₦airaland Forum

From Abdullahi Shuaibu, Lafia

No fewer than 50 persons were feared killed in a fresh attack by the Ombatse cult group in Obi town, Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State at the weekend. According to an eyewitness account, many houses have been set ablaze, while many residents, including women and children have fled their homes to take refuge in nearby villages. Many of them were seen trekking over 30 kilometres to Lafia, the state capital.

Meanwhile, tension is very high in Obi, Tudun Adabu, Daddere and other villages around the area.

Sunday Sun correspondent who visited the area reports that soldiers in 11 vehicles had been deployed in Obi to maintain law and order.

A National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, member, Bernard Oyeogun, kidnapped, Wednesday, by a rival faction in Agbor, Delta State, has been rescued by the police from the palace of a royal father, (names withheld), where he was unlawfully held for one night.

Saturday Vanguard was informed, yesterday, that the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the area, who acted on a tip-off, stormed the palace with policemen on Thursday and unchained the victim.

He was battered by his captors and there was fear, yesterday, that he might go blind.

There has been a simmering dispute between two factions of the union in the area and a source confided to Saturday Vanguard that the national executive of the union dissolved the chapter, yesterday afternoon, after it was briefed on the development.

The royal father was said to be away from his palace when the incident occurred, but he, allegedly, has sympathy for one of the rival factions. However, two persons, aged 31 and 41 years respectively have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Delta State, Lucky Uyabame, confirmed the incident and arrest of two persons to Saturday Vanguard.

He said the Divisional Police Officer, Agbor, led his patrol team to the palace of the monarch, where they found the victim, who was assaulted and taken hostage from the Agbor-Ogwashi-Uku motor park, Agbor by three members of the rival group.

https://resources1.news.com.au/images/2013/09/12/1226717/346825-130912-pietro-parolin.jpg
The Vatican has opened its door to the possibility of married priests, a move that would go against centuries-old Church tradition.

Archbishop Pietro Parolin, who will be No.2 in the Roman Catholic Church when be becomes secretary of state next month, declared that the priestly vow of celibacy derived from an age-old rule, but was not Catholic dogma.

"It's not a dogma of the Church and it can be discussed because it's an ecclesiastical tradition," Archbishop Parolin told El Universal newspaper in Venezuela, where he is completing his term as Papal Nuncio.

"It is a great challenge for the Pope because he has a mission to unite and all these decisions must be taken in a way that unites the Church, rather than dividing it," he said. "At that point, you can talk and reflect and go deeper into these issues that are not defined by faith and think about some changes, but always in the service of unity and as the will of God. It's not what I want [that matters] but to be faithful to what God wants for his Church."

Archbishop Parolin's comments come at a time of upheaval in the Church, which has been beset by scandals over sex abuse by priests, following the resignation of Benedict XVI and the election of the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis.

Francis has made waves by calling for a "poor Church for the poor". He has said he wants to boost the role of women in the Church, although he has noted that Pope John Paul II ruled out the ordination of women.

He has also taken a more tolerant stance on homosexuality, declaring: "Who am I to judge?"

Yesterday, he reached out to nonbelievers in an unprecedented letter to Italy's leading left-wing paper La Repubblica to answer a columnist who declared that he did not believe in God. The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics told Eugenio Scalfari, the newspaper's co-founder and former editor, that non-believers did not commit a sin as long as they followed their consciences.

"The question for people who do not believe in God is to listen to their consciences. Also for those without faith, sin is going against your conscience. Listening to it and obeying it means making up one's mind about what is good and evil."

The Catholic insistence on the celibacy of priests dates back to the first centuries of the Church. The first Church law mandating celibacy was Canon 33, enacted at the Synod of Elvira, now the Spanish city of Granada, around 305-306 AD. The discipline was definitively reaffirmed at the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century.

The Orthodox Church and some Eastern Catholic churches, however, allow married priests.

Francis, in an interview in 2012 before becoming Pope, said: "For the moment, I am in favour of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons ... It is a matter of discipline, not of faith. It can change. Personally, it never crossed my mind to marry."

ik4life: Technically am the 1st to comment

abuliveyoung: I thought they said Christians dn't marry more than 4 wives....now, who're they deceivng? Smh

Tablet Man: Nowadays doctors even seek for fame like politicians with their Lame And Rubbish Innovations and Invention

mekuilis: Samuelkaykay pls becareful of what you say and how you talk to men of God,they represent Him here on earth... Samuelkaykay pls becareful of what you say and how you talk to men of God,they represent Him here on earth...