Christians Must Defend Themselves Amid Rising Persecution, Nigerian Prelate Says
EWTN News reports that Monsignor Pius Barinaadaa Kii, judicial vicar of Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Port Harcourt, has urged Christians to adopt a “balanced approach of nonviolence while taking necessary steps to defend themselves in the face of growing persecution.” In an interview with ACI Africa, Kii stated: “Christian persecution in Nigeria is real. It is more pronounced in some parts of the country than others.” He added: “Even though we adopt a nonviolent posture, we also have a necessary obligation to defend our lives and to defend ourselves to any extent that we can.” The prelate referenced Christ telling Peter, “Sheath your sword, the moment will come when you will need it,” while also addressing economic challenges and expressing hope for Nigeria’s political future ahead of the 2027 elections. Kii urged Nigerians to trust in divine providence: “God remains God on his own terms. Let God be God on his own terms.” This interview, published by a media outlet of the conciliar sect, exposes the fundamental impotence and theological confusion of the post-conciliar Church when confronted with the murder of the faithful — an impotence that is not accidental but the direct fruit of the modernist revolution that gutted the Church of her supernatural mission and reduced her to a humanitarian NGO.
The Omission That Condemns: Silence on the Social Reign of Christ the King
Let us begin where the modernist always begins — with what is not said. Monsignor Kii, a canon lawyer no less, speaks of “Christian persecution in Nigeria” and urges self-defense. But not once — not a single syllable — does he invoke the social reign of Christ the King, the doctrine that Pius XI proclaimed as the indispensable remedy for the ills of nations in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925). Pius XI taught with absolute clarity: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The Pope further declared: “The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.”
What does this mean for Nigeria? It means that the first and most fundamental cause of the persecution of Christians is not the malice of the persecutors alone, but the apostasy of the state — the refusal of Nigeria’s governments, laws, and public institutions to recognize the kingship of Christ. Pius XI warned: “When God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Until Nigeria — and every nation — publicly acknowledges Christ the King, subordinates its laws to the divine law, and governs according to Catholic principles, there will be no lasting peace, no security, and no justice. The persecution of Christians is a punishment for the sins of nations, including the sin of laicism condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (proposition 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” — condemned).
Kii’s silence on this is not merely an oversight. It is doctrinal apostasy by omission. The conciliar sect has abandoned the social reign of Christ the King — indeed, Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae enshrined the very religious liberty that Pius IX condemned as error (proposition 77-79 of the Syllabus). The post-conciliar Church no longer teaches that states have a duty to Christ; she merely asks, politely, not to be murdered. This is the language of a conquered people, not of the Kingdom of God on earth.
The Theological Bankruptcy of “Self-Defense” Without Supernatural Principle
Monsignor Kii invokes the Gospel episode of Peter and the sword, twisting it to justify armed self-defense. Let us examine this. Christ said to Peter: “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). The context is the arrest of Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter’s act was rebuked by Christ, who immediately healed the ear of Malchus. The phrase Kii quotes — “the moment will come when you will need it” — is a garbled and contextually inverted reading. Christ’s teaching on this matter is clear: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting” (John 18:36).
Now, does the Church teach that self-defense is impermissible? No. The right of self-defense is established in Catholic moral theology. But the manner, spirit, and context in which Kii raises this issue reveals the poverty of the conciliar formation. He speaks of self-defense as though it were a purely natural, pragmatic calculation — a matter of survival strategy, not of supernatural virtue. Where is the call to martyrdom? Where is the teaching that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” (Tertullian)? Where is the reminder that the greatest act of self-defense for a Christian is not the bullet but the confession of faith unto death?
The conciliar sect, having abandoned the theology of martyrdom — having, in practice, canonized men like Maximilian Kolbe (who died not for the faith but for a fellow prisoner, and was “canonized” by an antipope) — can only offer the faithful the language of naturalism. Defend yourselves. Survive. Hope for better elections. This is the language of the United Nations, not of the Catholic Church. The true Church taught: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). She taught that the Christian soldier fights not with carnal weapons but with the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-17). The neo-church teaches: arm yourselves and wait for the 2027 elections.
The Economic Naturalism of the Conciliar Clergy
Kii’s remarks on Nigeria’s economic situation are equally revealing. He acknowledges hardship, expresses “cautious optimism” about reforms, and likens the expected turnaround to “the joy of Easter following the sorrow of Good Friday.” This analogy is not merely banal — it is sacrilegious. The Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord are not metaphors for economic policy cycles. To compare the sufferings of the Nigerian people under an unjust economic system to the redemptive sacrifice of Christ, and to compare a hoped-for economic recovery to the Resurrection, is to trivialize the mysteries of faith and reduce them to the level of political commentary.
Moreover, Kii says: “The president himself said it will not be easy, but we should prepare for a rough ride so that we have a smoother ride tomorrow.” This is the language of secular progressivism, not of Catholic social teaching. The Church before 1958 taught that economic justice requires the application of the Gospel to social structures — the restoration of the guild system, the prohibition of usury, the defense of private property ordered to the common good, and the subordination of economic activity to moral law. Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno laid out a comprehensive Catholic social doctrine. Kii offers none of this. He offers patience and hope in human reforms — the very naturalism condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (proposition 58: “No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means”).
“Let God Be God on His Own Terms” — A Modernist Mantra
Perhaps the most revealing statement in the entire interview is Kii’s exhortation: “God remains God on his own terms. Let God be God on his own terms.” On the surface, this sounds pious. But in the context of the conciliar sect’s systematic abandonment of doctrine, it functions as a modernist escape hatch. “God on His own terms” — what does this mean? It means: we do not know, we cannot define, we dare not pronounce. It is the language of religious experience over dogmatic truth, condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) as the very essence of Modernism.
The true Church has always known — with the certitude of divine faith — what God’s terms are. He has revealed them. He has established His Church to teach, govern, and sanctify. He has given us the deposit of faith, the Magisterium, the sacraments. “Let God be God on His own terms” is the mantra of a Church that has lost confidence in her own divine constitution and now retreats into pious vagueness rather than pronounce the hard truths of the Gospel. It is the theological equivalent of a soldier laying down his arms and saying, “Let the enemy be the enemy on his own terms.”
The EWTN Apparatus: A Mouthpiece of the Conciliar Sect
The source of this interview — EWTN News, published through ACI Africa — is itself a product of the post-conciliar revolution. EWTN, while using the externals of Catholic identity, is fully integrated into the structures of the conciar sect. It does not question the legitimacy of the antipopes. It does not teach the social reign of Christ the King. It does not condemn the errors of Vatican II. It operates as a media arm of the neo-church, presenting the conciliar narrative in Catholic-sounding language. That this interview was published by EWTN is itself evidence that its content is acceptable to the modernist establishment — which means it will contain no doctrine that challenges the conciliar revolution.
The Root Cause: The Apostasy of the Post-Conciliar Church
The persecution of Christians in Nigeria — and across the world — is not an accident of history. It is a direct consequence of the apostasy of the post-conciliar Church. When the Church ceases to teach the social reign of Christ the King, states cease to acknowledge Him. When states cease to acknowledge Him, they fall into every form of injustice, including the persecution of the faithful. When the Church ceases to teach the necessity of conversion, the world ceases to convert. When the Church ceases to demand the submission of all nations to the Gospel, the nations submit to the devil.
St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907) against the modernist errors that would destroy the Church from within — errors condemned in propositions such as: “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (condemned, prop. 57); “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism” (condemned, prop. 65). The conciliar sect has fulfilled these prophecies precisely. It has transformed Catholicism into a “broad and liberal” naturalism, and the result is that Christians in Nigeria — and everywhere — are left without the supernatural arms that alone can defend them: the true Mass, the true sacraments, the true doctrine, and the true social reign of Christ the King.
Conclusion: The Only True Defense
The only true defense of Christians — in Nigeria and everywhere — is the restoration of the Catholic Church in her fullness: the recognition of Christ the King over all nations, the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples, the administration of the true sacraments, and the offering of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the unchanging Roman Rite. Until this is accomplished, all talk of “self-defense” is building on sand. The faithful must reject the conciar sect, return to the integral Catholic faith, and pray for the restoration of the true Church — for “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
“The just man liveth by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Let the faithful in Nigeria — and everywhere — arm themselves not with bullets but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17), and let them place their trust not in elections or reforms but in the infinite merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, whose kingdom shall have no end.
Source:
Christians must defend themselves amid rising persecution, Nigerian prelate says (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 06.05.2026