THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF POPE FRANCIS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Within a period of four months, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) issued two statements about the sociopolitical situation in the country. In the context of the killing of two priests and their parishioners in Mbalom, Benue State, on 24 April 2018, the Bishops decried the inefficiency of the Government and went to the extent of calling on the President to resign if he could not protect the citizens under his care1. On August 8, 2018, the CBCN issued a press release to Major Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life, Catholic Priests, Consecrated men and women and Catholic Lay Faithful, concerning the role of the faithful in political life. The Bishops declared that the Church is “apolitical.2”