Nigerian Kidnapping Crisis Exposes Ecclesial Capitulation to Secular Power
The Catholic News Agency portal reports the release of 130 students and teachers kidnapped from St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Nigeria’s Niger state, completing the liberation of 303 captives taken on November 21, 2025. Authorities attribute the resolution to “military intelligence-driven operations,” while the Diocese of Kontagora issued statements thanking governmental and security forces without invoking supernatural intervention.
Naturalistic Reduction of Divine Providence
The diocesan statement’s focus on earthly authorities reveals a fundamental theological corruption: “We are profoundly grateful to the federal government of Nigeria, the Niger state government, the security agencies, and all other partners” conspicuously omits Deo gratias – the first duty of Catholic thanksgiving. This inversion of priorities violates Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925), which declares: “When once 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” (n. 19). By prioritizing human agencies over divine sovereignty, the conciliar sect perpetuates the modernist error condemned in the Syllabus of Errors: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55).
Contradictions in Secular Authority
The conflicting narratives between President Tinubu’s spokesperson Sunday Dare (“none left in captivity”) and police official Wasiu Abiodun (“35 students and teachers unaccounted for”) exemplify the bankruptcy of trust in civil power. This disorder stems directly from rejecting Christ’s social kingship, as Pius XI warned: “When once men recognize… that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (Quas Primas, 19). The article’s uncritical reproduction of governmental claims demonstrates journalism complicit in the “cult of man” denounced by true popes.
Diocesan Complicity in Syncretism
Photographs showing the Vicar General Musa John Gado alongside “traditional leaders” constitute grave scandal. The 1864 Syllabus explicitly condemns the error that “the Church ought to tolerate the errors of philosophy” (Proposition 11), yet here we witness ecclesiastical figures legitimizing pagan authorities. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili sane (1907) anathematized the notion that “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine, and finally Greek and universal” (Proposition 60) – precisely the evolutionary mindset enabling such syncretism.
Omission of Supernatural Remedies
Nowhere does the report mention the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for captives, nor sacramentals like the Rosary – the weapons that liberated Christendom from Ottoman slavery at Lepanto. Instead, we find bureaucratized “prayers” stripped of doctrinal content: “May the Lord grant the swift release of those still in captivity” reduces the Almighty to a hostage negotiator. Contrast this with the 1917 Code of Canon Law’s requirement for public supplications during calamities (Canon 1506), emphasizing ex opere operato efficacy of sacramentals against diabolic forces.
Theological Consequences of Abandoned Christendom
This tragedy manifests the inevitable fruits of Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom. When Pius IX condemned the idea that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which he shall consider true” (Syllabus, Proposition 15), he protected nations from such anarchic violence. Nigeria’s 50,000 murdered Christians since 2009 testify to the conciliar betrayal of Quas Primas’ mandate: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” (n. 32).
Source:
130 students and teachers kidnapped from Catholic school in Nigeria released (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 23.12.2025