Ordaining new priests in Nigeria, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone acclaimed that West nations need the example and inspiration of African Catholics who suffer martyrdom for the faith.
“In addition to Africa’s voice, the West also needs Africa’s witness, in particular, the witness of Nigeria.” Such were the words of San Francisco’s Archbishop Cordileone as he ordained 14 new priests for the Diocese of Makurdi on August 22.
Reflecting on the state of the Church throughout the world, Cordileone praised Nigerian Catholics for their steadfast witness to the faith. Nigeria’s Catholics demonstrate a love of the faith which, he said, many in the West had lost sight of.
“In our own generation of Christians it is Nigeria whom Christ calls to sanctify the world, the duty of the priest, by identifying with him as victim in the most literal sense,” said the archbishop.
Cordileone spoke of his own admiration for the young Nigerian clergy, saying that it should be they who were preaching to him since “you are the ones who are laying down your lives for our Lord, too many of your brothers and sisters doing so literally with their blood, others by the complete upheaval and displacement of their lives.”
The archbishop’s words are not simple rhetoric. Nigeria is identified as the most dangerous nation on earth to profess faith in Christ, according to the 2025 Global Christian Relief (GCR) Red List report. Around 8,000 Christians were murdered by Islamic militants in 2023 by Islamic militants, and more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009.
Priests, seminarians and religious are regularly abducted by military and either held for ransom or tortured and killed.
On top of the immense death toll is the large number of families forced to flee their homes due to attacks and violence in the locale. Last year Open Doors UK noted Nigeria as an “epicentre” for displacement of Christians, with thousands forced to flee from their homes and “almost half” of the global total of 210,000 displaced Christians being from Nigeria.
Referencing this persecution throughout his homily, Cordileone stated that “the irony is, though, that we need this witness in the West.”
Western nations, he said, have been “overtaken not with a persecution of blood and with arms, but an interior persecution marked by isolation, depression, loneliness and anxiety.” Suicide numbers are rising, as is a “spiritual malaise” which stems from “a hedonistic culture that seeks only gain for oneself and will use any means necessary to obtain it, even to the point of destroying others to gain it if necessary.”
“The West needs Africa,” proclaimed Cordileone. “We need the voice of Africa.”
Formerly the home of Christian civilisation, the West now no longer understands “basic truths” he added, including “what it means to be a family born of the mutual self-giving love of husband and wife.” Consequently, the West has become “lifeless and colourless”, said Cordileone.
Africa has come under assault from anti-life forces in recent years, as aid packages have been increasingly linked to the promotion of LGBT ideology or enabling access to contraception and abortion. Resistance from Christians in Africa has been strong against the seemingly relentless push by certain elites in the West for such measures. Cordileone praised Nigeria for “resisting” the “powerful forces” behind this move.
“I know the pressure is great for national leaders on this continent, but we in the West who hold to the truth of Christ and the human person look to you in Africa to stand strong,” he said. “We stand with you, we are with you and support you, and you support us. The West needs the voice of Africa, and Africa’s voice will not be silenced!”
Promotion of anti-life measures by Western elites comes in addition to the ever present threat of bloody persecution for professing the faith in Nigeria especially. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has previously written that Nigeria is home to more persecution “than anywhere else in the world.”
Particular attacks in recent months have prompted strong appeals from Pope Leo XIV in his Sunday Angelus addresses, including in response to attacks carried out in Benue state itself, where Cordileone performed the ordination ceremony.
Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi has also been a vocal activist on the international sphere, urging lawmakers to intervene on behalf of Nigerian Christians. “No nation watches her citizens slaughtered like animals and says there is nothing to be done. It’s genocide,” he attested last year. Anagbe has been the recipient of death threats as a result of his work.
While Cordileone expressed the hope and prayer of many Catholics for an end to such persecution in Nigeria, he warned that those who choose to ignore reality “do so to their own peril”.
“Physical comforts and conveniences and that culture of selfishness has softened our spiritual stamina,” he warned. “Too many have no understanding of what it means to suffer for the sake of our faith in Jesus Christ.”
But until that time occurs and persecution is ended, Cordileone highlighted the Nigerian Church would remain a source of encouragement for many further afield. “We take consolation in knowing that the Church will be renewed through the witness of Nigerian blood, as you lead your people in the work of that inner martyrdom which is death to all things that hinder you from a more perfect identity with him for his people, that you may be the bridge leading to communion with him who is perfect peace, happiness, light and love.”
Nigeria’s Catholic clergy “suffer to the point of bloodshed yet remain joyful in your Christian faith”, noted the American archbishop.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.
