AFRICA

A MIRACULOUS BIRTH, A GIFT BACK TO GOD
Fr. Melchizedek Okpala
Author: Colin Howell,  6 April 2020

Nigeria is divided by widely diverse ethnic groups and polarized by religious beliefs. Because of significant aggressive and often lethal hostility towards Christians, perpetrated by Islamic extremists in the northern region by groups like Boko Haram or the Fulani Herdsmen, Nigeria consistently ranks near the top ten countries in the world for Christian persecution. This persecution is visited on the sizeable 80 million Christian population through unspeakable physical violence and the destruction of Christian churches, but it is also subtly and consistently applied through politics. The disenfranchisement of Christians often forces them to flee their lands, leaving everything behind, as well as the government takeover of Christian schools and the forced infiltration of catholic schools with Muslim staff members, facilitating the internal erosion of catholic morals, all of which are but a few of many cases.

This is why priests like Father Melchizedek are so important. One might wonder at the rather uncommon name for a man and a Catholic couldn’t help but notice the clear biblical reference. But the story (and the man) behind the name, provide a sign of great hope for this intensely struggling land. Just before Melchizedek entered the seminary he asked his father why he named him with the biblical reference to the Priest. The response was quite the surprise, which follows below.

“While my mother was pregnant with me she suddenly took ill and all prenatal scans revealed that I was partly deformed, without limbs, and a therapeutic abortion was recommended. Then my parents did the Catholic thing and sought the advice of a priest. He took my two-year-old sister from my mother and asked her, ‘if someone asked you to surrender this child to be killed, would you?’ My parents resolved to lay it all in God’s hands and spent the rest of the pregnancy in fasting and prayer, soliciting members of the church community to do the same.

It was during this time that my father said the name came to him, though he didn’t discuss it with my mum. When I was born healthy, he asked her about naming me and she had also come up with the same name independently. In that moment I saw my life in a deeper way as God’s will. I thought to myself, my life testifies to the folly of the wisest cadre of human wisdom, it bears witness to the sacredness of every human life and to God as its sole author. I saw my vocation to the priesthood as a calling to protect human life and see it restored in love back to the author of love and life and I went to seminary with this conviction and have yet to look back.”

Father Melchizedek serves as a formator and lecturer in one of the major seminaries in the country’s capital of Lagos in the south. The archdiocese is the primary refuge where displaced Christians pour down south in search of solace and freedom. His task of forming and preparing the minds of the future leaders of God’s people is the challenge at hand, which is why his bishop sent him to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome: to complete his doctorate so he will be able to more faithfully further the formation of seminarians locally in Nigeria.

The hope has always been to kindle the minds of these seminarians to understand that persecution and violence must be met in equal and unwavering measure with dialogue and love. That as good shepherds, these priests must be shields that comfort the victims and cater to their wounds and at the same time draw swords to engage with reason, truth and love, those very circumstances that are the reason for the oppression.

The seminary in Lagos is full of vocations at the moment, but understaffed and they need more qualified priests to adequately train the future clergy to stand today at the vanguard for the preservation and spreading of the Catholic Faith through a life of prayer, commitment, engagement and personal witness.

All over our world today, we see and feel in one way or another, the effects of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. The sacking of entire Christian sees, the forced exile and murder of thousands of Christians and the fast-changing demographics of regions to the exclusions of Christians retells the story of Christian persecution in modern semantics.

With ever growing urgency, Nigeria is at its early phase of this fundamentalist movement and the response to this can only be more priests as pastors and educators. A new kind of evangelism is needed to stem this tide and the leaders must be priests who understand the urgency of the task at hand, educated enough not only to teach the way forward but also to live the path they teach.

Nigeria needs your prayers and support, for our apostolate and for the apostolates of the entire priesthood for Christ. But we also cannot continue without your financial contribution to ensure that the future leaders of the Church receive the formation they need to become the leaders that God has called them to be. Grace may come from God, but we invite you to join us in the small role God has placed under our care: the formation of the future leaders of the Church by clicking on the donate button at the top of the webpage.

We thank all our benefactors who help us in the training of priests, for ours is a universal mission, the pains and sufferings of our persecuted brethren is ours as well and whatever triumph we achieve in the preservation and spread of our faith remains a universal acclaim for God and for his people everywhere.