The Catholic Church of Nigeria yesterday temporarily withdrew its membership from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Their reason? That CAN under Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has been compromised. Also because of some uncouth statements by some Christian leaders, and the use of money in CAN elections and several court cases involving state chapters of CAN.
Spokesperson of the Church, Rev. Fr. Dr. Cornelius Omonokhua, said:
“You just can’t save people who are drowning, if you are drowning with them. CAN is being dragged into partisan politics thereby compromising the ability to play its true role as conscience of the nation and the voice of the voiceless. We will be happy if CAN leadership can show moderation. Common sense dictates that they do that.”
The Catholic church said they would review their withdrawal from CAN after the annual meeting of the Conference of Bishops in February. See more after the cut…
Meanwhile CAN has reacted to CCN’s withdrawal, calling it good riddance. A rep accused the Christian denomination of arrogance, saying they were merely angry because the presidency of the association had moved to another bloc of the group.
Spokesperson for the 19 Northern chapters of CAN, Sunny Oibe, told Punch:
“There are some certain elements in the leadership of CAN led by Cardinal John Onaiyekan because he lost CAN Presidency to Oritsejafor who has a lot of achievements. There is no need for anybody to lose sleep over the threat by Catholics to pull out of CAN because without them CAN will still continue. The constitution of CAN makes provision that membership can be terminated by any group that is misbehaving or any group can also terminate their membership.
“Why is it that when Catholics were in the leadership of CAN, every bloc supported them, but now because power has changed hands, they are threatening to pull out and causing confusion?
“They have been agitating that the Presidency of CAN must come from the South. They are appendage of PDP and PDP themselves. They are known for double standards. A man of God should not be double speaking.”
Reacting to the reasons given by the Catholic Church for pulling out CAN, Oluwatade said “the allegation that the CAN President was too close to the government should be well looked into and analyzed so as to understand exactly what is happening because the Bible says we should pray for our leaders, presidents, governors, Obas and all those in government”.
He added: “So, the Catholic Church has to clarify the issue for the sake of national interest where the CAN President is compromising with government. He, however, noted that there were several avenues within the hierarchy of CAN where disputes would be resolved without going public.
The erstwhile CAN leader He insisted that it was the lack of mutual respect and understanding among Church leaders that had been responsible for the attacks on churches in the North by the Islamic sect, Boko-Haram.
According to him, “That is the major problem that we are facing and that is the divine reason Boko-Haram will continue to scourge the Church and until all our leaders purge themselves of their pride and wickedness.
“My advice to the Catholic Bishops Conference is that they should know that as far as the office of the CAN President is concerned, he is the Chief Priest of Nigeria now, so, it is not abnormal for a Chief Priest to be in agreement with the President and if there is any area of disagreement, they should point it to him.
“There are processes, meetings of CAN within the hierarchy where you can state your grievances instead of coming out in the open and talk about things like this.
They are taking for granted the flock of Christ and that is what they are doing when they are comfortable”.
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