Bishop Musa Visits St. Pius V

On the Solemnity of St. Thomas Aquinas, January 28, Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa, bishop of the new Diocese of Katsina in northern Nigeria, spoke to the friars at St. Pius V Priory in Chicago about his work. The American Dominicans worked in this part of northern Nigeria beginning in the mid-1950s and laid the foundation for the future Diocese of Sokoto. As a child, Bishop Musa grew up on the grounds of the acclaimed catechetical center in Malumfashi, started by Fr. Bede Jagoe, OP. In fact, Bishop Musa’s late father, a convert from Islam, served as the lead catechist at the center for many years. Two years ago, Malumfashi and the surrounding area were carved out of the Diocese of Sokoto to form the new Diocese of Katsina.

Bishop Musa was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Sokoto and, from his earliest days, knew Bishop Michael Dempsey, OP, its second bishop and one of the three pioneer friars who planted the Order in Nigeria in 1951. Originally, the Dominicans named all the parishes they founded after Dominican saints. The church in Katsina was named after St. Martin de Porres and is now the only Catholic cathedral in the world to be named in his honor.

This part of Nigeria is solidly Muslim, but pockets of indigenes of the area who have resisted Islamic proselytism for centuries exist. Northern Nigeria is a hotspot of Muslim-Christian conflict, where churches have been burned and priests and seminarians abducted and killed. However, this has not deterred young men from answering the call to the priesthood and young women and men from entering religious life. Katsina now has about 30 seminarians, many of whom are “sons of the soil,” whose ancestors have lived there for generations.

Bishop Musa, who is a former professor of communications at the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, gave a fascinating 45-minute presentation on the work of the American Dominicans in northern Nigeria starting in the mid-1950s. Among other things, he identified the innovative ways they used in reaching people in the early days. One surprising way was through the consumption of the local alcoholic beverage made from corn. While the international Protestant missionary group, the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), insisted then that anyone thinking about becoming Christian must never imbibe alcohol—especially their traditional African drink—our American friars not only allowed its consumption but would join the local people in drinking it. In this way, and in many other ways (notably the catechetical center in Malumfashi), the local people began to feel accepted and befriended by the Dominicans, whereas previously they had felt despised and excluded by the Muslim majority. From such modest beginnings, the Catholic faith was planted in this remote part of Nigeria, which today is home to many Catholic churches and indigenous priests and religious.

Bishop Musa also spoke about the ongoing religious turmoil that has often engulfed parts of northern Nigeria, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Christians, Muslims, and animists. (On Christmas Day, our country sent 17 Tomahawk missiles to an area in northern Nigeria not far from Katsina.)

At the end of the hour, Bishop Musa answered questions put to him by the friars. Afterwards, one of the younger friars present, Fr. James Pierce Cavanaugh, OP, remarked that the bishop’s talk was a:

wonderful witness to both the work done by missionaries associated with our Province and also the state of the Church and the cultures in Nigeria. It was edifying to hear the way that Nigerian Christians still see our Province as godfathers of a sort, and I’m personally encouraged to pray for the needs of the Church there and support its members by any means possible.”

Fr. Tom McDermott, OP