Pope Francis sent out a warm letter to Nigerians & Nigerian priest
yesterday March 17th encouraging everyone in the face of the various
Boko Haram attacks. The Pope's letter below...
To the Bishops of Nigeria
Dear Brother Bishops,
While we walk this Lenten journey towards the Resurrection
of the Lord united with the whole Church, I wish to extend to you, dear
Archbishops and Bishops of Nigeria, a fraternal greeting, which I extend
to the beloved Christian communities entrusted to your pastoral care. I
would also like to share some thoughts with you on the current
situation in your country.
Nigeria, known as the “African giant”, with its more than
160 million inhabitants, is set to play a primary role, not only in
Africa but in the world at large.
In recent years, it has experienced robust growth in the economic sphere
and has again reasserted itself on the world stage as an attractive
market, on account of its natural resources as well as its commercial
potential. It is now considered officially the single largest African
economy. It has also distinguished itself as a political player widely
committed to the resolution of crisis situations in the continent.
At the same time, your nation has had to confront
considerable problems, among them new and violent forms of extremism and
fundamentalism on ethnic, social and religious grounds.
Many Nigerians have been killed, wounded or mutilated, kidnapped and
deprived of everything: their loved ones, their land, their means of
subsistence, their dignity and their rights. Many have not been able to
return to their homes. Believers, both Christian and Muslim, have
experienced a common tragic outcome, at the hands of people who claim to
be religious, but who instead abuse religion, to make of it an ideology
for their own distorted interests of exploitation and murder.
I would like to assure you and all who suffer of my
closeness.
Every day I remember you in my prayers and I repeat here, for your
encouragement and comfort, the consoling words of the Lord Jesus, which
must always resound in our hearts: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I
give to you” (Jn 14:27).
Peace – as you know so well – is not only the absence of
conflict or the result of political compromise or fatalistic
resignation. Peace is for us a gift which comes from on high; it is
Jesus Christ himself, the Prince of Peace, who has made of two peoples
one (cf. Eph 2:14). And only the man or woman who treasures the peace
of Christ as a guiding light and way of life can become a peacemaker
(cf. Mt 5:9).
At the same time, peace is a daily endeavour, a courageous and authentic
effort to favour reconciliation, to promote experiences of sharing, to
extend bridges of dialogue, to serve the weakest and the excluded. In a
word, peace consists in building up a “culture of encounter”.
And so I wish here to express my heartfelt thanks to you,
because in the midst of so many trials and sufferings the Church in
Nigeria does not cease to witness to hospitality, mercy and forgiveness.
How can we fail to remember the priests, religious men and women,
missionaries and catechists who, despite untold sacrifices, never
abandoned their flock, but remained at their service as good and
faithful heralds of the Gospel? To them, most particularly, I would
like to express my solidarity, and to say: do not grow tired of doing
what is right!
We give thanks to the Lord for them, as for so many men and women of
every social, cultural and religious background, who with great
willingness stand up in concrete ways to every form of violence, and
whose efforts are directed at favouring a more secure and just future
for all. They offer us moving testimonies, which, as Pope Benedict XVI
recalled at the end of the Synod for Africa, show “the power of the
Spirit to transform the hearts of victims and their persecutors and thus
to re-establish fraternity” (Africae Munus, 20).
Dear Brother Bishops, in perseverance and without becoming
discouraged, go forward on the way of peace (cf. Lk 1:79).
Accompany the victims! Come to the aid of the poor! Teach the youth!
Become promoters of a more just and fraternal society!
I gladly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I ask
you to extend to priests, religious, missionaries, catechists, lay
faithful and above all to those suffering members of the Body of Christ.
May the Resurrection of the Lord bring conversion, reconciliation and
peace to all the people of Nigeria! I commend you to Mary, Queen of
Africa, and I ask you also to pray for me.
FRANCISCUS PP.
