The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, His Lordship, the Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, has commended Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s demonstration of love and solidarity with Nigerians, including the Church at all times.
Archbishop Kaigama gave the commendation in his sermon at the opening mass of the first 2020 plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) held at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja on Sunday.
The cleric, who spoke apparently against some agitation in the country, expressed happiness with the presence of the vice president at the event, declaring that he had always been in solidarity with Nigerians and the Church through thick and thin.
The vice president, on the invitation of the CBCN, attended the opening mass which is a prelude to the plenary meeting of all Catholic Bishops of Nigeria annually.
“I am so happy that our vice president is here; it is not just being here but there is a very profound sacramental blessing that he is here; when you are with us and we are suffering, we are together but when there is a gap with you, there is a feeling of insensitivity.
“We need to have access to our leaders; we need to have access to the president and to the vice president; to the ministers; they need to be closer to the people that elected them. This is very important,” he said.
While further commending Prof Osinbajo’s uncommon love and concern for the development of society, the Archbishop, said, “so much is happening in our country today that is why we need more patriotic Nigerians to help overcome some of the issues.”
According to him, “We need to also work together to eradicate or at least reduce the level of poverty; the level of diseases, sickness and ignorance, unnecessary deaths and other issues affecting us. So much is happening and that is why we need more patriotic Nigerians to come forth and help address these issues.”
On the role of religious leaders in maintaining harmony and order in the society, Kaigama decried the habit of condemning political leaders and people in positions of authority, in places of worship, saying it was harmful to society and inimical to its growth and hence should be stopped.
He said the primary task of religious leaders was to steer the people to conversion and holiness, but for reasons of poverty and hardship being suffered by the people, “preachers are forced to become miracle workers or political revolutionaries, throwing verbal bombs, missiles, grenades, poisonous gas and all sorts of things at political leaders from the pulpit.”
“Now if you go to preach anywhere, all they want you to do is to abuse the authority for causing the poverty and social deprivation that we have but that is not the message of the Gospel,” the cleric said.
“Yes, we must denounce evil; we must denounce corruption; we must denounce reckless spending that cost the poor of their dignity; we must do that at all times. But why should Churches become the altar and the Mosque become places where we antagonise our leaders instead of seeking solutions?” he queried.
Kaigama, therefore, urged the Church to continue to pray for political leaders at all levels for the progress and development of the country, even as he urged the government to collaborate more with faith-based institutions in order to deliver the basic needs of the people.
Dignitaries at the meeting include the Governor of Imo State, Sen. Hope Uzodinma; Ministers of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, his counterpart in Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, among others.
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