Former Head, Department of Religion, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Prof Pius Abioje has explained why he quit attending Catholic Church where he served as an ordained priest for 15 years, got married and became an adherent of African traditional religion.
He explained that he was tricked into accepting Catholicism when he was young.
“I was taken away from African traditional religion in primary school. The missionaries saw that I was not going to church and sent their men after me to ask me why. I told them that I was a traditional worshipper but they told me that there was no contradiction and that I could practise ATR and go to church.
“So, they played on my infantry intelligence and I started going to school. God is a conspirator because he brought a Catholic priest to sponsor my education after primary school.
“I don’t know how he (the priest) connected my uncle and took me back to the church. One day, I started feeling like becoming a priest and went to consult a diviner when I was a mission boy. The diviner looked at me and shook his head and said I was to become a priest. I asked him what he meant and he said what he told me was what he meant.
“I became a priest and later left to oppose the uncharitable ways of Christians and Muslims,” Abioje told Sunday Punch.
On his journey into priesthood, he said, “I started with St Kizito’s Minor Seminary in Ede (Osun State) in 1973.
“After that, I attended SS Peter and Paul Catholic Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan (Oyo State) in 1977. In 1981, I was sent to Rome with the current Bishop of Oyo Diocese, Emmanual Badejo; we studied together in Rome and that was where we completed our seminary training with a university degree. We returned to Nigeria and I was ordained in 1985 and left in 2000, 15 years after.”
On why he left, Abioje said, “Along the line, I saw that it (priesthood) was not where I belonged but I could not just rush out of it.
“In the first instance, I never saw myself being celibate, that was why I was surprised when I saw myself joining the priesthood and I had to consult a diviner.
“I started envying married people. That is what I can tell you.”
He added, “All along, there had been questions within me about celibacy and certain Christian doctrines about whether somebody died and took away my sins or whether somebody should not marry more than one wife. Those things didn’t really fit well with me. But one cannot just take a decision and leave like that. People asking why I left the church after it trained me forget that I also served the church, including being a teacher at SS Peter and Paul Major Seminary from 1994 to 2000. I was a parish priest for years and even as a seminarian, I taught people catechism.
“If you tell me that a woman gave birth to God and that Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus. How did you know she was a virgin? We met Jesus when he was 30 years old, so how do we trace how he was born? All these myths were created. You want me to believe all that? Or that Jesus died and took away our sins? Did he die or was he killed? Jesus was killed. We know the conspiracy that killed Jesus and what hurts me is that this conspiracy that killed him was swept under the carpet and people say God wanted him to die so that he can redeem human beings. You turned God to Ogun taking the blood of a dog annually or Sango taking the blood of a ram annually. So, God needed the blood of his son to redeem humans? Are we redeemed?”
He said he did not regret leaving his Catholic priesthood and the church.
Abioje disclosed that he met his wife, who was a divorcee, in a church where he was the priest in charge at Ogbomoso.
He said he has advised his children, who are also African Traditional Religion adherents, against ever considering Catholicism or priesthood.
“I had to tell them that it (priesthood) is not the place to go,” Abioje
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