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NIGERIA: Raising the roof on new university chapel
By John Newton
Mass goers after a service at Kogi State University's Catholic chapel before the new roof was built
A bishop in Nigeria has thanked Aid to the Church in Need for helping him put a roof on a university chapel which is a key part of his diocese’s evangelisation programme.
Bishop Anthony Ademu Adaji of Idah praised the charity for helping to finish construction work on the Chapel of Saint Augustine at Kogi State University.
The bishop explained how he had turned to Aid to the Church in Need for help after discovering that delays to the completion of the chapel had caused Catholic students to drift away from the Church.
The bishop said: “In 2008 I came to Aid to the Church in Need when I was still an auxiliary bishop and spoke about this need which lies deep in my heart – and got a very positive response.”
The charity provided a grant of more than £12,500 to put a roof on the otherwise-finished chapel.
Highlighting the importance of Christian outreach in the state in central Nigeria, Bishop Ademu Adaji said: “Without this effort [to build the chapel] there would be a lot of difficulties in evangelisation. I thank you.
“Now if the roof is there the work of evangelisation will grow.”
With the chapel finished, the chaplaincy is planning to hold daily Mass, regular Benediction, student missions and other activities.
Bishop Ademu Adaji, who visited the university shortly before Pentecost to confer Confirmation, stressed the importance of evangelisation and catechesis to the developing ministry of the Church in Kogi State.
He also described how at one Catholic secondary school he confirmed 118 students this year, and spent time instructing them in the Faith.
“I made it a point of duty to spend at least three hours on major issues of doctrine and faith so they, in the future, will pass on this either to their families or to other young people,” he explained.
The bishop went on to say: “The university chaplaincy of Kogi state is a potential avenue for evangelisation of young people.
“We have to evangelise our youth if we are to have a future for the Catholic Church in our country. Our schools are teaching them not only knowledge of the arts and sciences but moral education – forming them character-wise.”
In a country that saw religious violence in the north earlier this year, schools are also important for building inter-faith relationships, enabling Muslims as well as Christians to study together.
Bishop Ademu Adaji thanked Aid to the Church in Need for its support, saying: “We are praying for you, for the work you are doing, and ask God to bless you for the work you are doing in mission dioceses, like the diocese of Idah.”