Nigeria
Vort-2012-02-01
Hello everyone and welcome to The Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and
exposed. I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Lagos Nigeria, where the Church is
suffering greatly. Since almost the very beginning of his pontificate .. Our Holy Father Benedict has pinpointed two ominous dangers for the Church. One of those dangers is the attacks from secularism .. from both outside AND inside the Church .. a quiet persecution if you will.
It is the Church in the west that has labored under these types of attacks for decades, now .. the Church in Europe .. North America .. Australia .. the so-called First World Countries. And an overwhelming amount of damage has been done to the Faith. But here in the Third World .. the attacks are not only ideological to a degree but outright physical .. and the threat comes largely from militant Islam and its violent adherents. A killing rampage has been underway for some time now against Catholics in countries where there are large Muslim populations.
From Pakistan to Iraq to Egypt to the Sudan to here in Nigeria .. if you are Catholic in predominant Muslim areas .. you are a potential target for physical persecution .. including martyrdom.
So while those of us Catholics who live in the West have to endure the scourge of
Modernism in all its intellectually abusive forms .. our fellow Catholics in the Third World have to endure the threat of physical martyrdom.
On Christmas day for example .. at least 40 people were killed by a massive explosion as they walked out of Mass at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church. The bombing was carried out by Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram.
Boko Haram .. which means .. “Non-Islamic education is sinful” .. is situated in the
Northern part of Nigeria which is overwhelmingly Muslim and the terrorist outfit has
been using violence for close to ten years now to try and achieve the imposition of Sharia Law throughout ALL of Nigeria. About one third of Nigeria is currently under Sharia Law. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with 160 million people which also makes it the ninth most populous country in the world. Its population is roughly split 60-40 between Christians in richer oil-producing states of the South and Muslims in the North. Observers believe that Boko Haram is trying to incite a civil war among Christians and Muslims with an end to seizing control of the oil-producing states to help fund more radical Islam throughout Africa.
Whether that eventually happens or not .. Catholics will continue to face the threat of persecution and martyrdom for their faith as long as Islamist insurgents are not dealt with by the nation’s government.
The President is Goodluck Jonathan .. A Christian from the South .. who came to power
when his predecessor died in office two years ago. He did win national election
eventually and is serving that current term.
But his presidency is a sore spot for northern Muslims who feel that the unwritten
agreement of alternating between a Christian president and a Muslim president has been violated by Jonathan.
Many Christians in the country’s more central region .. which includes the nation’s
capital of Abuja where the Christmas Day Massacre occurred feel that his government
isn’t doing enough to protect them and capture the Boko Haram. In fact .. one those
arrested for the Christmas bombing recently escaped.
The Catholic archbishop and some of his priests have had their hands full trying to
convince the young people whose relatives were killed in the bombing not to seek
revenge .. but at the same time .. they have been appealing to the government to step up its efforts or they may not be able to help keep a lid on the situation much longer. The Pope himself .. on the day after Christmas had to make a special appeal for an end to the violence and this just one month after he had visited neighboring Benin .. immediately to the west of Nigeria where he had appealed vigorously to Catholics to hold on to their faith and resist temptations to water it down.
There is no doubt that the Church is playing defense on a macro level everywhere in the world. From the secular and ideological threats in the west .. like Obama’s massive overrunning of religious freedom in the United States to the more physical bodily threats in the Third World with bombings and kidnappings.
In the west .. souls are being killed. In the third world .. bodies are being killed.
The assault against the faith is global and this means that the response must be global .. but any response must begin with individuals. This means that faithful Catholics .. to a man .. must step up and determine for themselves - what are YOU going to do to serve the Church where you live.
This doesn’t mean volunteering to be a lector. The Church doesn’t need lectors or more parish council members. It needs heroes and saints .. people who are willing to commit their lives and fortunes to the defense and promotion of the Faith. If you’re baptized and confirmed .. that means you and me.
We’ll be reporting from Nigeria for the next week as well as accepting an invitation from local Catholics to give a number of addresses on the importance of staying faithful even during these trials .. so please stay tuned .. and keep us in your prayers.
GOD Love you. I’m Michael Voris.
