A Nigerian bishop has called for prayer after unidentified assailants set fire to a parish rectory in the country’s Kafanchan Diocese. Source: Vatican News.
Kafanchan Bishop Julius Yakubu Kundi said Na’aman Danlami, a 25-year-old seminarian, died in the attack at St Raphael’s parish rectory in Fadan Kamantan.
The bishop said that two priests, Fr Emmanuel Okolo and Fr Monday Noah, escaped the attack which took place on September 7.
“The attackers wanted to abduct the parish priest but because it was difficult to gain access into the priest’s residence, they resorted to setting fire to the facility,” Bishop Kundi said. “In the process, two priests escaped though sadly, we lost the seminarian who was trapped inside.”
As the diocese mourns the murdered seminarian, Bishop Kundi urged the people of God to give thanks for the abundant harvest in evangelisation that they have experienced over the past three decades.
“Yes, we are bereaved. We are deeply pained by the gruesome murder of our little brother, seminarian Na’aman,” Bishop Kundi said in a pastoral letter released last week.
He told the people of his diocese “not [to] forget, [that] as faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are disciplined to receive everything from God and to be ready to do or give everything for Him.”
“Let’s prove to our enemies that their arsenals of evil have failed again.”
Dozens of priests have been abducted in Nigeria in recent years, with many killed and several others still missing.
Christians have come under various forms of attack in the north-central region of the oil-rich nation with southern Kanduna, Plateau, and Benue being epicentres with scores of Internally Displaced Persons in camps.
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Nigerian Bishop calls for prayer after seminarian burned alive in attack (By Sr Titilayo Aduloju SSMA & Fr Justine John Dyikuk, Vatican News)
