“Catholic Liturgy is not a theatre”: Nigerian Catholic Bishop to Priests Introducing Cultural Practices in Holy Mass

“You don't come to Mass every Sunday bringing a new thing and confuse the people of God. Nobody is against inculturation,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishop, who was lecturing Sacred Liturgy at the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA) before his Episcopal appointment in December 2019 said, and posed, “Hasn't our Church inculturated enough?”

He said that during the offertory at Holy Mass, Priests and the faithful are allowed to sing and dance as much as they want, but to respect the sacredness of the Homily. 

The Nigerian Bishop proposed that structures be adhered to by those who wish to introduce new practices in the Liturgy, saying, “Inculturation must have a method. You don't just do as you want. Dioceses have Pastoral Liturgy commissions. When you feel that you have something good that you want to bring to the Liturgy, bring it to the Commission. Let us talk about your new idea.”

Bishop Echema cautioned Priests in Nigeria against taking the Church backwards, and adopting practices that their forefathers had rejected when they embraced Christianity.

“There are things about our culture that our forefathers rejected a long time ago. Unfortunately, some of our Priests are reviving those things in the name of inculturation,” he said.

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The Nigerian Catholic Bishop since his Episcopal Ordination in February 2020 warned that what some Priests regard as “inculturation” is dangerous as it is driving many people away from the Catholic Church in the West African country.

“Most of our youths today are going back to African traditional religion that their forefathers rejected,” he said, and added, “For Priest to lead them down this path is a double tragedy.”

Highlighting the motivations behind some of the Liturgical abuses in Nigeria, Bishop Echema said, “Many of our people, including Priests, are still steeped within African traditional religion.”

Other Priests, he said, are driven by desire to gain popularity and to enrich themselves when they engage in Liturgical abuses.

In their letter, Catholic Bishops in Nigeria expressed concern about what they described as a rising trend of deviations from established liturgical norms, warning that such practices are a direct affront to the sacredness of the Liturgy and a source of scandal within the Church.

“It is with deep concern and righteous indignation that we observe an alarming increase in aberrations during worship across our nation, perpetrated by some of our own Priests,” the Catholic Bishops said.

CBCN members had a long list of Liturgical abuses they said they had observed, including deviations from the prescribed prayers and rubrics of the Holy Mass in general and the Eucharistic Prayer in particular; as well as irreverent handling of the Eucharist.

Other deviations were walking down the aisle while carrying the monstrance during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and blessing the people using “gestures akin to sprinkling of Holy Water.”

Asked what motivated the CBCN members to write the letter, Bishop Echema said, “The Bishops of Nigeria observed very terrible aberrations and abuses in the Sacred Liturgy which is the Heart and the life of the Church. It was becoming embarrassing to the Church in Nigeria, and in the entire sub-region.”

He said the aim of the Catholic Bishops’ statement was to appeal to the consciences of Priests in the country, and to call their mind to the promises they made at their Priestly Ordination to be faithful to the Sacred Liturgy.

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“After one or two years, the Priests forgets this solemn promise,” he said during the interview with African Catholic Voices. “That is why the Bishops felt that we have to appeal to their consciences once more concerning the mutilation of approved Liturgical texts, and to invent their own rites.”

“The rites of the Church are handed to the Priests at ordination, and the Church believes and hopes that we perform these Sacred rites that are not ours. The Catholic Liturgy is a public worship of God. It is not private. Nobody has the right to tinker, or to remove or to add to the Catholic Sacred Liturgy,” he said, and added, “If any Priest wants to invent his own rites, then he has to found his own Church.”

Bishop Echema proposed that the Clergy, at Priestly Ordination, sign a certain form of indemnity document, committing themselves to accept consequences should they engage in abuses in the Liturgy. “This, I think, will help because mere promises are not working,” he said. 

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.