The recent words of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, assuring that the violence in Nigeria should not be qualified as a religious conflict, have sparked a wave of indignation among Catholics in the African country. Through social networks, numerous faithful expressed that these statements minimize the reality of a systematic persecution that has been hitting priests, nuns, seminarians, and entire communities for years.
Voices of Indignation and Denunciation
Ade, a Nigerian Catholic, summarized the feelings of many: “As a Nigerian Catholic, this is a slap in our face. Numerous priests, nuns, seminarians, and parishioners have been murdered and kidnapped systematically for years. Political correctness will be the end of the Church in the West”.
Chris Ikeri was even more forceful in directly accusing Cardinal Parolin: “By denying the ongoing Christian genocide in Nigeria, he has consciously become part of these evil and barbaric Islamic fanatic murderers, whose hands are covered with the blood of the martyrs.”.
The Nigerian bishop, John Bakeni, spoke at an event in the United Kingdom Parliament, referring to the launch of the ACN report: “While the conflict is not solely about religion, it is equally simplistic not to see the religious dimension as a significantly exacerbating factor, especially when churches, priests, and other powerful symbols of Christianity are attacked, apparently with impunity”.
These testimonies, multiplied on social networks, show the indignation of a local Church that suffers firsthand the martyrdom of hundreds of faithful and perceives that its pastors in Rome remain silent or soften what they experience every day.
The denunciation of Nigerian Catholics is not unfounded. Various international reports confirm that Nigeria is today the deadliest country for Christians. Islamist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa systematically attack Christian communities, murdering priests, nuns, and laity, destroying churches, and kidnapping seminarians.
The Risk of Political Correctness
The reaction of Nigerian faithful highlights the risk of an ecclesial diplomacy overly concerned with not generating interreligious tensions. By reducing the violence to a social conflict, the message is conveyed that the suffering of Christians is not recognized in its true nature: that of persecution for the faith.
African voices demand clarity: in Nigeria, Christians are murdered and kidnapped for their faith. Denying that reality, as Ade and Chris Ikeri warn, is a “slap in the face” to those who experience martyrdom firsthand. In the face of this, the universal Church and Western governments have the moral obligation to call things by their name and to raise their voice for those who die every day confessing Christ.