Politics has eroded credibility of many clerics – Catholic bishop


Bishop of Catholic Dioceses of Yola, Most Rev. Stephen Mamza, has said many religious leaders have lost their credibility by dabbling into politics for pecuniary gains.


Mamza  lamented that the church had lost control over many of the church leaders.


The cleric said the utterances of many church leaders showed that they had gone beyond the limit expected of them.


He said, “The problem we have is that we have hungry religious leaders. Those that are not there for the service of God but because of their pockets. If not, why should a religious leader allow the politician to control him. The cleric is supposed to be the leader of the politician and not the other way around, as we can see.



“We (clerics) are supposed to form the conscience of the politicians. But in a situation where due to material things, we cede this position to them, then we’ll lose our credibility. The problem that we have today with religious leaders is that many of them have lost their credibility because they dabbled into politics.


“I can give example with the Catholic church. The Catholic church has rules and regulations. But there are many other religious bodies that do not have guiding principles. These are the ones that allow their religious leaders to go into politics and they go beyond the limits that are acceptable.”


But when asked about the utterances of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka on political matters, Mamza accused Mbaka of being an embarrassment to the Catholic church.


He said, “Reverend Father Mbaka is an embarrassment to the Catholic church and I wonder why he is yet to be sanctioned by the bishop of his diocese. This cannot happen in other dioceses. There is no reason why he should not be sanctioned.



“Every priest is under the jurisdiction of his bishop. If a priest commits a crime or does something wrong anywhere in the world, the person that acts on that priest is the bishop. Even Rome will not act just like that; it is your own bishop that will do that. I think we can say that his bishop should make sure he cautions Mbaka because he has really crossed his bounds.”
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