Country: Nigeria

Population (% Catholic): 213.4 million (2021 estimate); 10-13% Catholic

Threats: Although 50 percent or more of Nigeria’s 213 million people practice Islam, western Africa’s most populous nation has been a growth area for the Catholic Church in recent years. The patron saint of Nigeria is St. Patrick.

Christians in general, and Catholics specifically, have faced violent attacks, sometimes characterized as struggles between Christian farmers and Muslim nomads.

Churches have been attacked, and both clergy and laypeople murdered. A priest was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen earlier in June.

“The Catholic Church in Nigeria is particularly under this attack by unknown gunmen and I feel it is deliberate,” said Josef Ishu, secretary of the Nigerian bishops’ conference Laity Office, in a recent interview.

The Archdiocese of New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently offered assistance to the Archdiocese of Ordo in Nigeria.

“I met with Bishop Jude, now the shepherd of the Diocese of Ondo, Nigeria, who served here in the archdiocese as pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Elmsford.

“I gathered as well many priests from Nigeria who so generously serve here. Together, we listened as Bishop Jude described the ongoing persecution of the Church in Nigeria; priests and sisters taken hostage, tortured, and killed; faithful wounded and murdered; churches attacked and set aflame.

“Nigeria is a young, vibrant, growing, prominent Church. Along with the Philippines and India, it is the fastest-growing Church on the planet,” Cardinal Dolan wrote in early May.

“I presented Bishop Jude with $100,000 from you, the people of the archdiocese,” Cardinal Dolan said.