{"id":77357,"date":"2025-10-24T09:45:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=77357"},"modified":"2025-10-24T09:45:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:45:21","slug":"kukah-urges-national-renewal-at-vatican-religious-freedom-report-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/24\/kukah-urges-national-renewal-at-vatican-religious-freedom-report-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Kukah Urges National Renewal at Vatican Religious Freedom Report Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samson Adeyanju<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has called for renewed moral courage and national unity in Nigeria amid worsening insecurity and religious tensions.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Vatican during the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom, Bishop Kukah delivered an address titled \u201cA Plea and Testimony from Nigeria\u201d at the Augustinianum Hall.<\/p>\n<p>He lamented Nigeria\u2019s deepening security crisis and the blurring of lines between terrorism, religious persecution, and criminal violence, saying, \u201cNigerians are dying for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cleric praised Nigeria\u2019s heritage of interfaith harmony, recalling personal collaborations with Muslim leaders in Sokoto, while urging government institutions to end impunity and uphold citizens\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Kukah advised against classifying Nigeria as a \u201cCountry of Concern,\u201d warning that such a move could harm ongoing peace efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he appealed for support for local initiatives promoting dialogue and inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>The event, marking 25 years of ACN\u2019s global advocacy for religious freedom, was attended by senior Church leaders, including Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who noted that over 5.4 billion people live without full religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite our challenges,\u201d Bishop Kukah said, \u201cNigeria still has a window of opportunity to rebuild trust, strengthen unity, and show that faith can heal rather than divide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samson Adeyanju &nbsp; Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, has called for renewed moral courage and national unity in Nigeria amid worsening insecurity and religious tensions. Speaking at the Vatican during the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom, Bishop Kukah delivered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,1681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77359,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77357\/revisions\/77359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}