Ireland Stand Up

Nigeria's Catholic bishops are calling the nation to prayer and fasting ahead of next year's elections. But what makes their appeal particularly interesting is what they are asking Catholics to pray for. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria has launched a nationwide programme of prayer and fasting under the biblical theme “Let Justice and Peace Flow” (Amos 5:24), with special observances beginning on 31 October and continuing towards the presidential and parliamentary elections in January. The programme includes Holy Mass, Rosary processions, fasting and Eucharistic Benediction. But the bishops' intentions extend well beyond a general appeal for peace. They explicitly confront electoral violence, corruption, vote-buying, ethnic and religious divisions, intimidation and the manipulation of democratic institutions. Their prayer asks God to strengthen the integrity of electoral officials, the judiciary and security agencies, to guide those seeking public office towards honesty and service, and to give ordinary citizens the courage to reject bribery, tribalism and political apathy. Speaking to Vatican News today, Fr Michael Banjo explained that the bishops' concern is not which political party wins, but whether Nigerians can freely choose their leaders and trust that their votes will be respected. There is something profoundly Catholic about this approach to public life. Prayer is not an alternative to moral responsibility, nor is fasting a substitute for courageous action. Both are intended to form consciences, strengthen virtue and encourage the conversion of heart without which even the most carefully designed political institutions can become instruments of injustice. Catholic social teaching has always insisted that political authority exists to serve the common good, that human dignity precedes the interests of the state, and that justice cannot be reduced to the mere observance of procedures. Institutions matter enormously, but their integrity ultimately depends upon the moral character of those entrusted with them. Nigeria's bishops are therefore doing something important. Rather than identifying the Church with a particular political faction, they are calling politicians, officials and voters alike to account before principles that transcend party allegiance. It is a reminder that the Church's contribution to public life is not measured simply by her proximity to political power, but by her willingness to form consciences, defend human dignity and insist that justice and truth remain obligations rather than optional aspirations. There is a lesson here for Catholics far beyond Nigeria. Faith does not relieve us of our responsibilities as citizens. Properly understood, it makes those responsibilities more demanding.

Imagine living in a country where your Catholic bishops cannot safely travel to Rome to meet the Pope because they fear their own government might refuse to let them return. This is the extraordinary situation now confronting the Church in Nicaragua. Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera Gutiérrez, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops' Conference, has confirmed that the Holy See has postponed the country's ad limina visit until 2027, with no date yet fixed, because appropriate conditions do not exist. An ad limina Apostolorum visit is one of the most important expressions of communion between the bishops of a particular country and the successor of St Peter. Ordinarily held every five years, it allows bishops to report on the condition of their dioceses, meet officials of the Roman Curia and confer personally with the Pope. Nicaragua's bishops last made this visit in 2017. Nine years later, four of the country's nine active bishops are living in exile. Among them is Bishop Rolando Álvarez, whose courageous resistance to the Ortega regime resulted in imprisonment, a 26-year prison sentence and eventual expulsion from Nicaragua in January 2024. Bishop Isidoro Mora was expelled alongside him, while Bishop Silvio Báez and Bishop Herrera have also been forced into exile. The problem facing the remaining bishops is painfully simple. A priest still serving in Nicaragua told EWTN News that if the bishops travelled to Rome, the government might prevent them from returning, leaving the country's Catholics without a single resident bishop. That is a fear reported by clergy, rather than an announced government decision, nevertheless, given the regime's established record of expelling bishops and restricting the Church's activities, it is hardly an unreasonable concern. Just consider the implications: A bishop is not simply the local administrator of an international religious organisation. Through episcopal consecration, he receives the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders and is entrusted with the pastoral care of a particular Church. As the Second Vatican Council teaches in Lumen Gentium, bishops are the visible principle and foundation of unity in their particular Churches, exercising their ministry in communion with the Roman Pontiff. To drive a bishop from his diocese is therefore not merely to remove an inconvenient public figure. It is to attack the visible structure of Catholic ecclesial life. The consequences are already being felt. According to EWTN's reporting, the regime continues to prohibit ordinations in four dioceses whose bishops are absent. Such restrictions threaten the Church's ability to provide priests and sustain ordinary sacramental life. There is a particularly cruel irony here. The ad limina visit exists to strengthen the communion between local bishops and the Pope. Yet the Nicaraguan government has created circumstances in which exercising that communion through an ordinary journey to Rome could place the very survival of the local episcopate at risk. The bishops who remain must therefore exercise an extraordinary form of pastoral prudence: foregoing a journey to the successor of Peter precisely because their first responsibility is to remain with the flock entrusted to them. Meanwhile, Bishop Herrera, himself expelled in November 2024, was able to meet Pope Leo XIV in Rome on 12 October. There is something deeply revealing about the fact that the president of a national bishops' conference can meet the Pope only because he has already been driven out of his own country. We rightly speak about religious freedom in terms of conscience, worship and the rights of believers. But Nicaragua reminds us that persecution can also operate through the systematic dismantling of the institutions which make ordinary religious life possible. Remove bishops, obstruct ordinations, intimidate clergy and prevent normal communication with Rome, and a government can progressively suffocate the Church without formally declaring Christianity illegal. The Ortega–Murillo regime may be able to control Nicaragua's borders. It cannot determine the spiritual communion of the Catholic Church, nor extinguish the obligations of her shepherds towards their people. The tragedy is that Nicaragua's bishops must now choose between visiting Peter and remaining physically present with the sheep. That such a choice should exist in 2026 ought to trouble anyone who takes religious liberty seriously. ewtnnews.com/world/americas/…