "sin that besieges us". Therefore, in my opinion, every Bishop of the Church must assume this and ask himself what should I do in the face of this catastrophe?

The "mea culpa" in the face of so many historical mistakes of the past we have done more than once in many situations although we personally have not participated in that historical juncture. And it is this same attitude that is being asked of us today. We are being asked for a reform,which – in this case – does not consist of words but of attitudes that have the courage to put themselves in crisis, to face reality whatever the consequence. And every reform begins on its own. Reformation in the Church has been done by men and women who were not afraid to go into crisis and let themselves be reformed by the Lord. It is the only way, otherwise we will be nothing more than "ideologues of reforms" who do not put their own flesh at stake.

The Lord never agreed to do "reform" (if I may say so) either with the Pharisee project or the Sadducees or the Zealite or the Essenian. But he did it with his life, with his story, with his flesh on the cross. And this is the path, the one that you yourself, dear brother, assume when you submit your resignation.

Well you say in your letter that it takes nothing to bury the past. Silences, omissions, giving too much weight to the prestige of the institutions only lead to personal and historical failure, and lead us to live under the weight of 'having skeletons in the cupboard', as the saying goes.

It is urgent to "ventilate" this reality of abuse and how the Church proceeded, and let the Spirit lead us into the wilderness of desolation, to the cross, and to the resurrection. It is the way of the Spirit that we are to follow, and the starting point is the humble confession: we have made mistakes, we have sinned. We will not be saved by polls or by the power of institutions. We will not be saved by the prestige of our Church that tends to conceal its sins; neither the power of money nor the opinion of the media will save us (so many times we are too dependent on them). It will save us from opening the door to the One who can do it and confess our nudity: "I have sinned", "we have sinned"... and to weep, and babble as we can that "turn away from me that I am a sinner", an inheritance that the first Pope left to the Popes and the Bishops of the Church. And then we will feel that healing shame that opens the doors to the compassion and tenderness of the Lord who is always close to us. As a Church we must ask for the grace of shame, and for the Lord to save us from being the shameless prostitute of Ezekiel 16.

I like how you end the letter: "I will gladly continue to be a priest and bishop of this Church and I will continue to strive at the pastoral level as long as I retain it wise and timely. I would like to dedicate the future years of my service more intensely to pastoral healing and to strive for a spiritual renewal of the Church, as You tirelessly ask for""

And this is my answer, dear brother. Continue as you propose but as Archbishop of Munchen und Freising. And if you are tempted to think that, by confirming your mission and not accepting your resignation, this Bishop of Rome (your brother who loves you) does not understand you, think of what Peter felt before the Lord when, in his own way, he presented him with the resignation: "turn away from me that I am a sinner", and listen to the answer : "graze my sheep".

With fraternal affection.

Francis

Pope Benedict XVI on Franz Jägerstätter

On the 7th June, the church remembers Franz Jägerstätter, who was killed for his refusal to take part in World War II on the side of Nazi Germany.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI remembered him alongside 498 martyrs who were executed by Communists in the Spanish Civil War.

You can read his words below.

This morning, here in St Peter's Square, 498 Martyrs killed in Spain in the 1930s have been beatified. I thank Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who has presided at the celebration, and I address my cordial greeting to the pilgrims gathered here for this happy event. Today's addition to the roll of Blesseds of such a large number of Martyrs shows that the supreme witness of blood is not an exception reserved for only a few individuals, but a realistic possibility for the entire Christian People. Indeed, they are men and women of different ages, vocations and social classes who paid with their lives for their faithfulness to Christ and his Church. St Paul's words which resounded in this Sunday's liturgy can be well applied to them: "I for my part am already being poured out like a libation", he writes to the Apostle Timothy. "The time of my dissolution is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (II Tm 4: 6-7). Paul, in prison in Rome, saw death approaching and sketched an evaluation full of recognition and hope. He was at peace with God and with himself and faced death serenely, in the knowledge that he had spent his whole life, sparing no effort, at the service of the Gospel.

The month of October, dedicated in a special way to missionary commitment, thus ends with the shining witness of the Spanish Martyrs, who come in addition to the Martyrs Albertina Berkenbrock, Emmanuel Gómez Gonzàlez and Adílio Daronch, and Franz Jägerstätter, beatified a few days ago in Brazil and in Austria. Their example testifies that Baptism commits Christians to participating courageously in the spreading of the Kingdom of God, if need be cooperating with the sacrifice of life itself. Of course, not everyone is called to martyrdom by bloodshed. In fact, there is a non-bloody "martyrdom" which is equally significant, such as that of Celina Chludzińska Borzęcka, wife, mother of a family, widow and Religious, who was beatified yesterday in Rome: this is the silent and heroic witness of so many Christians who live the Gospel without compromise, doing their duty and dedicating themselves generously to the service of the poor.

This martyrdom of ordinary life constitutes a particularly important witness in the secularized society of our time. It is the peaceful battle of love which every Christian, like Paul, must fight without flagging: the race to spread the Gospel that involves us until our death. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Martyrs and Star of Evangelization, help us in our daily witness.

The Beatifications today remind us of the importance of humbly following our Lord even to the point of offering our lives for the faith.

Fr. Ripperger's Advice for Angry Catholics

In 2014, liberal Catholic outlet National Catholic Reporter ran a piece entitled ‘It's OK to despair and swear at God’, written by Michael Leach.

The headline was the usual NCR bait, but the article itself was well put together, with the author discussing his wife’s Alzheimer’s and the despair that came with it.

He finished the article by saying:

None of us gets out of this thing without trouble. Jesus cried to his Father from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But he forgave the thief and the soldiers with their spears and whips and his garments. He let it go. His last words: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. It is finished."

The prayer of surrender reconciles, brings rest: It stops us from shuffling guilt and fear and anger thoughts in our mind like a stacked deck of cards. Handing our worries over to the real God who doesn't play games brings closure, lets us get on with our life (till the next problem when we have to do it all over again), and now and then have a laugh at the folly of being human. There's no other way. Try it.

Sage advice.

It is certainly advice that many Catholics need today.

There is a certain online subset who, if they want to encourage people to leave the church, to mock the Holy Spirit and to abuse priests, then perhaps they should try to repair their own anger and flaws first before pointing the fingers at others, including at God Himself.

As Fr. Ripperger says in the video below:

They focus so much on what’s wrong…the negativity is going to be the cause of various things. We’ll get angry, bitter, sad in our relationship to others because we’re looking at what’s negative. They commit one little thing and that’s their whole thing…if we have charity we’ll see the good in them and stop being negative. Many Traditional families go around looking for the negative in people, trying to see what’s wrong.

It’s not up to you to ridicule him until he gets his act together. Your first responsibility is to pray and only to fraternally correct when it is helpful. The more that you try to control the external the more that you’re going to see it’s out of your control and you’ll end up hating it and lose your charity.

You have be more charitable to the people you’re closer to than others.

In Traditional families, it’s like the mafia…

People will be kinder to the people outside their family than in.

The person’s defects are there to purify you rather than to get rid of. They’re not there for you to get rid of.

Your job is to help the person spiritually, if you focus on it all the time you’re not going to gain any joy in relationship to them.

Fr. Ripperger also gives the example of St. Therese choosing to like the defects in her sisters rather than hating them for it. He continues:

Traditionalists will look at the world and the state of it… they’ll think to themselves ‘all men are liars’, but this is not true. Not all people are ‘evil’.

You have to give people the benefit of the doubt, don’t keep focusing on the negative because in the end you won’t be able to extend charity to them.

If you keep focusing on how bad everything is, it’s just going to take you down spiritually. You’re going to let it consume you, you’ll end up like a devil who thinks all day long about how everything is bad.

Some Traditionalists go to Mass and spend the entire time judging on what’s wrong with it.

If they just focused on God, things would be a lot easier. Demons want to rob you of your joy and piece and even your relationship with other people. God will straighten out the church, He’s the only one who can do it. Some Traditionalists are angry people harping on about how other people have sinned against them, you are becoming more like the demons than God by doing that.

We recommend watching the video, it is both helpful, insightful and productive. Above all, it is an antidote to the worst of sins, despair, which some are currently revelling in.