Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone has pointed to the witness of persecuted Catholics in Nigeria as an example needed by a Western society marked, he warned, by individualism, loneliness, and the loss of understanding of the family. “The West needs not only Africa’s voice, but also its witness, especially the witness of Nigeria,” he said during the ordination of 14 priests in the diocese of Makurdi, in Benue State (Nigeria).
Cordileone delivered the homily on Saturday, August 22, at the Sesugh Maria Pilgrimage Center in Makurdi. In it, he addressed both priestly identity and the persecution of Nigerian Christians, and even warned the newly ordained that the ministry they had just assumed could literally demand their lives: “There is the possibility that Our Lord may call you to lay down your life for your friends.”
According to reports published by ACI Africa, the archbishop even admitted feeling uncomfortable preaching about Christian self-giving to a community that knows persecution firsthand.
“I must admit that I feel humbled, even out of place, as a Westerner, to be the one preaching these words to you here.”
“Our roles should be reversed. Because it is you who are giving your life for Our Lord. Too many of your brothers and sisters are doing so literally with their blood,” he added.
“The West needs Africa”
Cordileone maintained that this witness is particularly necessary for Christians in the United States and the rest of the West, where he identified a persecution of a different kind.
“The irony, however, is that we need this witness in the West. The West is not dominated by persecution of blood and weapons, but by an interior persecution marked by isolation, depression, loneliness, and anxiety,” he said.
The archbishop also noted that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people in the United States and linked the problems he observes in Western societies to an individualistic culture contrary to the Christian understanding of communion.
“It is love that makes communion possible, and that is what God created us for.”
Cordileone recalled that man was created to live in communion with God through communion with others, beginning with the family and extending into the Church as the Body of Christ. “Selfishness leads to living in a way contrary to that for which God created us,” he said.
“We no longer understand what it means to be a family”
The archbishop was especially critical in describing the situation of the family in Western societies.
“We no longer understand these basic truths in the West, not even what it means to be a family born of the mutual self-giving love between husband and wife,” he said.
Cordileone also described Western society as increasingly “lifeless and colorless,” with a decreasing capacity to form relationships and friendships.
His warning was not limited to the internal consequences of this process. The archbishop also denounced the export of certain Western cultural currents to other parts of the world and specifically pointed to the pressures exerted on Africa.
“This is already serious enough for us, but even more serious are the powerful forces of the West that are imposing this on the rest of the world, especially here in Africa,” he said.
Cordileone thanked African Christians for their resistance to these pressures and acknowledged that they particularly affect the continent’s political leaders.
“Thank you for resisting. I know the pressure is great, especially for the national leaders of this continent.”
The archbishop assured that Western Catholics who remain committed to Christian teaching and the dignity of the human person support that resistance: “We are with you, we accompany you and support you, and you support us.”
Priests facing the possibility of martyrdom
The words about the West were directly linked to the context in which the 14 deacons of Makurdi were receiving priestly ordination.
Cordileone asked them to be “friends and fathers” to their faithful and to remain close enough to them to know their joys and sufferings.
“The people of God must know that the priest is with them, that he is on their side, and that he acts solely with their good in mind.”
The archbishop explained that priestly friendship does not consist simply in sharing interests or enjoying the company of others, but has as its model the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ.
“The love of friendship is not a servile service, performed reluctantly under the weight of oppression. It is, rather, a liberating service, which brings joy to both,” he explained.
Cordileone also presented the priest as someone called to become “a bridge and not an obstacle” to people’s encounter with Christ.
But alongside the danger of falling into spiritual mediocrity by neglecting the interior life, he recalled that Nigerian priests face a much more literal risk.
“You are being ordained in a world in which this is also a dangerous step,” he told them.
And he added: “There is the possibility that Our Lord may call you to lay down your life for your friends.”
The archbishop summarized priestly identity in six words:
“Friend and father, shepherd and spouse, priest and victim.”
“This is what you are and what you are called to be in taking this impressive and fearsome step,” he said.
“You suffer to the point of shedding blood and remain joyful”
Cordileone acknowledged that material comforts can isolate U.S. Catholics from the reality lived by persecuted Christians.
“The physical comforts and conveniences of that culture of selfishness have weakened our spiritual resistance,” he said.
However, he added that those who follow what is happening in Nigeria find in the suffering of its Catholics a reason for both pain and inspiration: “The heroic sacrifice and suffering of your priests and your people afflict us, but they also inspire us. You suffer to the point of shedding blood and yet remain joyful in your Christian faith.”
The archbishop also dedicated some words to the bishop of Makurdi, Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, whom he presented as “shepherd and father” of the diocese and praised for continually denouncing the persecution suffered by Christians.
Cordileone said that Anagbe “continues to be a voice for the persecuted, even at the cost of great personal suffering, and yet does not back down.”
“Your Excellency, thank you for your prophetic voice and for your heroic selfless courage. It is an inspiration to those of us who follow the sufferings of the Church in Nigeria,” he added.
The archbishop concluded by asking for God’s protection over the country and the Virgin’s intercession amid the violence.
“May He soon grant peace and harmony to your homeland. May Nigeria emerge stronger and holier, to be a light of faith, truth, and evangelization for the whole world,” Cordileone prayed.