The John-Henry Westen Show - Heroic Nigerian priest shines light on religious persecution from Boko Haram

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, where we are very pleased to have someone with us that you really haven't seen before, someone who is able to speak to us directly from a place of grave persecution against faithful Catholics who are trying to live their faith in a very heroic way.

00:00:20.620 We have with us today Father Innocent Sunu, who works right in the heart of the Boko Haram territory in Nigeria. It's the place where the persecution by this Islamic militant group has been the most severe, and we're very privileged to talk with Father Innocent today. You're going to want to stay tuned.

00:00:50.620 You're going to want to stay tuned.

00:01:20.620 Amen.

00:01:22.620 Amen. Thank you, Father.

00:01:24.620 First of all, Father Innocent, can you tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into where you are and what you're doing? How did you come to be there? And what are you up to now?

00:01:34.620 My name is Father Innocent Sunu. As you have earlier introduced me, I was born into my family, the family of then Al-Haji Muhammad, that was my father. And then my mother, Mrs. Monica.

00:01:54.380 My father was actually a Muslim. Before he was converted to Catholicism by the love he has for my mother, or had for my mother because my father is late now.

00:02:06.380 So while growing up, we grew up to be Muslims. My elder brother and I, we are the only two sons of my parents, and then I have seven sisters.

00:02:18.380 So we grew up going to the mosque and going to the church.

00:02:24.380 But when eventually we became to know what is good for us and what is bad for us, I am not saying that Islam is bad or trying to derogate Islam, but when we grew up to know what is good for us and what is bad for us, 0.90

00:02:38.380 we decided to follow our mom, to join her in the church all the time and to be Catholics.

00:02:45.380 And my father was challenged because of the courage we took because where we were, where he was working then, it was predominantly a Muslim village and he was a secondary school teacher.

00:02:57.380 And so we were always on the move. We were always on the transfer.

00:03:01.380 And we were encouraged by the number of priests who used to come around to celebrate masses for us, even when we were just like about five or six families.

00:03:10.380 Well, priests will always come to celebrate mass and we were encouraged.

00:03:14.380 So when eventually we became Catholics, like my name used to be Mahamud.

00:03:20.380 So I decided to choose the name innocent for my baptism.

00:03:25.380 And then my elder brother chose Abraham for his baptism.

00:03:30.380 And eventually we liked priests who used to come around.

00:03:33.380 And so we told my parents, we told them that we want to join the minor seminary because those who were coming from the minor seminary then were very intelligent boys.

00:03:44.380 And they were our friends who we play soccer together.

00:03:47.380 And so my dad decided to pay the school fees for us to join the minor seminary in Yola.

00:03:53.380 And as soon as we joined the minor seminary in Yola, we became very, very serious.

00:03:58.380 And both of us, my elder brother and I wanted to be priests.

00:04:02.380 But eventually, eventually my elder brother said, no, that me, I'm the small one.

00:04:07.380 I should go. He's the big one. He will go and take care of the family.

00:04:10.380 So I stopped here and there.

00:04:12.380 I found myself in St. Augustine's and St. Thomas Aquinas major seminary for my philosophy in McCordy.

00:04:19.380 And then I had my one year pastoral year.

00:04:22.380 That is like one year of a most work that you have to do before you become a priest.

00:04:31.380 Most that you have to be on a pastoral year before you get ordained.

00:04:36.380 So for my theology, I went to St. Augustine's major seminary in Joss.

00:04:40.380 Unfortunately for me, or maybe God is preparing me for something I never knew.

00:04:45.380 When I was to be ordained in 2009, then we hadn't a bishop.

00:04:49.380 We had a diocesan administrator because our bishop was transferred from Meduguri to Kaduna in Nigeria.

00:04:56.380 So we had a diocesan administrator.

00:04:59.380 And the administrator said he was not going to ordain me.

00:05:04.380 So he didn't ordain me.

00:05:06.380 I was just alone doing what I can do for God and doing what I can do for his people.

00:05:13.380 Then later in the year, when our new bishop was appointed, we met at the airport.

00:05:19.380 I introduced myself to him and he was so glad to have met me.

00:05:23.380 And he told me he has checked my file and he has not seen anything that didn't warrant that I should not be ordained a priest.

00:05:31.380 Do I still want to be a priest?

00:05:33.380 I said, even if I'm 100 years old, I will still want to be a priest.

00:05:38.380 So he invited me in 2017, 2016 rather, during the year of mercy, he said, I'm going to be his own mercy priest.

00:05:48.380 I said, I have no problem with that.

00:05:50.380 So in 2017, he ordained me.

00:05:52.380 And immediately on the day of my ordination, on the day of my ordination, he gave me my letter of posting to work in present Madagali.

00:06:00.380 Wow.

00:06:01.380 When I told some priests that I'll be going to Madagali to work as parish priest there.

00:06:06.380 Some priests even remarked, this was what they said. 0.98

00:06:09.380 They said, in quotes, they said, this man wants to kill you. 0.99

00:06:11.380 They said, this bishop wants to kill you. 0.99

00:06:13.380 Then I said, no, this bishop doesn't want to kill me. 0.94

00:06:16.380 He wants me to go and do something special.

00:06:19.380 So I resumed there on the 26th of November, 2017.

00:06:26.380 Wow.

00:06:27.380 And that was how I found myself working with different kinds of people, working with both terrorists in the church and outside the church.

00:06:35.380 Why?

00:06:36.380 I mean, I know, but for our listeners, why would your confers have said it's a death sentence or he wants to kill you?

00:06:45.380 What is it with Madagali?

00:06:47.380 What is it about there that's so scary?

00:06:50.380 Yeah.

00:06:51.380 So many, so many, about four pastors have been kidnapped there.

00:06:55.380 Not just being kidnapped, they have been murdered in front of people openly.

00:06:59.380 They have been slaughtered in front of people openly.

00:07:03.380 And so the place has stayed for more than five years without a priest.

00:07:09.380 And I was the first, I was the first priest to go there, both pre and post crisis era.

00:07:17.380 For, for some priests, if they were asked to go there, they would not go.

00:07:21.380 Some priests have told me that they will never go to such a place, which of course they have the right to say so.

00:07:25.380 And I have the right to, because the bishop will always ask you, do you want to go to a particular place?

00:07:30.380 Yeah.

00:07:31.380 So when he asked me, I said, I will go.

00:07:33.380 No problem.

00:07:34.380 I said, I will go.

00:07:35.380 Yeah.

00:07:36.380 What's your motivation, Father?

00:07:38.380 Why, why would you go to such a place where, uh, you know, death might be imminent?

00:07:42.380 I definitely had confidence, one in God who has called me back.

00:07:48.380 And God never failed me right through my years of staying outside for seven years of not being ordained.

00:07:55.380 And then when I was driving there, I was alone on the road.

00:08:00.380 I was alone.

00:08:01.380 The only car you will see on the road were soldiers.

00:08:04.380 So when I came to my parish, the whole parish was burnt down completely, burnt down completely.

00:08:10.380 So I was in the car crying.

00:08:13.380 And then the rosary that I hung on my mirror suddenly fell on the ground.

00:08:19.380 I don't know how it fell.

00:08:20.380 So it fell on my body and I held it.

00:08:23.380 I was not saying any particular station.

00:08:27.380 I was not saying any particular decade.

00:08:30.380 I was just saying the Hail Mary and crying.

00:08:32.380 And then a young altar servant came and knocked at my door.

00:08:35.380 When I went down, he said, Father, it's time for Mars.

00:08:38.380 The people are waiting.

00:08:43.380 The church was completely destroyed.

00:08:47.380 The father's house directory was completely burnt.

00:08:50.380 The small clinic there was burnt.

00:08:53.380 The school there was burnt.

00:08:55.380 And most of the people in my heart, I can see them just being,

00:08:59.380 I didn't even know what to say or what to do.

00:09:03.380 So I knew from that day, something must happen in that place.

00:09:08.380 So that was how I took up my responsibility as parish priest for four years now.

00:09:13.380 Wow.

00:09:14.380 Where did you end up saying that first mass?

00:09:17.380 We had the mass outside the church premises.

00:09:20.380 The people, the people who normally sit on the stones.

00:09:23.380 You know, there are stones there that, you know, the church was not only burnt.

00:09:26.380 The church was destroyed with caterpillar.

00:09:29.380 The Boko Haram guys, there was a road construction going on.

00:09:32.380 So the Boko Haram guys used the caterpillar for constructing a road to destroy, 0.99

00:09:37.380 to bring down the church completely.

00:09:40.380 So the people use the stones from the church, or they will bring in their chairs,

00:09:44.380 and then we sit down outside.

00:09:46.380 They will arrange a table for the altar.

00:09:49.380 And then they will arrange a canopy for me and the altar servants.

00:09:53.380 And then we celebrate mass happily and everybody goes home.

00:09:57.380 So for complete one year plus, for complete one year, two months,

00:10:01.380 I never slept there because that was the time.

00:10:05.380 It was really, really hard.

00:10:07.380 Yeah.

00:10:08.380 That was a time.

00:10:09.380 Sometimes on Sundays, the military men will tell me, father, go back.

00:10:12.380 You cannot come in today.

00:10:13.380 But I will insist.

00:10:14.380 I will say the people are waiting for me.

00:10:16.380 I have to go.

00:10:17.380 So I'll be celebrating mass with soldiers as altar servants all around me.

00:10:22.380 Wow.

00:10:23.380 Wow.

00:10:24.380 And yet, things haven't improved that much.

00:10:28.380 Before we started, as we were talking before the show,

00:10:32.380 you were mentioning things are pretty crazy right now.

00:10:35.380 Tell us what's going on now there.

00:10:37.380 The military have compromised.

00:10:39.380 They have become saboteurs.

00:10:41.380 Because all that the military do here is just a matter of shoe.

00:10:47.380 It's a kind of a shoe to tell us civilians that they are working.

00:10:52.380 Meanwhile, they are not working.

00:10:54.380 And unfortunately for someone like me, I can't go to the headquarters and address them.

00:11:01.380 Because they can easily do whatever they want to do and say it is Boko Haram that did it.

00:11:06.380 So, as it is right now, as I am talking to you, John, these military men have taken over businesses that the local people are doing in the town.

00:11:18.380 They sell PMS, they sell petrol.

00:11:23.380 They sell petrol.

00:11:24.380 We call it petrol here.

00:11:25.380 That's gas, gasoline.

00:11:27.380 They sell gasoline.

00:11:29.380 They sell fertilizer.

00:11:30.380 They sell cement.

00:11:32.380 They sell airtime.

00:11:33.380 They sell local drinks.

00:11:35.380 They export them to Cameroon instead of the people doing it. 0.97

00:11:38.380 They have stopped my people from farming.

00:11:41.380 And then they have taken over their farms to farm, especially now that the raining season has come.

00:11:46.380 You will see military men going to the farm instead of my people going to the farm.

00:11:49.380 And then when Boko Haram comes, soldiers are the first to run.

00:11:55.380 They are the first to run.

00:11:57.380 They take hills and leave the people. 0.95

00:11:59.380 Then we find ourselves running to the mountains.

00:12:02.380 And then sometimes, even when Boko Haram have not come, soldiers will just enter the villages and shoot sporadically and cause mayhem.

00:12:14.380 Like now, I have just had a case of a soldier who had an issue with a young lady and is becoming a national issue.

00:12:24.380 Because I told him that I have to report him to the national headquarters in Abuja.

00:12:28.380 He couldn't have done what he did, you know.

00:12:32.380 So right now, there is no protection for us from the army.

00:12:36.380 All they do is to intimidate us.

00:12:38.380 They make us to walk.

00:12:40.380 They make us to walk.

00:12:41.380 We call it trekking.

00:12:42.380 We walk for a long distance before you go and enter your car to another checkpoint.

00:12:46.380 You have to open the checking point, drive, come down, then close it.

00:12:51.380 You need more than, before you come to my place, you pass 29 checking points.

00:12:56.380 And this is a distance of about, this is a distance of about a hundred miles.

00:13:02.380 Then you have 29, 29 checking points.

00:13:06.380 When you have 29 checking points in a place, even if you are eating the best of food, the food will have digested by the time you reach home.

00:13:13.380 So that is the situation, that is the situation we are facing now.

00:13:16.380 And you know why I said they have compromised?

00:13:18.380 They have made it to be religious.

00:13:20.380 They have made it to be religious.

00:13:22.380 Because they don't, we went to see the new commanding officer.

00:13:26.380 The new commanding officer said, everybody should protect himself.

00:13:30.380 He said everybody should protect himself.

00:13:33.380 And if you are in a place where I am, and you hear a drop of spoon, and you think that it is gone, it is a gone sound, or it is a gone shot, then you know that something is wrong with that person.

00:13:46.380 I have gone for trauma seminars and trauma conferences that I complain of all the time.

00:13:53.380 If I hear a door being banged, I would think it is a bomb, or it is a gun.

00:13:57.380 Wow.

00:13:58.380 This is me now as a priest who is a little bit enlightened.

00:14:02.380 What about those people who don't know anything about trauma?

00:14:05.380 So our present situation has not changed.

00:14:07.380 The only thing that has changed is there are no longer churches for them to burn.

00:14:13.380 There are no longer churches for them to burn.

00:14:15.380 If there were churches for them to burn, they will have burned every church and they will have even killed us while worshiping inside.

00:14:20.380 So nothing has changed. 0.84

00:14:22.380 Wow.

00:14:23.380 How do we help you?

00:14:25.380 Because this is, just listening to you and hearing you, it's just an impossible situation.

00:14:32.380 What can be done to help you, to help your people there in Nigeria?

00:14:38.380 In 2014, when the entire, I will say the entire Boko Haram now, when I say the entire Boko Haram, I mean Boko Haram that came in from Mali, Boko Haram that came in from Niger, Boko Haram that came in from Chad, Boko Haram that came in from Burkina Faso.

00:14:54.380 Boko Haram that came in from Burkina Faso, Boko Haram that came in from Mali, Boko Haram that came in from Cameroon.

00:15:01.380 And Boko Haram that are in Nigeria.

00:15:03.380 When in 2014, when they came, there were some people who walked for more than a thousand miles.

00:15:09.380 When I mean walking, I don't know how to describe it for you, like moving from one state to another state by foot.

00:15:16.380 Yeah.

00:15:17.380 And by the time it is 2016, these people have no option rather than to come back.

00:15:23.380 And because they were in IDP camps, internally displaced persons camps in Cameroon and some parts of Nigeria, they came back with a lot of diseases.

00:15:35.380 Major among them is hepatitis, malaria, constant diarrhea, typhoid, and other different diseases that tap warm, particularly during this rainy season tap warm, you know.

00:15:56.380 So when they came back, because they have no other option again, they have stayed long outside and they have no other land apart from that land of Madagali.

00:16:03.380 And here, when we say we don't have a government, we mean we don't have a government.

00:16:10.380 Because there is what they call the Northeast Development Commission.

00:16:14.380 You know, we are in the Northeast.

00:16:16.380 But this Northeast Development Commission, they choose places they go to give assistance.

00:16:22.380 They will announce in the mocks on Friday, Muslim men and women should assemble in a certain place, then they will go and distribute what they have to distribute.

00:16:31.380 But for us, Christian, nobody talks to us or nobody listens to us.

00:16:36.380 The same thing with the NGOs, the non-governmental organizations.

00:16:39.380 They come, they just spend one hour because of the bad nature of the place.

00:16:44.380 They are also scared, which is true.

00:16:46.380 Nobody wants to risk his life.

00:16:48.380 They come, do the distribution they have to do, and then they go.

00:16:52.380 So, as it is right now, I have had a number of men and women who have either fallen in the church or they have just, how will I say, fented.

00:17:04.380 When you ask them, they will tell you they have not eaten for three or four days or they have been sick.

00:17:10.380 There is no medication for them because we don't have even a, we don't have even a chemist or a medicine store where if you have a headache, you can go for a paracetamol and get a paracetamol to cure your headache.

00:17:25.380 These people are in so many, so many problems, diseases, hunger, because they are not allowed to farm.

00:17:32.380 They are not allowed to farm.

00:17:34.380 And since they are not allowed to farm, there is no way they can get food.

00:17:38.380 And since there is no longer farming for them, food produce, the prices have escalated.

00:17:44.380 Let's say something you are used to buying for, let's say $100, you will not be buying it for $400, $500.

00:17:54.380 And most of the families here are not just like families in developed worlds.

00:18:00.380 Like you have a father and a mother and maybe a kid or two children or three children.

00:18:05.380 Here most of them, you hear somebody has 13 children.

00:18:08.380 Here you hear somebody has 10 children, nine children, 11 children.

00:18:13.380 The least you will find is maybe somebody has five, six children.

00:18:18.380 Food, medicine, even clothing, ordinary clothes to wear.

00:18:23.380 I know of my parishioners who wear clothes all through the year.

00:18:27.380 Every Sunday is one clothes. They have no other clothes.

00:18:30.380 I know parishioners who come to me and tell me, Father, I have been sick.

00:18:33.380 I need your assistance.

00:18:35.380 The priests here, like me, I am their mechanic.

00:18:37.380 I am their doctor. I am their traditional ruler.

00:18:41.380 I am their spiritual director. I am their everything.

00:18:44.380 I am their lawyer. I am everything.

00:18:47.380 So if I spend two days without them seeing me, they will start asking question, why is Father?

00:18:54.380 Why is Father?

00:18:55.380 So it's a horrible situation and the people just need clothing.

00:18:58.380 They need clothes. They need food. They need medicine. They need water.

00:19:03.380 I can happily tell you, I can happily tell you St. Patrick's Missionary Society here in Nigeria.

00:19:10.380 They donated a well for us, a water system.

00:19:13.380 Even the water I'm using in my house was donated by them.

00:19:16.380 But it's not enough because there are more than a thousand people who use one bowl.

00:19:22.380 You can imagine one bowl being pumped every day, being pumped every day, or one well being water being fresh from the well.

00:19:31.380 So these people are just like that and nobody is doing anything.

00:19:35.380 We are just here. We are just here.

00:19:37.380 So they need water. They need clothing. They need food. They need medicine.

00:19:43.380 At least at LifeSite, we're going to do for you and for your community.

00:19:48.380 At least this, we're going to provide a life funder so that people can donate to you to assist your people.

00:19:55.380 I think that's a small start to assisting you there.

00:20:00.380 Tell us, though, what do you see in the future there for you, for your people?

00:20:08.380 How do you sustain any kind of hope amidst what's going on there?

00:20:14.380 The major problem we have here, particularly, is not even about the fate of the people.

00:20:19.380 It's about their future.

00:20:21.380 It's about their future, just like you earlier asked.

00:20:24.380 It's about their future.

00:20:26.380 The educational system is so bad that the children are just in school for the sake of being in school.

00:20:35.380 And their fate is intact.

00:20:38.380 When I mean their fate is intact, these people are already, even in the face of Boko Haram,

00:20:43.380 they can stand and worship God and adore Jesus and honor Mary.

00:20:49.380 So the only hope they can find or the only hope they can get is sustenance.

00:20:55.380 Because once you are able to, this kind of community, it is women community. 1.00

00:21:02.380 Because most of the men have lost hope in life completely.

00:21:06.380 If you ask them, go to the farm or do something, they will tell you, no, there is no life, there is no future.

00:21:12.380 So I will just wait for my death to come.

00:21:16.380 But the women are highly enterprising and they are highly ready to do anything. 1.00

00:21:21.380 They are ready to work.

00:21:23.380 I tell you here, with about three or 400 women who are ready and active to do work, 0.99

00:21:29.380 if they can be sustained, even if it is $100 per year, every year you give these women,

00:21:36.380 they will sustain themselves.

00:21:38.380 Wow.

00:21:39.380 They'll sustain themselves.

00:21:41.380 They only need to be guaranteed that, okay, we can be able to get support.

00:21:46.380 For example, you can imagine a woman who is, let's say, frying, well, I don't know how to put it, frying, let's say, plantain. 0.94

00:21:54.380 I don't know if you know plantain.

00:21:55.380 It's like bananas, yeah.

00:21:57.380 Yeah, it's like bananas.

00:21:59.380 Now, a woman who fries plantain, she only needs about $50 to $70 to keep her business going for the whole year. 1.00

00:22:08.380 Because she will need the frying pan to start. 0.96

00:22:11.380 Then she will need to buy oil and then she will need to buy the plantain in the market. 0.97

00:22:15.380 And then once she starts, the markets are almost every day here.

00:22:19.380 Once she starts, the business blows them. 0.99

00:22:22.380 She will not come to you and ask you for money for medicine again.

00:22:25.380 She will not come to you and ask you, but if she is guaranteed that she will get this money in the $50, $70, $100 you give these women in a year, it will sustain them.

00:22:34.380 In terms of what you see, I mean, you looking out at the world must have a very interesting perspective.

00:22:44.380 Because for us, hearing this is just, it's unreal.

00:22:47.380 It's unreal.

00:22:48.380 You're the type of priest and your people are the type of people that, you know, we read about in books.

00:22:54.380 We contemplate as the great martyrs of the faith.

00:22:58.380 What do you see when you look out at the world from there, particularly at the West, at America, Canada, Europe?

00:23:08.380 What do you see when you see us?

00:23:11.380 I will not say we have lost hope, but we have given up.

00:23:16.380 Given up in the sense that whatever we are able to do, we can do for ourselves.

00:23:22.380 I was speaking, I would like to particularly mention a very, very unique personality.

00:23:28.380 His name is Tim Jackson.

00:23:30.380 I told him, if only, if only Ireland, if only Ireland as a country knows what she has done to Nigeria, Ireland will never forget us. 0.99

00:23:44.380 Because in terms of the faith, John, let me tell you what the Catholic Church in Europe and America has done to the church in Nigeria or in Africa.

00:23:53.380 It cannot be measured, nor can it be countable, nor can it be said, we can't even say thank you enough.

00:24:00.380 But in our own world here, we have not seen, let me say, seen any contribution that has come because, particularly from the Catholic world,

00:24:12.380 apart from the Pope who at a particular time knows what is happening to us, who has decided to donate his pocket money to the diocese.

00:24:21.380 As he said, he's donating his pocket money to the bishop so that things will happen.

00:24:26.380 If I tell you the destruction that these people have done, and the Hungarian government too, the Hungarian government have invited us. 1.00

00:24:33.380 Even though I was not able to go, they have invited us.

00:24:36.380 Our bishop and some other priests were asked to go.

00:24:39.380 That time I was in, I was in, I was traumatic at that time.

00:24:43.380 I said, I can't travel.

00:24:44.380 I will refuse to travel.

00:24:46.380 So Europe, America, Canada, and the rest of the Western world, they need to know what Christians are facing in this part of the country or in this part of the world.

00:25:00.380 If I tell you, I show you what these people have done, apart from material possession that they have destroyed, buildings and houses, the number of lives these people have killed, nobody can record it.

00:25:14.380 Nobody can record it.

00:25:15.380 It's uncountable.

00:25:16.380 So we need your support.

00:25:18.380 First of all, pray us, pray for us so that our faith will be intact.

00:25:22.380 Second, get us to talk to you like this.

00:25:25.380 This is an opportunity so that you will get to hear and you will get to know what is happening, at least from somebody who is at the front line.

00:25:32.380 Just like I told you, I am their everything.

00:25:35.380 Then thought, whatever is the means of support.

00:25:38.380 They will definitely like, I've always told some people, these people don't know you.

00:25:41.380 They have never even heard of you.

00:25:43.380 A particular priest donated two mass boxes to us and it's Habanacle.

00:25:47.380 So I was telling the people, I said, this priest does not even know where you are.

00:25:52.380 And you people do not even know where he is.

00:25:54.380 But look at what he has done for you.

00:25:56.380 If we are going to make contribution to buy this thing, it will have cost a lot of money.

00:26:00.380 So we need your prayers.

00:26:02.380 Then we need your accessibility.

00:26:04.380 Let us get in contact with you people.

00:26:06.380 Then we need your support.

00:26:08.380 Financially and in whatever means.

00:26:10.380 It might not be money.

00:26:11.380 Even if it means sending clothes, sending clothes, it's fine.

00:26:15.380 Even if it means sending medicine, it's fine.

00:26:18.380 It's beautiful.

00:26:19.380 And let us feel your presence.

00:26:20.380 You have been there for us.

00:26:21.380 So why can't you be there for us now?

00:26:23.380 Amen.

00:26:24.380 Father Innocent, it has been a great honor for me to speak with you.

00:26:28.380 I would ask for your prayers for us here.

00:26:33.380 Because while we might have a lot of, definitely comparatively, a lot of physical ease in terms of food and shelter and clothing and so on.

00:26:45.380 What we don't have is the faith as you and your people have.

00:26:51.380 Please pray for us that we can have your faith and we will do our best to get you whatever means we have.

00:27:00.380 I would encourage all of you listening to go to lifefunder.com and to fund this campaign to help Father Innocent and his community there.

00:27:10.380 Right in the heart of Nigeria where Boko Haram is really the worst and where their lives are threatened every single day.

00:27:18.380 We've got to do what we can to pray for them and to sustain their communities.

00:27:24.380 These are the communities where true saints are made.

00:27:27.380 God bless you, Father.

00:27:28.380 And thank you for being with us in this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:27:31.380 Would you give us your blessing before we leave?

00:27:34.380 Oh, thank you, John.

00:27:35.380 My blessings are always available and it's for you people.

00:27:38.380 I will pray for you and I will tell other priests around to pray for you.

00:27:43.380 I have told some that I will be having some Zoom chat for the first time.

00:27:47.380 I will beg for your pardon to manage the village life around here.

00:27:51.380 It might not be as clear or audible as you expect.

00:27:55.380 But I pray I always for God to keep sustaining you, give you good health of mind and body,

00:28:01.380 restore back health to those who are sick, and bless all those who support your work.

00:28:07.380 What you do is incredible to have had your time, your attention to assist people who are in need,

00:28:12.380 particularly those of us who are facing terrorism because of hatred of our religion

00:28:17.380 and hatred for, I don't know, humanity as we call it, and then hatred for the West too,

00:28:23.380 because they believe that whatever we are doing, we get the support or we get the courage

00:28:29.380 from those in America, those in Canada, those in Europe, and the rest.

00:28:34.380 But we have always proven them wrong. It is Jesus that we serve. It is Jesus that we love.

00:28:39.380 And I pray on this day that your faith will continue to increase

00:28:44.380 and that you'll find strength and joy in whatever you do, all of you who are working with John.

00:28:49.380 May Almighty God bless you.

00:28:52.380 The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

00:28:57.380 May He abide with you and live with you both now and forever through Christ our Lord.

00:29:02.380 Amen. Amen. Amen.

00:29:04.380 Thank you. Thank you, Father.

00:29:06.380 God bless you.

00:29:07.380 Thank you, John.

00:29:08.380 And God bless all of you. We'll see you next time.

00:29:11.380 Hi, this is John Henry Weston, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of LifeSite News.

00:29:17.380 I'm coming to you today because we want to be sure that we are communicating clearly with you, our loyal followers.

00:29:25.380 Things are really heating up, as I'm sure you can see.

00:29:29.380 Christians, conservatives, truth-tellers are being targeted, are being banned from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram at an alarmingly fast rate.

00:29:41.380 They are attempting to suppress any narrative that does not fit that of the mainstream media.

00:29:46.380 We knew this day would come.

00:29:49.380 We have been warning everyone who would listen and attempting to build up alternative platforms to continue to reach you.

00:29:57.380 We have established ourselves on all sorts of platforms I'm going to explain in a minute,

00:30:01.380 but the most important thing to do is come direct to LifeSiteNews.com because there we will always be.

00:30:08.380 But we've also established ourselves on platforms like Parler and MeWe, and our videos can be found on Rumble as well.

00:30:16.380 We would love to see each of you on those platforms too, as they are not censoring or suppressing the truth that we are sharing every single day.

00:30:25.380 More than these alternative social media platforms, we highly encourage you to subscribe to our email newsletter.

00:30:32.380 We have really built up a large list of loyal readers on our email marketing platform, and we have prepared several backup plans for, well, I want to say if, but it's really when, we are removed from our current platform as well.

00:30:47.380 Additionally, I really encourage you, as I said before, to make it a regular habit to go directly to LifeSiteNews.com.

00:30:55.380 Make it your homepage.

00:30:57.380 While all of these different platforms are an excellent way to curate your news, going directly to our website means that you will never encounter any censorship or sudden loss of LifeSiteNews reporting.

00:31:09.380 Here's the thing.

00:31:11.380 We will never stop sharing the truth.

00:31:14.380 We founded this organization with the mission to be the life, family, and culture source for men and women who seek to know the truth.

00:31:23.380 We have established a track record of honest reports, and this will never stop, even with censorship happening around the globe.

00:31:32.380 Again, I'm encouraging you to join us on Parler, MeWe, Rumble, and on our email list.

00:31:38.380 You can find all the direct links in the description of this video.

00:31:43.380 May God bless you and keep you, and we are so thankful that you've chosen to follow and support LifeSiteNews.

00:31:50.380 I'm John Henry Weston, co-founder and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.

00:31:55.380 I'm going to finish off with our millones of saitons available in chronicles

00:32:02.380 where we are for a few to viele years of connecting the culture and education.

00:32:04.380 I'll ensure that your cooking skills has been done through the peace process.

00:32:07.380 Anything else has returned in end?

00:32:08.380 May Godzilla is fully secured by the courage to follow-up of the peace process.

00:32:10.380 There's no doubt that you could originally achieve anything that you would believe.

00:32:12.380 There's no doubt that you want to trust in life justice on your mission.

The John-Henry Westen Show - May 18, 2021

Heroic Nigerian priest shines light on religious persecution from Boko Haram

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