By Mark Danner
JUNE 5, 2022, They came that day to worship. They remain forever as martyrs to goodness.
On the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on St. Francis Xavier church in Owo, Nigeria that took the lives of 41 men, women and children, Bishop Jude Arogundade of Ondo Catholic diocese will give a keynote address and blessing following prayers led by Fr. Agustine Dada.
The event will be broadcast internationally over Zoom on 5 June 2024 at 3 pm in Nigeria/GMT. The tragedy of this day stands out for its particular brutality in the midst of the ongoing severe persecution of Christians in Nigeria, where more Christians are killed for their faith every year than in another country in the world.
Event details:
· Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83695435056?pwd=7b2znJe1ZJwpA2BqvVRyJ03TaIaf6S.1
· Meeting ID: 836 9543 5056
· Passcode: PRAY
According to Fr. Andrew Adeniyi Abayomia, associate pastor at St. Francis church in 2022, the joyful Pentecost services in celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples and Mary were just finishing. Suddenly, panic swept through the church as the terrorists inside and outside began shooting.
Abayomia recounts, “At that point I did not fear for my life, rather, I was thinking how to save my parishioners. Some of them summoned the courage to lock the entrance door. I urged people to move through the sanctuary into the sacristy. Some of the parishioners escaped through there. I remained in the inner part of the sacristy. I could not run as I was surrounded by children, while some adults clung to me, some even inside my chasuble. I shielded them just as a hen shields her chicks.”
Abayomia added, “I heard the voices of my parishioners: “Father, please save us; Father, pray!” I encouraged them and calmed them, and said they should not worry, that I was praying, and that God would do something. I heard three or four explosions, one after the other. The whole attack was well planned and lasted about 20-25 minutes.”
The attack resulted in 41 dead and over 60 injured, many in critical condition. Multiple members of families were killed, including the parents of a seminarian of the diocese. A priest of the diocese, speaking to Truth Nigeria and who wished to remain anonymous, recounted how he was responsible for cleaning the devastated church, and helping families prepare for the funerals of their loved ones. He added, “I still can smell the blood,” recalling those traumatizing days.
At the funeral services for the martyred victims, Bishop Arogundade accused Nigerian authorities of making “empty promises” to find the killers, adding that in Nigeria, “you don’t have shame anymore. You just talk, you don’t match your talk with words.” Arogundade urged the attendees at the funeral to “claim this country back from those destroying it.” In a later interview, the bishop said that he believed that the attack was the work of radicalized Muslim Fulani terrorists, warning that the situation in Nigeria for Christians has become a “genocide … pure ethno-religious cleansing, and it’s getting worse.”
No group claimed responsibility for the Owo massacre, while in 2022 the authorities arrested some individuals belonging to the terror group Islamic State – West Africa Province, (ISWA) who were allegedly involved in the attack. However, no evidence was given, and no trials held.
