By Olivia Obijiaku
The Parish Priest of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Rev Fr. Dr. Ezekiel Danlami Tijjani has ascribed Mary’s title as the Queen of Heaven to her Assumption into heaven. Disclosing this in the parish on the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, on Friday, August 22, 2025, the clergyman catechized that the Queen-Mother is also the Queen of Earth by the virtue of her spotlessness, while on earth.
He oriented that the Feast was introduced to the Church on 11th October 1954 by Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reguinam and that the same Pope declared the Assumption of Mary, as an official dogma of the Church,, on 1st November, 1950, even as he, the homilist, defined dogma as revealed truth, having roots in the teachings of the apostles and the early Fathers of the Church.
“We join the Church in thanking God for the gift of Our Mother Mary.” The priest announced. “Mary was given the title, ‘Regina Caeli’ because, after her Assumption, she was coroneted as the Queen of Heaven. She is not only the Queen of Heaven. She is also the Queen of Earth because, while here, she was sinless. Also, by her total submission to the will of God, she is the Queen of Earth. She is the Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Angels. She is the Queen of our hearts.”
In his homily on the Solemnity of Assumption, Friday, August 15, 2025, the clergyman charged parishioners to imitate Mary’s life of purity and submission to the will of God. “She became sinless because she was kept away from participating in original sin, unlike us. God prepared her from the beginning. She remained sinless. She was taken up into heaven because of what she had done on earth – Mother and Virgin.”
“This is a clarion call to all of us, that we should live a holy life; that we should be humble before God; that we should sacrifice our time, our energy, our resources. If we want to see God, then we must be pure in heart, so that at the end of time, as Mary was honoured, we too will be honoured.”
