Catholic Charity Remembers Bishop Who Served Against Odds in Nigeria

August 11, 2022274 views0

Catholic Charity Remembers Bishop Who Served Against Odds in Nigeria

2022-08-11T16:49:22+01:00

By Church News

Catholic charity and Pontifical foundation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, has paid tribute to the first Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Zaria in Nigeria after serving the wider embattled Nigeria’s Kaduna state with courage.In its reports, the charity foundation recalls working with Bishop George Jonathan Dodo on numerous projects to support victims of militant attacks in the Nigerian state before he passed on at the age of 66.“ACN remembers Bishop George as a modest and courageous leader,” ACN has reported, and adds, “The international charity supported a total of 51 projects in his Diocese, and worked with Mons. Dodo since 2001 in his commitment to raising his Diocese to what it is today.”The charity foundation has noted that many of the projects the foundation worked on, with the help of Bishop Dodo, involved building new structures, and later evolved to providing security and protection, due to the increasing threats, and rebuilding Church structures after violent outbreaks.The projects reveal “the difficulties and struggles of Christians in the diocese of Zaria,” the Pontifical foundation says about the Nigerian Diocese that is situated between the Dioceses of Sokoto and Kaduna, in the North of Nigeria.The charity foundation describes the late Bishop as having been a humble man, saying, “When he became bishop, he decided to live in a modest parish house on the outskirts of the city and was in no hurry to build a Bishop’s residence.”Bishop Dodo was also “very brave”, ACN reports, recalling a terrorist incident that the Nigerian Bishop survived about a decade ago when militants detonated an explosive near his house.“On 17 June 2012, a bomb intended for the nearby Sacred Heart Catholic Church went off near his house, killing two people and injuring 50. When the suicide bombers were prevented from entering the compound of the Catholic Church by determined young Catholics on guard duty, they reversed back down the road and detonated the explosives. The remains of the car ended up in the compound of the Bishop’s house, which was damaged,” the charity foundation narrates.ALSO READ Church Organist Gets Surprise Visit From Prince Charles