Religious Freedom Advocacy Risks “being poetic”, Nigerian Cardinal Warns, Urges Good Governance

According to the Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, “When you have a bad government and there's no rule of law and no rights are respected, then talking of religious freedom is simply being poetic. There's nothing happening there.”

Faith leaders in Africa have “to decide how they are going to make sure that they are part of the solutions and not part of the problem,” he told ACI Africa on the sidelines of the June 17 Summit, where one of the panel discussions focused on “The critical role played by faith communities in restoring peace” to Africa, a continent described as “a region plagued by sectarian violence.”

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja. Credit: ACI Africa

For Cardinal Onaiyekan, “We cannot wait until we have a perfect government in Africa before we religious leaders play our part.”

“This will mean that we have to first of all get clear: to speak of religious leaders is quite problematic. Who are religious leaders? You meet somebody who says, ‘I'm a bishop’, but you don't know who he is,” he said.

“If he says he is a Catholic Bishop, I know what to expect, but there are some people who call themselves bishops, who've never been to any Seminary. That creates a problem, and if you go to Islam, it is even worse, so we do not even know very much the image of a religious leader,” he lamented.

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja. Credit: ACI Africa

The 81-year-old Cardinal, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 1983 as Auxiliary Bishop of Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese also said that faith leaders should not wait until there is full consensus on the identity of a religious leader before taking action.

As a Catholic religious leader, he said, he would expect colleagues “to take seriously the teachings of my Church on matters of justice and peace, as well as interreligious dialogue and cooperation.”

“We Catholics are very lucky in this regard, because our church has a positive official position that is clearly stated in our church's official documents,” he told ACI Africa referring to Vatican II documents, including Lumen Gentium, Nostra Aetate, and Dignitatis Humanae.

Delegates at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: ACI Africa

For him, “No Bishop, or even Priest, and at the end of the day, no African Catholic should be without guidance in this regard. So, all of us should take those things seriously.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan went on to encourage Catholic Church leaders to “reach out” to other their counterparts of other denominations, not by relying solely on Vatican documents as a guide, but by “finding together common elements, a shared foundation, which ultimately boil down to common human values.”

“I'm very careful not to talk too much about African human values, because if it is human, it is human, it cannot be just African,” he said, and added, “Those values are there, and our Church has told us that there are those human values that everybody is familiar with.”

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja. Credit: ACI Africa

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He emphasized, “If we pay attention to those things and give them priority in our work as religious leaders, we will meet together, all of us. It will not matter whether you are a Muslim, a Protestant, or a Catholic.”

The Nigerian Catholic Church leader, who featured as a panelist at the IRF Summit to discuss how “Faith leaders as ethical innovators” can contribute to “advancing religious freedom as a catalyst for African renaissance” highlighted some of the human values that could unite religious leaders in their pursuit for religious liberty on the world’s second largest and second most populous continent after Asia in both cases.

The human values include honesty, service, solidarity, and justice, he said, and added, “When we are talking about these things, we can talk together. If we can talk together, then we can act together.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan lamented some faith leaders’ tendency to be “inward-looking,” neglecting the need to focus more on the values and concerns that affirm the shared humanity of the people of God.

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop emeritus of Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja. Credit: ACI Africa

“The problem is, traditionally, we religious leaders have always been too much taken over, taken up by building our constituencies, meaning, you want to make converts, have a big congregation, build big churches and big dioceses, and if possible, convert others to join you,” he said.

“In all this, we become inward looking, and we are so much concerned about those things which make us Catholic, and we don't have enough time to also deal with those things which make us human beings,” he said.

For him, the continued preaching of the Gospel should be “on the basis of our common human values, which are also Christian values.”

“Preach the gospel in such a way that it is inclusive, open to all,” Cardinal Onaiyekan said, and added, “It is God that we serve; we don't serve our religions. And as a Cardinal, when I say that, I say it with all sense of responsibility.”