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September 12, 2016

Countries bordering Nigeria help those displaced by Boko Haram

In Kindjani, Niger, people collect water that was delivered to the community by Catholic Relief Services.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – When aid worker El-hedji Gombe Abba was growing up, very little happened on the road that runs through Niger's Diffa region into the city, but nowadays people fleeing Boko Haram violence form a seemingly endless line along it.

Published in International
August 26, 2016

Nigerian cardinal urges president to speed up promised changes

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is seen in Cotonouh, Benin, Aug. 1. Nigerian cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie urges the president to make good on his elections promises for change from last year.

LAGOS, Nigeria – Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to hurry with the changes he promised before his election last year.

Published in International
July 31, 2016

Nigerians hope WYD experiences will help country overcome its challenges

Pope Francis walks with World Youth Day pilgrims as he arrives for a July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. Nigerian pilgrims hope their experience at World Youth Day 2016 will help affect change with challenges back home.

KRAKOW Poland – Cosmos Nandi-Esom said he is a politician back home in Nigeria.

Published in World Youth Day 2016
May 3, 2016

Attack on Nigerian cardinal's car shows need for more security

Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, is pictured in a 2013 photo at the Vatican.Two bishops from southern Nigeria condemned an attack on a vehicle carrying Cardinal Onaiyekan and appealed to the government to tackle the issue of growing attacks in Edo state.

Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubueze of Benin City and Bishop Donatus Aihmiosion Ogun of Uromi said the situation was becoming more serious because herdsmen committing the attacks were becoming more brazen.

Published in International
April 15, 2016

Nigerian bishops urge government to hasten effort to free abductees

Nigerian's attend a Bring Back Our Girls protest April 14 outside the presidential villa in Abuja. Two Nigerian bishops are calling on the government to hasten efforts to free more than 200 school girls abducted by insurgents in 2014.

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNS) – Two Nigerian bishops called on the government to hasten its efforts to free 219 school girls who were abducted by insurgents two years ago.

Published in International
April 13, 2016

Hope and frustration mark anniversary of Chibok kidnappings

Rachel Daniel, 35, holds up a picture of her abducted daughter, Rose Daniel, 17, as her son Bukar, 7, sits beside her at her home in Maiduguri on May 21, 2014. Rose was abducted along with more than 200 of her classmates on April 14, 2014, by Boko Haram militants from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state.

Two years after the abduction of nearly 300 Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria, some parents are still hoping their daughters will one day be rescued.

Published in International
March 10, 2016

African bishops to boycott meeting of Anglican council over Episcopal Church attendance

Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, left, of Nigeria and Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya speak at a recent news conference in Nairobi. The two provinces are boycotting the meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

NAIROBI, Kenya - The Anglican Church in Kenya has become the latest province to announce it will boycott the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Zambia over the participation of the Episcopal Church.

Published in International
August 28, 2015

Nigerian cardinal joins #BringBackOurGirls to mark 500 days of captivity

#BringBackOurGirls campaigners in Abuja raise candles during a gathering Aug. 27, to mark the 500th day that more than 200 girls of the Government Secondary School were abducted by Boko Haram in their dormitory in Chibok, Nigeria.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and Sheik Nura Khalid, chief imam of Apo Legislators Quarters Jumu'at Mosque, joined the members of the #BringBackOurGirls movement Aug. 27 to mark the 500 days that more than 200 girls of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, who were abducted by Boko Haram in their dormitory April 14, 2014.

Published in International
May 12, 2015

Report details damage to Nigerian diocese where Boko Haram operates

Displaced people who fled areas of conflict waged by Boko Haram militants carry food supplies on their heads April 15 as they walk away from a special prayer service at St. Theresa's Cathedral in Yola, Nigeria.

MANCHESTER, England - A new report has revealed the scale of suffering of Nigerian Catholics at the hands of Boko Haram militants, with 5,000 Catholics killed in one diocese alone.

Published in International
May 5, 2015

Jordan’s King honours Scarboro Missions’ for its interfaith efforts

Pope Francis and Jordan's King Abdullah II pose for photos during a private audience at the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse at the Vatican April 7, 2014. The Jordanian king honoured Scarboro Missions for their interfaith efforts in a ceremony April 20, 2015.

TORONTO - In a world where the Islamic State threatens religious minorities in the Middle East, Boko Haram kidnaps Christian girls in Nigeria, Jews worldwide are forced to defend the existence of Israel, it might be said that interfaith relations are no walk in the park.

Published in Faith
April 15, 2015

Nigeria marks one year since Boko Haram kidnapped schoolgirls

A clergyman joins others in a "Bring Back Our Girls" gathering in Paris April 14. A year after more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped, Lagos Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie said he believed that "God will answer our prayers" for their return.

Nigerians staged ceremonies to remember the 219 schoolgirls abducted by the militant group Boko Haram in Chibok on April 14 one year ago.

Published in International
April 2, 2015

Holy See calls for international effort to end Boko Haram insurgency

Nigerians are seen packed in a van fleeing Mubi, Nigeria, following attacks in 2014. Nigeria's bishops criticized Boko Haram insurgents' use of children to commit crimes such as suicide bombings.

GENEVA - The Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva called on the international community to assist Nigeria and neighbouring countries to rid the region of Boko Haram insurgency.

Published in International
April 1, 2015

Can a Muslim president defeat Boko Haram? Nigerians are betting on it

Supporters of presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) party celebrate in Kano on Tuesday (March 31, 2015). Three decades after seizing power in a military coup, Buhari became the first Nigerian to oust a president through the ballot box, putting him in charge of Africa’s biggest economy and one of its most turbulent democracies.

A northern Nigeria Muslim leader who promised to pursue a nonreligious agenda as president will now have to deal with an Islamic terrorist insurgency that has wreaked chaos in the country’s north.

Published in International
March 24, 2015

Nigerian bishops visit refugees in Cameroon who fled Boko Haram

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama presents relief material to internally displaced persons in Jos, Nigeria, Jan. 20. Many now flee to neighboring Cameroon to escape Boko Haram attacks.

LAGOS, Nigeria - A delegation representing Catholic organizations in Nigeria offered words of comfort and pledged help for Nigerian refugees who fled to neighbouring Cameroon because of a violent insurgency.

Published in International
March 17, 2015

Create united front against violence, Pope tells Nigeria's bishops

Bomb kills 21 in Jos, Nigeria, Feb. 26.

VATICAN CITY - As the people of Nigeria prepared for general elections, Pope Francis wrote to the nations' bishops urging efforts to build up a "culture of encounter" that would create a united front against Boko Haram terrorists and ethnic tensions.

Published in International
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