BISHOPS OF ABUJA ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE

BISHOPS OF ABUJA ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE

Communiqué Issued at the End of Meeting of Catholic Bishops of Abuja Province, held in AKPEGEDE, the New Bishops House, Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, 19-21 August, 2025

Preamble
We, the Bishops of Abuja Province met in Otukpo and after prayerful deliberations on the emerging realities in our society and Church within our province; we are delighted to share with you the fruits of our deliberations.

Felicitation and Appreciation
We share in the joy of the manifest growth in our province in all ramifications. We congratulate the entire priests, religious and lay faithful of Otukpo diocese for their support given to the Bishop of the diocese, Most Rev Michael APOCHI. In particular, we applaud the construction and occupation of the new bishop’s court in Akpegede community. This is no doubt the fruit of your solidarity with your bishop. May God continue to bless and reward you. We also rejoice with the Bishop of Gboko Diocese, Most Rev William AVENYA who recently celebrated his 70th birthday. May God continue to grant you good health. We commend ourselves for our commitment to the program and activities of the Province. This is noticeable today in our full attendance of this meeting and the avid participation.

Our Collegiality in Retrospect
As Shepherds of the flock entrusted to our care, we use this opportunity to reaffirm our disposition to remain faithful to our ministry. On a daily basis, we shall simply be Bishops enough for you. As Bishops, we are resolved to deepen our collegiality that is anchored on the love of Christ and neighbor, forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. This is the image of the Christ we would like to see in the lives of everyone. Jesus enjoins us “You are the light of the world and salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13). In another breath Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). On the area of forgiveness, he says, “Forgive one another as our Heavenly father has forgiven you” (Matt.6:14). This is the direction we would also expect of priests, religious and lay faithful of the province to trail.
Jubilee Year of Hope

We are privileged to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Hope, 2025, which was declared by Pope Francis with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope”. As we look forward to the culminating event on January 6, 2026, we encourage all dioceses to generate their programs with emphasis on spiritual renewal and reconciliation. We invite chaplains of all societies to give this Jubilee year of Hope some more attention in line with the charisms of the societies. We are determined to accompany the Young Catholic Students (YCS) in their apostolate. We also call on all chaplains of the Young Catholic Students to pay more attention to the spiritual growth of the young people. We are also committed to encourage our priests and lay faithful to learn the basis of sign language in order to administer effectively to those challenged. We congratulate Rev Fr. Michael ABAH of Katsina-Ala Diocese for his appointment as the provincial Chaplain of the Young Catholic Students.

Regulation of Pious Unions
We have observed with keen concern the active presence of some pious unions in the province, and indeed some strange religious sects. While it is not in our powers to strangulate the promptings of the Holy Spirit, it is our obligation to guide and redirect such promptings of the Holy Spirit. We warn that such people should be aware of such religious trends prowling in the name of Christ. We have noticed the proliferation of many religious sects for whatever name they are called. We maintain that if these sects are not seeing in union with the Roman Catholic Church, it suggests that anyone who identifies with them does so at their risk. In view of the activities of the obvious pious unions (secular institutes) within our dioceses, we continue to encourage them to use their habits only when they have their exclusive congregational meetings and programs.

Commitment to Seminary Formation
We continue to demonstrate our unwavering commitment in promoting the course of vocation to the priesthood. Our priests are product of sound training they received from our formation houses. We would continue to do our best to support the institutes of formation to do even more. We also cannot get tired of commending the sacrifice made by formators in the formation of quality priests. Correspondingly, we call on our seminarians to use their precious time during formation to adequately prepare themselves for the herculean task of mission ahead of them in our fast changing world. We need priests who are holy, sound and with good character. We call on the lay faithful to sustain their support to the Bishops in order to maintain the purpose to which the seminary is established. We however bemoan the increasing economic hardships in the country and the unabated devaluation of our currency which poses great challenge to general maintenance of the institution.

Insecurity in the Province.
We continue to have sleepless nights over the persistent insecurity in our province. We regret the loss of lives and property and pray for a peaceful society. We have all had painful experiences of insecurity in all ramifications and have also raised our voices both home and abroad and drawn the attention of our leaders and international community to listen to us and act. It has become clear that the ordinary person is left to mourn his or her loss and without any capacity for self-protection. Painfully, on June 14, 2025, the world was greeted with the barbaric armed terrorists attack on the YELEWATA Community in Guma LGA of Benue State that killed over 200 inhabitants and rendering no fewer than 3,000 persons displaced. We are also in solidarity with the Catholic Diocese of Katsina-Ala over the reckless burning of priest residence, St. Paul Parish, AYETWAR to ashes. This was orchestrated by the armed Fulani militia. Other destructions were the desecration of the Church building, the Secretariat and destruction of other facilities and vehicle. This violent attack took place on August 11, 2025 which has shut down the entire activities of the parish. We are saddened with the worsening situation of kidnappings and closure of our churches, undiminished rise of Internally Displaced Persons and the increasing poverty in our province.

Priests in Politics
Once again, we would like to express the position of the Church in the involvement of the priest in politics. Canon 285.3, and canon 287.2 of the 1983 code discourages Catholic clergy from holding political office. We join our voices with the rest of Nigerian bishops on the statement issued in October 1, 2024, entitled, “On Clerics Actively Engaging in Partisan Politics”. The document highlights that a Cleric who has violated these canons notwithstanding the appeals and two canonical warning of his proper Ordinary (cf. Canon 1339.2) and who has given no sign of reform must be suspended (cf. Canon 1333.2). In this case, the proper Ordinary, considering that this disobedience is in a grave matter about the specific ecclesia context, can ask the Dicastery for Evangelisation to apply the penalty of dismissal in poenam of the cleric from the clerical state by virtue of the faculties granted by the Holy Father. This prohibition applies also to religious (cf. Canon 285.3, and Canon 287.2).

Infrastructural Development
We commend the government at all levels in view of the ongoing construction of Abuja-Enugu expressway and other related interstate underpasses and road network within our states. This would surely enhance safety of road users and ease economic activities. We equally enjoin the government at all levels to sustain these developmental strives without compromising on quality of materials that would ensure the durability. We call on all community heads, security operatives and people of good will in whose domain these road networks are routed to ensure vigilance and shun vandalism.

Conclusion
We are grateful to the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo for their generosity in hosting this meeting. It is our prayers that may the good Lord continue to reward you generously for the sacrifices made to host this meeting. We promise you our prayers and request also of your prayers. We continue to seek the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary in our challenging situations. In this way, we urge all Bishops to ensure that our dioceses are consecrated to our Blessed Virgin Mary to deepen our devotion to her.
May Our Mother of Perpetual Help continue to intercede for us, Amen.

Signed:
Most Rev Ignatius AYAU KAIGAMA Most Rev David AJANG

Chairman, Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese Secretary, Bishop of Lafia Diocese