- Archbishop Michael Crotty, Papal Nuncio to Nigeria
The newly appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Michael Francis Crotty recently visited the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins as part of his familiarisation tour of the dioceses in Nigeria. He visited a number of places including, the St. Finbarr’s College, Akoka, Divine Mercy Catholic Church, Lekki, and the Lagos Resource Centre (formerly the Nunciature). In this interview with Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu and Tony Agbugba, Archbishop Crotty spoke about the role of the Church in nation building and how the Church in Nigeria can grow from strength to strength. Excerpts as edited by Very Rev. Fr. Mike Umoh.
Your Excellency, can we know the purpose of your visit to the Archbishop of Lagos and by extension your visit to the Lagos Resource Centre?
As you know, I arrived in Nigeria just over two months ago, 23rd of October 2024. I then expressed my desire to start getting to know the church in Nigeria, I expressed the desire also to visit the dioceses as soon as I could. I strongly believe that the best way to know the reality on the ground, is to visit. So, I’ve already visited some dioceses; Abuja, Enugu, Onitsha, and Makurdi. Now I have the opportunity to visit Lagos. I’m very grateful to His Grace for his time and for showing me round some parts of Lagos Archdiocese and in particular, the Lagos Resource Centre which has, of course, a particular connection, given that it was the former Apostolic Nunciature to Nigeria, and residence of the former Apostolic Nuncios.
So, I was particularly interested to see what had happened to the structure in the intervening years and to learn about your work. I thank you very much for the presentations from the various people this morning, recounting the activities of the Resource Centre and all that has happened in the past 20 years or more since it was handed over by the Apostolic Nunciature to the Archdiocese. It is also good to know the vision you have for the future.

What are your hopes for the future growth and development of the Church in Nigeria?
Well, I’m just getting to learn more and more about the Church in Nigeria. The things I see are largely beautiful and positive. And I suppose, the first is the abundance of vocations to the priesthood and to religious life, especially a lot of vocations to the sisterhood which I consider to be a great blessing for Nigeria. And Nigeria has been, in the history of the church, evangelised in a relatively short time; maybe about 150 years. But already the country is contributing its role to the Universal Church. Currently, there are a huge number of priests and sisters working in many different parts of the world. It is really a wonderful thing that Nigeria is making its contribution to the Universal Church. That is something I am very pleased about and would like to see developed further.
The great gift of the faith is not something that we receive and keep to ourselves, it’s something we continue to give. I can see this already in action here in Nigeria. Nigeria, of course, has a growing young population and so it is good to learn this morning from the Resource Centre about the role that it is playing in evangelising the youth. I consider it very important that the Resource Centre is paying particular attention to youth development because of the association of this building with Pope John Paul II who resided in these very room, where we’re having this interview, during his first papal visit to Nigeria in 1982. And of all the popes, he (Pope John Paul II) was the one with the greatest initiative to institute the World Youth Day in December 1985, celebrating the very first World Youth Day in 1986, just a few years after his first visit to Nigeria. The World Youth Day has been a lasting legacy of Pope John Paul II. And next year we will already be celebrating 40 years of the World Youth Day celebrations. And so, I think, more than ever, the Church has to pay particular attention to evangelising the youth because it’s so important for the future of the church.
I think some people have already expressed concern that maybe when young people are going abroad and losing contact with their families and their communities, there’s also a risk that they would lose contact with the faith. But there’s a positive dimension to this migration. Even in my own country Ireland, I see where there’s a lot of Nigerian immigrants over the past 20 years – including a generation of Nigerian Irish who have been born and raised in Ireland – who bring their Nigerian vibrancy and joy of celebrating the faith to the parishes that they belong to. So, I think that is a positive thing, you know, and it’s a good reminder to us who are getting a little older to have new Catholics coming among us who are bringing joy and vibrancy of the faith to remind us of what we once had.
Thank you, Your Excellency. Looking at the Nigerian situation, there are a lot of challenges at the moment ranging from insecurity, corruption, and economic hardship. And, I’m sure your presence in Nigeria will want to bring some hope to the faithful. This is the jubilee year of hope, and then everybody is looking forward to how things can be better than the way it is. So, what are your thoughts about these challenges we are facing and how to give hope to Nigerian citizens?
Well, first of all, the very first thing we need to do as Christians, as Catholics, is certainly to pray. To pray for God’s intervention concerning all the ills in society. Insecurity is an issue that concerns a lot of people. We need to pray for the conversion of the hearts of those who do evil things, between kidnappings and killings, because they are happening more frequently than they should. They shouldn’t happen at all. So, one case alone is one case too many. We must pray for the conversion of those persons. We need to also pray for our political leaders, that they may always be guided with wisdom and work always for the benefit and good of society and for the safety and protection of the people.
And I think also as Catholics we have our social teaching of the Church which calls us to be involved and being committed to being good citizens and to play our role in society. Thus, at every level we should bring our faith into action, by using the institutions that are already there in society. In every part of the world, democracy can be imperfect. Many countries have challenges, so democracy is always a work in progress, at different levels from the local level up to the national. So, I think it’s very important for Catholics to be engaged and to work for building up a better society by bringing the values of the Gospel to society because we have a wonderful story to tell and to give witness to.