Catholic Bishop Calls for Intensified Prayers Can Defeat Insecurity, Credits Mary for Relative Peace in Borno
The Catholic Bishop of Maiduguri Diocese, Most Rev. Oliver Dashe, on Saturday urged Christians to intensify prayers against the country’s insecurity, declaring that prayer has the power to crush Boko Haram.
Bishop Dashe made the call while speaking to journalists shortly after a church service marking the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
He welcomed the relative peace Borno State has enjoyed in recent years after more than a decade of insurgency. While stressing that prayer remains essential for lasting success, he insisted that individuals and government must continue to play their part to achieve total victory.
Describing the occasion as “a very important day” for the Catholic Church, the bishop said the Blessed Virgin Mary has played a significant role in the life of the diocese.
“Today is a very important day for us in the Catholic Church. And that is the feast of the Assumption of our Lady into heaven. Our Lady has played a very significant role in the life of the Church in this diocese,” he said.
“I have been the Bishop of this diocese for the past 17 years, and as I stand here before you, it is because of her intercession.
“And so in this diocese, we embark on various devotions, including the rosary and the wearing of miraculous medals. We also go to our pilgrimage centre to reconsecrate our diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, reconsecrate our families and individuals, among others.”
On the fight against insecurity, Bishop Dashe said Christians must remain vigilant through committed prayer.
“From the religious angle, we know that prayers will crush Boko Haram. However, we should know that as we pray, human beings must also do their work,” he stated.
“It is very important that Christians should be on alert, and one of the best ways to be alert is to be prayerful. This is what we have done today. We have come in order to pray, thank our Mother Mary and to ask for more of her own intercession in our lives, our state and our country.”
He attributed the current level of peace in the state to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“One of the things she has done is the fact that she brought relative peace in this axis. We know that when Boko Haram crisis started about 17 years ago, it was not funny, but now, we are experiencing peace.
“People who fled have come back and are now serving their own God and that can be attributed to the intervention of our Mother Mary,” he maintained.
The bishop, however, called on governments at all levels to support security agencies in taking the fight to terrorist strongholds.
“Therefore, I call on the government, both at the federal and state levels, to do the needful in ensuring that security personnel are able to go to the forest and mountains in order to fetch these terrorists and their members for peace to return to our state and country at large,” he said.
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