Posted on 07/24/2022 5:51:57 PM PDT by marshmallow
The consensus of security experts is that the Catholic Church is being targeted because it has has been paying the steep ransoms the terrorists have demanded.
Father Peter Amodu was supposed to say the 5 p.m. Mass at Holy Ghost Parish in southern Nigeria on July 6.
He never arrived.
Gunmen kidnapped the Catholic priest as he walked to the church along the Otukpo/Ugbokolo highway in Benue State. He was released unharmed four days later, the chancellor of the Diocese of Oktupo confirmed.
Father Amodu’s abduction was no isolated crime. He is one of at least 18 Nigerian Catholic priests kidnapped since the beginning of this year, according to a tally by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic nonprofit organization. Three of the priests were killed.
More troubling, the kidnappings seem to be escalating. There were five priests abducted in Nigeria in the first week of July alone, ACN noted.
The alarming trend begs the question: Why are Catholic priests being targeted in this way?
Clergy and security experts who spoke to CNA provided a range of answers.
Bishop Jude Arogundade of Ondo, in southwestern Nigeria, where still-unapprended gunmen on June 4 killed at least 40 people attending a Pentecost Mass in Owo, believes that the Catholic Church in Nigeria is both a threat and a strategic target for radicalized Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Islamic terror groups using violence to destabilize Nigeria.
“The Catholic priests represent an international institution with a prominent message that challenges the message of terrorists,” Bishop Arogundade told CNA.
Because of the Church’s worldwide prominence and structure, an attack in even the most obscure locations guarantees the international media attention that terrorists want, he noted.
At the same time, priests represent a political threat to Islamic extremists, observed Father Andre Mahanna.....
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Could it be that the militants are, possibly, MUSLIMS???!!!
Because homosexuality is against moslem doctrine.
Because they’re excellent Friars?
Because they’re Mooslims.
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