By Olivia Obijiaku
At the 2025 FaithDigest Day which held in Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on Sunday, August 17, 2025, some issues affecting the Church and her members such as the abuses and misdirection in the giving of baptismal names; the misuse of sacramentals and their commercialization; the multiplicity and rivalry of pious societies in parishes; the growing trend of long Communion lines with declining confessions; and the challenge of lay participation in the life and mission of the Church were looked into.
Panelists at the event, Rev Fr. James Akema, Rev Fr. Patrick Bako Zichiyang (contributing virtually) and Sir David Bulus Barau shared from their wealth of knowledge. They collectively blamed the ugly trends on ignorance of the operations of the Church, poor catechesis, modernization, influence of Pentecostalism, among others.
On the challenge of lay participation in the life and mission of the Church, Fr. Zichiyang asserted that maintaining healthy boundaries and knowing their specific duties and responsibilities to the Church will improve collaboration between the clergy and the lay faithful.
Speaking on the abuses and misdirection in the giving of baptismal names, Fr. Akema catechized that the Church guides parents to choose names with Christian significance, names of saints and names that are biblical which are not against the Catholic faith, while on the multiplicity and rivalry of pious societies in parishes; Sir Barau enlightened that the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria affirms four statutory bodies – Catholic Men Organization (CMO); Catholic Women Organization (CWO); Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria (CYON); and Holy Childhood Organization (HCA). He intimated that every member of the Church is expected to belong to one of the approved bodies according to their age and encouraged to join at least one pious society to boost their spiritual growth.
The Day also featured symposium on the book, Introduction to the Devout Life by Saint Francis De Sales, with the Raphael Azua; Chinoso Ekenta; Damilola Ogboyomi and Kayla Maria Abagu emerging 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively.
Speaking on the mission of FaithDigest, the convener, Mr. Chris Kpega intimated that the project focuses on bringing catechesis closer to the laity, “basically to be able to understand our role, how to do continuous catechesis through continuous interactive engagement.”
