The church is under attacks because it is saying the truth —Dachelem
By Tribune Online
The church is under attacks because it is saying the truth —Dachelem
What is your reaction to the level of insecurity in the country?
Indeed, we are sliding gradually into what Thomas Hobbes called Homō hominī lupus, a situation where man is at war against one another, as men have become ‘wolf’ to one another and the barbaric culture that is crippling into Nigeria now is becoming unfathomable. There is a descent in the country from man to almost animal. You know human beings are said to be rational animals, but the way we are going, the machinery of government doesn’t seem to be ready to tackle this issue from all the indices that are available. It is true that governance is not easy, but the issue at stake is that radical problems require radical solution, we cannot be attending to death cases over a cup of tea and it is a serious problem that requires urgent attention and emergency. We need to come together and put hands on deck to tackle it but it doesn’t seem something definitive is happening, but it is serious. Life is more respected in other countries and not in Nigeria; the death culture has enveloped us and we no longer see death as anything. Before, a dead body attracted serious attention, but now, the dignity and integrity of the human person is no longer respected. What is government? Government is about coming together, and you come because you believe you will be protected, you come because your interest will be guaranteed, now believe it or not, you are not safe if you don’t have the jobs. So, on the insecurity issue, you don’t talk about insecurity because there is no security in this country. What is happening today looks like we have reached the level of the worse things we have never imagined.
Do you think the call for restructuring is the answer to our problems in this country?
I think what we need is to restructure our minds, not the agitation for mere restructuring. It involves all of us, even from President Buhari. We all need to restructure our mindsets, that is the first thing, otherwise if you are thinking of restructuring in terms of unitary system of government, are you talking of federalism, are you talking about oligarchy, are you talking about fascism or democracy? What kind of government are you talking about? How do you want to restructure when the mindset of the people is not correct? We lack the correct mindsets. We have to restructure our minds. When we restructure our minds first, we will know what we want and we will know what is ideal for our country. We all need to restructure our minds first and make them normal because our minds are not normal for now. Everything that works, when it comes to Nigeria, it wouldn’t work. Most of the things that you enjoy in other countries, when you come to Nigeria, they will not work.
Is it right to say that the Church is under attack?
Yes. This is a worldwide phenomenon. That is not new really, the Church has always been under attack because it teaches the truth, which is our mission. Jesus Christ said He is the way. Yes, it is under attack and if I want to add, I will say more so the Catholic Church. It has always been under attack as the first revealed religion. The church preaches the truth, we are not surprised it has always been under attack, because it is a sign of contradiction. That is why in different ages and times, it experiences different attacks.
Is the Church going through moment of confusion, stress particularly among the clerics?
Yes, a lot of it, that is why we are saying the church is under attack. I will also say it is going through some bit of purification, because globally speaking, there are cases that have been traced to the Church, cases of abuses and the rest of them. The cases of abuse, if we are to be sincere, are not particular to the clerics. These things are because the clergy are supposed to be above board. That is why their matter had become serious. That is happening surely, we are not comfortable with such developments, that is not supposed to be the case because we are supposed to be models to others. But we also understand there is an undue interest in the matter by specific groups because there are some abuse cases that have been discovered to be false, but meanwhile, the person’s reputation has been dragged to the mud. So, we have to be careful in trying to look into this matter properly. There are people that really want to attack the Church, attack clerics and make sure those things we stand for are watered down. While we are not saying the clerics themselves are perfect, I think sometimes also, we expect too much from the clerics.
What roles should the spiritual leaders play in remodeling the Church?
I thank Pope Francis; he has organised several international conferences. He has called clerics to sit down and look into some of these issues as they are situations that we must not run away from. As Christians, we have to sit down. We must condemn what is not good and at the same time, we must work out the modus operandi and sanctions necessary for people and make sure we create a system that does not make room for these lapses and abuses. In Europe, they have started what they called child protection committee. They set it up in most of the churches. The issue is not just about clerics, there have been people who have been abused by their parents, those abused by some elders. Those things cut across, we need to have the committee and it has to look into these issues and make sure that these abuses are curbed to a very reasonable level. It is the ugly side of the church.
The church is under attacks because it is saying the truth —Dachelem
Tribune Online