Call to prayer after the kidnapping of two priests in Nigeria
"Unfortunately, after a good visit to a nearby parish, Father Chochos Kunav and Father Ralph Ogigba were abducted last night (Sunday April 30) on their way back to Father Ogigba's parish."
Father Chochos Kunav and Father Raphael Ogigba were kidnapped on April 30 in Delta State, southern Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, after a good visit to a nearby parish, Father Chochos Kunav and Father Ralph Ogigba were abducted last night (Sunday April 30) on their way back to Father Ogigba's parish,” reads a statement released by the Fathers of Schoenstatt and received by theAgenzia Fides, "the abduction occurred along the road in front of Ibru Agbara Otor University".
The superior delegate of the Secular Institute of the Fathers of Schoenstatt, the congregation to which the kidnapped priests belonged, expressed his "great pain and concern".
Le Father Okereke Kingsley asks "intense prayers for a quick and safe release". "May Jesus, the high priest and the good shepherd, take care of his priests", he prays.
In a recent international religious freedom report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has placed Nigeria on the Countries of Special Concern (CPC) list because its government commits or condones "systematic, continuous and flagrant violations" of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
MC
