Kaigama Advocates Training of Clerics to Curb Religious Radicalism

The Catholic Archbishop of the Abuja Metropolitan See, His
Grace, Ignatius Kaigama, has urged religious organisations to
ensure proper training of preachers to avoid communicating
inflammatory messages that could create tension and violence.

Kaigama, in his homily yesterday at a special mass service at
the Holy Ghost Parish, Saburi, a satellite town in Abuja, said it
was expected that religious preachers should preach hope and
salvation and not incite followers to violence.

Speaking against the background of a raging controversy over the
previous preaching of the Minister of Communication and Digital
Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, the cleric said mistaken or faulty
positions held by preachers and communicated to followers could
contribute to unnecessary tension and violence.

He said: “The raging controversy about what a serving minister
preached or did not preach years ago only goes to show the
sensitivity of religious matters in Nigeria, which we must always
approach with very great caution.

“It is a clarion call for the proper training of preachers.
Mistaken or faulty positions held by preachers and communicated to
followers can contribute to unnecessary tension and violence that
could even lead to the waste of human lives.

“As a doctor must attain full professional knowledge before
practising, so must preachers attain the height of religious
formation before preaching, as ignorantia legit non excusat
(ignorance of the law is not an excuse).”

Kaigama stressed the need for religious organisations to set the
correct criteria for preachers, “so that no one with the improper
understanding of scripture or only with superficial and distorted
truths of our faiths will cause religious friction and
tension.”

“We should preach the message of hope and salvation and not to
incite followers to violence or to call others offensive names or
to look condescendingly on adherents of other religions,” he
added.

According to him, religious organisations should identify
potential and capable persons to be trained and also set aside
resources meant to nurture and develop them.

He stated that in the Catholic Church, the training of priests
was taken seriously, adding that being a religious leader is a
calling, not a profession or a part-time enterprise.

The Catholic Archbishop of the Abuja Metropolitan See, His
Grace, Ignatius Kaigama, has urged religious organisations to
ensure proper training of preachers to avoid communicating
inflammatory messages that could create tension and violence.

Kaigama, in his homily yesterday at a special mass service at
the Holy Ghost Parish, Saburi, a satellite town in Abuja, said it
was expected that religious preachers should preach hope and
salvation and not incite followers to violence.

Speaking against the background of a raging controversy over the
previous preaching of the Minister of Communication and Digital
Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, the cleric said mistaken or faulty
positions held by preachers and communicated to followers could
contribute to unnecessary tension and violence.

He said: “The raging controversy about what a serving minister
preached or did not preach years ago only goes to show the
sensitivity of religious matters in Nigeria, which we must always
approach with very great caution.

“It is a clarion call for the proper training of preachers.
Mistaken or faulty positions held by preachers and communicated to
followers can contribute to unnecessary tension and violence that
could even lead to the waste of human lives.

“As a doctor must attain full professional knowledge before
practising, so must preachers attain the height of religious
formation before preaching, as ignorantia legit non excusat
(ignorance of the law is not an excuse).”

Kaigama stressed the need for religious organisations to set the
correct criteria for preachers, “so that no one with the improper
understanding of scripture or only with superficial and distorted
truths of our faiths will cause religious friction and
tension.”

“We should preach the message of hope and salvation and not to
incite followers to violence or to call others offensive names or
to look condescendingly on adherents of other religions,” he
added.

According to him, religious organisations should identify
potential and capable persons to be trained and also set aside
resources meant to nurture and develop them.

He stated that in the Catholic Church, the training of priests
was taken seriously, adding that being a religious leader is a
calling, not a profession or a part-time enterprise.