The first hard punch against Christianity and it priesthood was when king Herod, sensing a rival king, hatched a diabolical plot to quiz Christianity before its arrival. God averted the evil and saved his son and the Holy Family via their sojourn to Egypt. There they were till God made a footstool of his kingdom enemies. Herod sensing deception and disappointment through the three magi in his reaction murdered all children born within that space of time, thereby committing the sin of infanticide during that generation. The onslaught on the Church of God, started from the time of the early church, but God helped his church to survive the terrible onslaught by increasing its strength, and by the fourth century was firmly established throughout the Mediterranean world. The Jewish authority’s rejection of claim of Jesus messiahship was the second blow with collateral damages on the Church. Persecution of Early Christians Starting from Jerusalem all those who are followers of ways of Christ were exposed to obliterating attacks, imprisonments and deaths. Our beloved St. Stephen and St. James were gruesomely executed. John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod, through the request of Herodias, a woman (Mark 6:14- 29). Paul was led out of the city and beheaded during the reign of King Nero. Peter the rock was crucified upside down during the reign of King Nero: Matthias was stoned in Jerusalem and later beheaded. Thomas, the preacher of the gospel in Parthia and India was thrust through with a poisonedspear and killed, John was cast in a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped miraculously and banished from the Island of Patmos, there he wrote the book of revelation, eschatology.
Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandra at the great solemnity of the Serapis – their idol, Luke was hanged on an olive tree by the idolatrous priest of Greece. In fact, it saddens my heart that the persecutions of Christianity and Christians have gone through the limitless eons of time. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna was the church’s last link with the “Apostolic age”, a pupil of Apostle John, disciples that have last physical contact with the Lord, he was burnt alive before a crowd in a stadium, simply because Polycarp professed to be a Christian. “And that Caesar is not the Lord” Just like the Apostles of ancient Mediterranean world, Catholic priests in Nigeria and Many parts of Africa and the world, have become canon-fodders in the hands of trigger happy assassins in Kaduna, Kaduna state of Nigeria. A group of hoodlums numbering about eighteen, unleashed an unprovoked attack on a Catholic priest, after collecting his personal valuables and laptops from him. The marauders set the parish house and the priest ablaze. The parish Catechist also received an uncountable matchet cuts, as they left him between the devil and deep blue sea. Catholic priests have always been targets of killer men and violence in Northern Nigeria. We could not easily forget the killing of Rev. Fr. Alphonsus Bello, while his colleague Rev. Fr. Joseph keke was forcefully abducted to an unknown place. Fr. Bello’s body after being butchered and abandoned was eventually traced at a farm land. Catholic Church in Nigeria also suffered a tragedy of killings of its priests, when Rev. Fr. Achi’s house was set ablaze, which resulted to his death. The killers fled before the arrival of the state police tactical team. The police have extended its dragnets, while investigations into the ugly incident continues. The Catholic Diocese of kafanchan in Northern Nigeria, also witnessed another killing of one of its clergy in Rev. Fr. John Chietmum, who was murdered on the day of his kidnap and the body found decomposing the following day. Rev. Fr. Christopher Onotu of Bangede Local Government Area of Kogi state and Rev. Fr. Kunat of Kaduna Diocese, and Rev. Fr. Mark Ojotu of Benue Diocese were all murdered in cold blood in the hands of Islamic Jihadists invaders, Fulani herdsmen and Boko haram terrorists, in their respective parishes. In the Catholic Diocese of Auchi, Edo State the Diocese confirmed the killing of Rev. Fr. Christopher Odia, a Catholic priest, school principal and parish administrator, abducted while coming out for Sunday mass and killed a few hours after his abduction.
In Imo state, a former state governor ordered his security personnel to strip a Catholic priest naked and unleashed some strokes of canes on him because he failed to clear off the road for the governor and his entourage to have a leeway; for a priest that is already late for a mass in his parish. We could not easily forget the bitter pill the entire Christendom swallowed on the recent abduction of the Methodist Pre-late, Samuel Kanu Uche, Methodist Bishop of Owerri. The Prelate’s Chaplain and Dennis were all kidnapped along Enugu and Port-Harcourt Expressway in his home state of Abia. His church was made to cough out their hard earned one hundred million naira before the Fulani kidnappers told him more of their mission in Nigeria to his face. Recently, Rev. Fr. Brena, an Italian priest on apostolic mission in Nigeria which took him to Edo State, was kidnapped. He nearly lost his life if not for the arrival of the booty ransom sent on his behalf. In similar manner, Rev. Fr. Peter was kidnapped and killed.Some Catholic priests have lost their lives even after payment of ransoms. Catholic Bishops have repeatedly called on the federal government to rejig the security apparatchiks of the country. Boko haram insurgents, farmers/herders clash, Fulani Jihadist have all contributed in fanning the embers of insecurity and dichotomy in the country. The government has to do the needful towards the elimination of the terrorists, bandits and criminal elements in our society.
