#RedWednesday Mass Homily at St. Andrew’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
We thank the Bishops of Scotland for approving #RedWednesday as Aid to the Church in Need’s (ACN) global awareness day, celebrated in all the Cathedrals across the country. It is a day of prayer, solidarity, and support for the victims of persecution, discrimination and violence. Without a doubt, Christian persecution is real. In its annual World Watch list, Open Doors, an NGO that supports Christians worldwide, reported that Christians in 50 countries face the “most extreme persecution.” It states that 1 in 7 Christians worldwide live in situations with at least “high” levels of persecution and discrimination, including 1 in 5 in Africa and 1 in 7 in Asia. Additionally, it discloses that 7,679 churches and Christian properties were attacked, and the number of countries with “extreme” or “very high” persecution has risen from 23 in 2015 to 60 in 2024.
In the same year (2024), the think tank detailed that over 380 million Christians lived in situations with high levels of persecution and discrimination, and 4,476 were killed for faith-related reasons, with 70% of those deaths occurring in Nigeria, my home country, which was recently designated by the US State Department as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
I have a fair knowledge of persecution because my doctoral research at the University of Strathclyde is centred around religiously motivated violence, with reference to Nigeria’s homegrown jihadi terrorist organisation, Boko Haram. You would recall that between 14 and 15 April 2014, 276 Christian female students aged between 16 and 18 — known internationally as the “Chibok Girls” — were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from their dormitory at Government Girls’ Secondary School, Borno State. In February 2018, 110 schoolgirls aged between 11 and 19 were kidnapped by the sect from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State. Leah Sharibu was not released because of her Christian faith – She still remains in captivity 7 years later with reports that she now has 2 children for the terrorists.
As Fellows for Religious Freedom Institute, Washington, DC, and Fr. Atta Barkindo, the director of Kukah Centre, Abuja, and I published an article titled, “Nigeria, the Church, and Religious Freedom: Challenges and Opportunities to Secure this Right” in the 2022 Cornerstone Series on Translating Diplomatic Engagement to On-the-Ground Improvements in Religious Freedom. We underlined that, “Christian persecution in Nigeria takes the form of torture, harassment, beheading, loss of ancestral home, imprisonment, kidnapping, threats, beating, rape, and loss of family […] and destruction of Churches and rectories.” This is also true of almost all countries where Christians are persecuted.
ACN, Pope Leo’s Charity for the Persecuted and Suffering Church, matches prayer with action by working assiduously to provide humanitarian support to our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Like the Jewish widow with a lion’s heart in the first reading, whose strong convictions in the faith of her ancestors emboldened her sons to embrace martyrdom, our prayers and material support would assist these helpless victims, offering them food, clothing, shelter, and medical supplies. The gospel invites us to use our talents wisely.
While it is good to pray for those who are killed and offer them support, can we ask who produces these guns? Beyond providing logistical support, ACN needs to advocate for legislation aimed at ending the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons, as well as protecting all people globally. The martyrdom of the 7 Jewish boys who defied “torture with whips and cords,” and chose obedience to God because of their firm assurances in the resurrection over King Antiochus’ allure of vanity, should motivate persecuted Christians everywhere to hold their heads high, come rain or shine. May Our Lady, comforter of the afflicted, intercede for all afflicted Christians. Amen!
NB: May the eternal high priest grant a place of light, refreshment and peace to our dear priest and brother, Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Habila Shomgwan, who was laid to rest today in Bauchi.
