By Cosmas Omegoh, Lagos
The Catholic archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos, Most Rev Dr Alfred Adewale Martins, has expressed a strong wish to see a new Nigeria where no one is oppressed, an equitable, united Nigeria that will be fair to all. He challenged Catholic priests to bear in mind that they are agents of change and reorientation, urging them to work to see a new Nigeria happen.
Archbishop Martins was speaking at the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Catholic Priests’ Association (NCDPA), an umbrella body of all indigenous diocesan Catholic priests drawn from all the Catholic dioceses across the 36 states of the federation and Abuja. The event is holding at St Leo’s Catholic Church, Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos; it will last from October 15 to October 29.
In his homily at the Holy Mass attended by the Archbishop Emeritus of the Lagos Province, Anthony Cardinal Okogie; bishop of Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode, Most Rev Francis Obafemi Fasina, representatives of the Lagos State government, the state chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Lagos Traditional Council, Archbishop Martins also warned the priests to be careful about setting up their own private ministries.
‘We pray that the church will emerge from an equitable nation where none will be oppressed and that the nation will live in love and unity.
‘We pray that the strategies that will be discussed at this meeting will bring about re-orientation to the citizenry.
‘Priests as leaders of the church should spearhead a re-orientation of the people. Therefore, you must know your duties and obligations as priests to lead the people because every priest is chosen from among brothers and sisters, fellow servants and pilgrims,’ he said.
He urged them to shun private ministries lamenting that: “Those who carry out strange practices do so in disobedience to their local ordinaries.
‘This is not supposed to be for fame or popularity. Those who want to be so are not supposed to be found in the Father’s House or in the presbyteries.
‘They are those who lead the flock into superstitious practices rather than letting them see the light.
‘None should be found in that mould. Everyone as a priest should keep in mind their dignity as a priest and their call to bring back those going astray.’
Speaking shortly after the Holy Mass, the president of NCDPA, Rev Fr Sylvester Omoke, from the Catholic Diocese of Oturkpo, Benue State, said the essence of the group is for Nigerian diocesan priests to come together and forge a common front in propagating the gospel, lamenting how priests had been killed and kidnapped over the past years.
More than 300 Catholic priests most of them on a representative basis are taking part in the event.