Jubilation As Owo Catholic Church Reopens 10 Months After Terror Attack

 

Ondo state and environs were full Of Joy when the St.Frabcis Catholic Church in the locality reopens for worshippers 10 months after it was attacked by terrorists.

Heavily armed terrorists on June 5, 2022 attacked the church with explosive killing over 40 persons and injuring 70 others.

There was tight security as police, military operatives, hunters and the security arm of the church code named Men of Order and Discipline (MOD) were drafted to strategic places to secure the locality.

Bishop of Ondo Catholic Diocese, Revd Father Jude Arogundade presided over the reopening of the church as part of activities to mark the Easter Sunday.

The church was repainted and fitted with modern furniture with many worshippers in attendance.

Bishop Arogundade congratulated the Catholic faithful for being alive to witness the reopening of the church.

Arogundade urged them to use the occasion to pray for the souls of the dead ones as well ad commiserated with their families.

He said the June 5th attack would go down in history of Yorubaland as the worst that could happen to the church.

The Ondo Bishop insisted that the attack could never intimidate the church and its members.

He urged the congregation to use the resurrection of Jesus Christ in relation to the terror attack to renew their faith in God.

Bishop Arogundade also faulted government at all levels for failing to secure lives and property.

He said: “We have to call ourselves back to the greater understanding of what is happening in our society today. I have never seen a nation so comfortable watching the killings of its citizens on daily basis in hundreds and nothing has been done for the past 15years.

“It doesn’t happen in other places I don’t know why the Govt. refuse to apologize to the citizens they failed. A government which failed or cannot protect its citizens is not worthy to be called a government.

I wish to say this without fear of anyone that the government of this country has failed us and you press men should record me very well, they have failed in the area of protecting the lives and properties of the people.

“Almost on daily basis we hear people being killed in their tens and hundreds, many people have even forgotten what happened in this church ten years ago, because many more have happened without the world paying attention.

“The government must wake up and show strength and courage and make sure those who carried out the evil attack that took place in this church and the evil going around our country are brought to book and punished accordingly.

The Bishop who wondered why no one has ever been sentenced for committing heinous crimes troubling country, urged the perpetrators to allow peace to reign.

He further urged government to show strength and courage by ensuring justice for victims.of terro attacks across the country.

Survivors of the attack who were present during the service said they were left with permanent scars and disabilities.

A double amputee, Mrs. Josephine Ejelonu, whose legs were amputated, said she was happy for remaining alive.

Ejelonu said she spent several months in the hospital.

Recalling what happened during the attack, she said the attackers threw two hand grenades at the place she was hiding behind corpses.

She said she managed to escape but found put that the flesh of her legs have been skinned off leaving the bones showing.

Another survivor, Mrs Christianah Oladele, who was shot on the back, said the attack would not deter her from worshipping God.

Chairman, Akoko Southwest Local Government of Ondo State, Mr Augustine Oloruntogbe, described the attack as the worst crime against humanity.

In August 2022, the military said it has arrested four of the suspects linked to the attack on St Francis Catholic Church.

It named the suspects to include Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (a.k.a Bin Malik), Momoh Otohu Abubakar, Aliyu Yusuf Itopa and Auwal Ishaq Onimisi.

Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza was named ad the mastermind of the terror attack on the Owo Catholic Church.

Catholic Church Has The Most Organized Structure On Earth – Oyedepo

Bishop David Oyedepo has said that the Catholic Church has done a good job in terms of putting up a structure to run the church system.

Speaking to other men of God recently, the Senior Pastor of the Living Faith church opined that the Catholic church is the longest organized system on earth.

In his words, ”In my own view, the Catholic has done a good job in terms of structure. An extremely good job. Amazing good job. Where you can sit down and pull out materials of 50-60 years ago, in its original form. How many of us in ministry today can pull out materials from 10 years?

It (The catholic church) is known to be the longest, organised system on the earth. About 2000 years in existence.

And then came the major protestant, the Church of England. They made a good deal of organization.

“If we keep going like this, not one material will be traced to the Charismatic . If we keep going like we are going without reviewing our steps, without seeing the place or order, it will fizzle out because many are running it like a shop, you make sales on Sunday, spend it during the week and then come back the next market day.”

Catholic Church Leadership Wants To Shut Down My Ministry For One Month - Father Mbaka Cries Out

Spiritual director of Adoration Ministry Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), Fr. Ejike Mbaka has alleged that the leadership of the Catholic diocese in Enugu state wanted to close his ministry for one month. 

Mbaka made the claim shortly after resurfacing after initially being declared missing. 

According to the cleric, the church leadership, led by Bishop Calistus Onaga summoned him over his recent comments concerning Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his connection to the presidency.

Mbaka said the church leadership told him he would remain indoors for a period of one month to enable him pray and meditate over his activities.  He further claimed that even though he refused to the demand, he was released because of the protest over his whereabout. 

He said; 

“How can they believe what others say, and they will not believe what the priest is saying? The emphasis is ‘please, let me go to celebrate the mass’, but they said ‘no’. If a priest will request to celebrate mass and they say ‘no’, that means something is wrong. 

"Allow me to and celebrate mass for my people just for today, I won’t even tell them that I am being punished, they said, No. I will just tell my members that I’m going for 30 days prayer, that after 30 days, we will come back and everybody will obey, they said, No.

“I also begged them to appoint another priest to come and celebrate mass for you today, they also said No.

“They didn’t treat me in a pastoral way. I was asking ‘am I being punished for what’?

“They said it was a meeting, but even before I reached the Bishop’s house, conclusion has already been made. What happened to me was like the day I was shot on the road.

“Unfortunately for them, even before the meeting, a woman was already going around bragging that the Bishop will call me for a meeting, and that I was going to leave my house here for 30 days, and that after the 30 days, I would be sent to Rome, and Adoration ministry will be closed.

"In a time and cases like this, don’t give me a punishment that will cause troubles for us because I’m not alone.”

Why We Built A Mosque For Muslim In Adamawa State - Catholic Bishop Reveals

A Catholic Church in the north has warmed the heart of many with their unusual act of building a Mosque.

You would agree with me that this is not a regular situation, especially not with what has been happening in Nigeria lately between the Christians and the Muslims, but for this church, it's nothing to them

The Bishop, Catholic of Yola, Revered Father Stephen Mamza has disclosed why the church Built a mosques for the internally displaced Muslims at the St Theresa Camp in Yola, Adamawa state.

The Bishop revealed this in an interview with one of the National Dailys, Punch Newspaper.

Mamza said that since a church was built for Christians in IDPs by the Catholic,, the church authorities in Yola aslo thought it's best to also provide a good place of worship for the very few Muslims among them.

He further stated that the Boko Haram insurgency was a monster which the church was contending With.

The Reverend Father said, 

“As you know, since 2014 the Catholic Diocese of Yola, has been involved in taking care of displaced victims of insurgency – those displaced from southern Borno and also northern Adamawa, who ran into Yola for refuge. So, the church opened its doors so that these people could put up. At a certain stage we had over 3,000 people living on our church premises. Most of them returned to their original homes after the military reclaimed their homes.

“But again, there are those who still face threat of insurgency, especially those living at the border of Sambisa forest and cannot go back to their homes because of the activities of Boko Haram since 2014. These people have been at the camp that we set up for IDPs at St. Theresa Cathedral. So, we thought of what we could do to improve their living standards. Because we were becoming weary of taking care of them and even for our donors fatigue was setting in. And the IDPs themselves were getting tired of staying in the camp – it is not easy for anyone to live for seven years in a small tent in a camp with children. So, I thought of building a place where the IDPs could be resettled.

“And thanks be to God, through the support of Mesio in Germany, we started last year in January the construction of 86 units of houses to be built for the 86 families still in our camp. On the housing estate, we built a church and a mosque and a school for the IDPs, which will soon be inaugurated. Already some of the IDPs have been moved into the estate.

“In the first place, when we played host to these IDPs, we did not discriminate against any one of them. We didn’t ask what religion the IDPs belong to; we didn’t ask for their church denomination; we just treated them as human beings who are in need of help, irrespective of their religion, denomination or tribe. The majority of the IDPs who thronged our camp were Christians but there was also a large number of Muslims among them. And if we were able to build houses for all of them, and also built a church for the Christians among them, then it is only a matter of justice and fairness that we also provide a space of worship for the few Muslims among them.

“There are about 10 to 12 Muslim families in the camp. I just felt that since we didn’t leave out the Muslims while providing food for the Christians or leave the Muslims out while building houses for the Christians, it is only just that we also build a mosque for the Muslims as we built a church for Christians. It is not something that is commonly done; it is not something that we have heard of being done, especially in our country, Nigeria, where everybody is conscious about their own religion.”

However, this has earned them lots of applaud from Nigerians as many have taken to social media to shower praises on them

Catholic Church Reacts To Father Mbaka's Recent Controversial Political Statements

The Catholic Church has distanced itself from controversial clergyman and Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, who in a recent video, was seen berating former Anambra state governor and PDP Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for refusing to openly donate to his ministry.