Kukah urges Nigerian Catholics to restore influence of church values
Sokoto Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has urged the Catholic Church in Nigeria to renew its values and strengthen its contribution to public life. Speaking in Lagos, he said the Church’s schools, hospitals and parishes remained important channels of influence, but warned that their values were not being carried strongly enough into homes, professions and politics.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has called on the Catholic Church in Nigeria to renew its values and reclaim a stronger influence in public life. Kukah made the call on Friday at St Finbarr’s College Auditorium, Akoka, Lagos, while delivering a lecture on the Church’s contribution to human development and the making of a good society. The event commemorated the late Rev.
Fr. Denis Slattery, whom Kukah described as a major missionary figure. Drawing on the idea of “soft power”, Kukah said lasting influence was built through service, attraction and the transformation of people’s lives, rather than coercion.
He said this approach was reflected in the missionary work that established schools, hospitals and other institutions across Nigeria. The bishop questioned whether the values acquired through those institutions continued to shape the lives of Catholics. He said many Catholics appeared to devote more time and resources to social, political, ethnic and fraternity organisations than to parish and Church activities.
Kukah argued that repeated commitments eventually influence people’s priorities and public decisions. He warned that if Catholic values were not passed to younger generations, they could gradually erode and disappear from moral choices. He also defended the missionaries’ contribution to Nigeria’s development, saying their understanding of salvation included improving life on earth.
Education and healthcare, he said, were central to that effort because education supported a good life and health was necessary for human wellbeing. Kukah cited Catholic Church figures indicating that it operates more than 231,000 schools and universities in 171 countries, educating about 72 million students. He also said the Church had about 5,100 nursery, primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, excluding universities and other tertiary institutions.
He urged the Church to ensure that its schools, hospitals and parishes once again carried their values into homes, professions, politics and wider society.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.