BALI, Indonesia (LifeSiteNews) — During a gathering of religious leaders, Catholic bishops from Nigeria and Iraq addressed the violence committed by Islamist extremists in their countries.
Bishops Matthew Hassan Kukah from Nigeria informed participants at the “G20 Religion Forum” in Bali that both churches and mosques are being attacked by Islamist extremists.
“Every day, news of abductions, armed robberies, kidnappings for ransom, murders, and assassinations of our innocent citizens persists. Our sacred spaces have become killing grounds,” the prelate said. “Hundreds of worshippers have been murdered in mosques and churches across the country.”
According to a report by the NGO Open Doors, 4,650 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in 2022 so far, more than in any other country in the world. Many of them were murdered by Islamic extremist groups like Boko Haram.
Kukah, the bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, a region where Muslims are in the majority, shared details of recent attacks committed by Islamist extremists in his diocese, including the kidnappings of priests and the case of Deborah Samuel, a Christian student who was accused of blasphemy and brutally murdered by a group of Muslim students.
The Nigerian bishop explained how “Muslim elites” see secular state laws as threatening to Islam and, therefore, ignore them.
“In northern Nigeria, Muslim elites have tended to see the institutions of the modern state as an alien imposition that attempts to displace their own religion, with Western education as a foreign enemy to Islam,” the bishop said. “They thus consider the present constitution and secular laws as fundamentally subordinate to Islam, and in practice ignore the written laws of the land as they see fit.”
“This cancer of the weaponization of religion threatens us all. History shows us that empires and emperors have had their day,” Kukah continued. “The world will always be full of men and women with grand delusions about how they have been divinely sent to create a new world at the cost of human blood.”
RELATED: Nigerian bishop begs European Parliament to help stop Islamic terrorism against Christians
As reported on LifeSiteNews, Pope Francis has appointed outspoken pro-abortion economist Mariana Mazzucato to be one of the new “Ordinary Academicians” for the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV).
In addition to being a speaker at the World Economic Forum – the globalist group behind the socialist, anti-Christian “Great Reset” agenda – Mazzucato is enthusiastically pro-abortion, in direct contradiction to unchangeable teaching of the Catholic Church!
SIGN: Pope Francis must remove Mazzucato from the PAV - the unborn deserve champions of life, not death!
So good! https://t.co/cw2ujmXRbT
— Mariana Mazzucato (@MazzucatoM) June 25, 2022
Mazzucato’s appointment contradicts the PAV’s statutes. While the statutes say that members can be of any religion, new Academicians must “commit themselves to promoting and defending the principles regarding the value of life and the dignity of the human person, interpreted in a way consonant with the Church’s Magisterium.”
Mazzucato’s appointment was defended not only by the PAV, but by Francis himself. In an interview on Sunday, November 6th, the Pope confirmed that he had personally picked the pro-abortion economist as an addition to institution: “And now I have put Marianna Mazzucato in the Pontifical Academy for Life. She is a great economist from the United States. I put her there to give a little more humanity to it.”
Pope Francis’ appointment of one who is so radically against the precepts of the Church causes nothing but confusion for the Faithful – this is a source of scandal.
SIGN: Pope Francis must remove Mazzucato from the PAV - this scandal in the Church must stop!
In a time where leftist elites are continually attacking Christian values, we need strong pro-life and pro-family warriors to champion Catholic values in the public square. Mazzucato is NOT the person who should be on the PAV.
As an atheist, never thought i would love a Pope this much. What a star! First this https://t.co/0W5k4Ft1ff now this https://t.co/gkUobYrbKf
— Mariana Mazzucato (@MazzucatoM) February 19, 2016
The Pope and the PAV think they can corrupt Catholic values with the excuse of giving the Church “a little more humanity.” The Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion is a non-negotiable issue – abortion disregards the sanctity of human life and the Pope know that this is an intrinsic evil.
Don’t let Francis and the PAV get away with this! We must take a stand to ensure this attack on the Catholic faith comes to an end.
ADD YOUR NAME to the growing list of REAL pro-life and pro-family warriors – tell Pope Francis to take back his nomination of radical pro-abortion Mazzucato to the Pontifical Academy for Life!
More Information:
Pope Francis defends appointing pro-abortion atheist to Pontifical Academy for Life
Pontifical Academy for Life defends pro-abortion WEF appointee, says Pope Francis nominated her
Chaldean Catholic archbishop Bashar Matti Warda of Erbil, Iraq, was also present at the G20 Religious Forum. Warda was pessimistic about the future of Christians in Iraq, given the Muslim country’s long history of violence.
“Throughout the Islamic world, the reality of structured violence, persecution, and marginalization against the minorities remains, century after century,” the Iraqi bishop said.
Warda revealed that talking about violence in Islamic countries often leads to charges of “Islamophobia” by Westerners.
“To raise this matter in Western or global audiences is to invite a charge of ‘Islamophobia,’ mainly from social critics speaking theoretically from places far removed from any threat or actual experience,” he said. “But for [us] Iraqi Christians, this is not an abstract matter.”
“There is a crisis of violence in Islam, and for the sake of humanity, including the followers of Islam themselves, it must be addressed openly and honestly,” Warda continued.
The Iraqi bishop talked about how Christians in Iraq can give witness to the teachings of Christ by practicing forgiveness:
Ours then is now a missionary role, to give daily witness to the teachings of Christ, to provide a living example to our neighbors of a path to a world of forgiveness, of humility, of love, of peace. Lest there be any confusion here I am not speaking of conversion. Rather, I am speaking of the fundamental truth of forgiveness and a renunciation of violence which we Christians of Iraq can share and do so from a position of historically unique moral clarity.
“We forgive those who murdered us, who tortured us, who raped us, who sought to destroy everything about us. We forgive them. In the name of Christ, we forgive them,” the archbishop proclaimed.
According to the Open Doors World Watch List of the countries where Christians are persecuted the most, 34 of the top 50 and 8 of the top 10 countries have a majority Muslim population. Christians in these countries suffer from what Open Doors calls “Islamic oppression.”
Islamic persecution, especially towards Muslim converts to Christianity, is also on the rise in Europe, according to a report by The European Centre for Law and Justice.
RELATED: Muslim converts to Christianity in Europe face ‘persecution’ from family and community: report