Pope Francis Decries Killings In Benue, Others

Pope Francis has expressed worry over the killings in Benue State and other parts of the country.

The 81-year-old Pontiff made the disclosure in a statement on Sunday by John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja.

Christians nationwide on Sunday observed a day of mourning in honour of two priests of the Roman Catholic church, Rev. Fathers Felix Tyolaha and Joseph Gor, who were killed along with 17 parishioners in Benue State last week.

Onaiyekan made this disclosure shortly after the visit of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) to Rome, where all Catholic bishops of Nigeria gave account of events within their dioceses.

“The Pope is so concerned about what is happening, not only about the Benue killings, but about the situation that has been going on in Nigeria for many months now, even here. He showed deep concern.

“The Pope will not speak as frankly as we did because this is our country. We can speak like we want; we can speak like we think we ought to speak; as leaders of our Church,” Onaiyekan said.

The Pope prayed for Christians in Nigeria to find peace and harmony among themselves.

Onaiyekan said everyone has a role to play, while he called on the leaders to rise up against the menace.

“The politicians can continue to pretend that everything is normal. But they know it isn’t. The rest of us cannot allow them to deceive us and defend themselves. You can already see that things are not going well and we have elections in a few months.

“So, it is possible that you are going for an election, but you are not going to get a good election and that means we will be postponing the solutions to our problems,” he said.