CNA—A Catholic freelance journalist who has reported on a surge of violent attacks by radicalized Muslims in Nigeria for CNA recently found himself caught in the middle of a firefight between government soldiers and armed militiamen. “With hundreds of bullets flying over my head, and the whizzing gunfire whipping past my ears, lying flat on…
CNA—Attributing violence against Nigeria’s Christians to climate change is “incorrect and far-fetched,” according to the bishop of a diocese where at least 40 people were murdered at a Pentecost Sunday Mass. Bishop Jude Ayodeji Arogundade of Ondo was responding to a statement issued by Irish president Michael D. Higgins after the June 5 massacre at…
On Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, likely terrorist gunmen targeted, massacred and injured a significant number of Catholics celebrating Holy Mass in Ondo state, south-west Nigeria. “We were about to round off service. I had even asked people to start leaving, that was how we started hearing gunshots from different angles,” recounted Father Andrew Abayomi,…
“Your bishop wants to kill you” When priest friends of Fr. Innocent Sunu learned of the newly ordained priest’s first parish assignment in Madagali, Nigeria, they warned the new priest that his bishop was trying to kill him. But Fr. Innocent Sunu saw it differently. In fact this young priest waived his right to refuse…
CNA—Fr. Livinius Esomchi Nnamani, who was ordained to the priesthood in his hospital room on Holy Thursday with special permission from Pope Francis, has died of leukemia at the age of 31. The young priest’s funeral was held in Rome on April 26 (2021) at the parish of San Giovanni Leonardi. He had dedicated the…
IN CALIFORNIA, a 429-year-old Franciscan missionary edifice — almost five centuries old — is torched in the dark of night. That was Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded in 1771 by Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra — the fourth mission in present-day California established by the saint, whose legacy has been unfairly tainted by overzealous (historically naieve —CBJ…
January 6, 2020 This article was originally posted December 29, 2015 yet it is especially relevant today after recent (Sunday, December 27, 2020) kidnapping at gunpoint of Bishop Moses Chikwe, Auxiliary Bishop of Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Owerri, and his driver, both of whom were released two days ago by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. 12/29/15—Nigerian Bishop Oliver Dashe…
