VaticanNews.va (December 25, 2025) reports the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora’s announcement regarding the resolution of the November 21, 2025 abduction at St. Mary’s Catholic Schools in Papiri, Nigeria. After two verification exercises conducted with Nigerian state authorities and security agencies, the diocese confirmed that 230 students and staff were abducted (not 315 as initially reported), all subsequently rescued and reunited with families. Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna expressed gratitude to government forces while emphasizing “transparency and public confidence” in the process. The article frames the incident through secular crisis management metrics, avoiding any substantive theological reflection on the atrocity.
Naturalistic Reduction of Ecclesiastical Mission
The conciliar sect’s statement reduces the Church’s role to that of a humanitarian NGO collaborating with secular powers. Bishop Yohanna’s exclusive focus on body counts (“85 escaped… 230 abducted”) and bureaucratic verification processes starkly contrasts with the Church’s divine mandate to save souls from eternal damnation (Mark 16:15). Not once does the statement mention:
the eternal consequences for unrepentant terrorists, the necessity of sacramental confession for traumatized victims, or the obligation to pray for the conversion of attackers.
This deliberate silence manifests the conciliar sect’s adherence to the condemned proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Pius IX, Syllabus Errorum, 55). The diocese’s celebration of government intervention as the ultimate solution directly contradicts Pius XI’s teaching that “When men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (Encyclical Quas Primas, 19).
Theological Abdication in the Face of Evil
Nowhere does the diocesan statement identify the abduction as demonic warfare against Christ’s flock – a shocking omission given that bandits specifically targeted a Catholic institution during the liturgical season anticipating Christ’s Nativity. The conciliar sect’s sterile language of “persons reported as unaccounted for” and “verified total number” constitutes a modernist evasion of moral clarity. Contrast this with the Church’s uncompromising language against evil:
“He who gives the Kingdom of Heaven does not take away earthly things!” (Hymn: Crudelis Herodes, cited in Quas Primas)
The article’s clinical detachment from supernatural reality exposes its authors’ embrace of the condemned modernist error that “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Holy Office, Lamentabili Sane, 20). Authentic Catholic shepherds would have:
1. Ordered public penitential processions invoking St. Michael against demonic forces
2. Offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass pro captivis liberandis (for freeing captives)
3. Warned terrorists of divine judgment unless they repented
Instead, the diocese reduces the Church to a fact-checking agency collaborating with secular security apparatus – a betrayal of Her divine mission to “overcome the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19).
Sacramental Silence and Pastoral Negligence
The conciliar sect’s report contains zero references to the sacramental care of victims – a damning indictment of its sacramental theology. No mention is made of:
- Administering Last Rites to the mortally wounded
- Offering Confession to those forced into mortal sin during captivity
- Providing Exorcisms for those spiritually violated
This neglect confirms the modernist corruption diagnosed in Lamentabili Sane (46-47), which condemned the view that “the Church very slowly accustomed itself to this concept, and even when penance was recognized as an institution of the Church, it was not called a sacrament.” The diocese’s secularized response embodies the very apostasy Pius X warned against when he wrote:
“The Church alone… gives birth to and raises up ever new ranks of holy men and women, and Christ does not cease to call to happiness in the heavenly Kingdom those who were faithful and obedient subjects to Him in the earthly Kingdom” (Quas Primas).
Cult of Earthly Security Over Eternal Salvation
Bishop Yohanna’s exclusive gratitude toward “the Nigerian Government and the security agencies” constitutes idolatrous substitution of temporal power for divine protection. The statement’s concluding sentence – “For this, we remain eternally grateful” – applies eschatological language (“eternally”) to human actors, a blasphemous inflation of earthly authority. Contrast this with the Church’s authentic teaching:
“You were redeemed not with corruptible gold or silver… but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19, cited in Quas Primas)
The diocese’s total silence on Nigeria’s Islamic terrorism epidemic – which has destroyed over 300 churches and killed thousands of Christians since 2020 – reveals its complicity with the conciliar sect’s false ecumenism. Rather than demanding Nigeria’s consecration to Christ the King and public repudiation of sharia law, the statement reduces the mystical body of Christ to a statistic in security force press releases.
Source:
All 315 abducted and missing of St. Mary’s School now fully accounted for, Diocese Confirms (vaticannews.va)
Date: 25.12.2025