Matthew Hassan Kukah, bishop of the Sokoto Diocese in Nigeria and Dacholom Datiri, president of the protestant Church of Christ of Nigeria gave a lecture about the persecution of Christians in the African country and the perseverance of their communities in the ceremonial hall of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University at Budapest (Hungary) on 13 May.
In his presentation entitled “Growing among thorns: the struggle of Christians in a Muslim majority environment”, Matthew Hassan Kukah, bishop of the Sokoto Diocese in Nigeria highlighted that trust is essential to start a dialog, but self-confidence must be developed first. “We should not apologize for being Christians,” said Bishop Kukah. Believers must “find their Christian voice,” emphasised Matthew Hassan Kukah, bishop of Sokoto.
Dacholom Datiri, president of the protestant Church of Christ of Nigeria outlined the situation of the Nigerian members of the protestant church present in twelve African countries in his presentation “Broken, but not beaten”. The pastor said that his denomination is the most persecuted Christian community in Nigeria. Extremist Islamic groups commit mass murders, they drive thousands away from their homes and millions are forced to leave their country; they lay houses and churches to waste, they burn whole villages while destroying food and agricultural crops. Suicide bombers recently attacked a hospital without caring for the mostly Muslim patients treated in the institution. “We cannot remain indifferent. We have to face reality. The world should not be blind and deaf to the persecution of Christians,” said Dacholom Datiri in his closing remarks and he asked the attendees to pray for his community and for the persecuted Christians.
The event was organized by the State Secretariat for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps Program. Hungary recently supported the reconstruction of Nigerian Catholic educational infrastructure destroyed by extremists – including a seminar – and hosts Nigerian university scholarship awardees, who also met Pope Francis on one of his Wednesday general audiences last October.
