Against the general belief by non-Catholic Christian faithful that the Catholic Church is idolatry by praying to the statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as a religious rite, a retired Catholic bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Michael Olatunji Fagun has affirmed that though the church truly respected, honoured and acknowledged the holy Mary as the mother of the Saviour, it never in any way worshiped her or supplanted the position of Christ for her.
The retired bishop who gave the clarification in an interview with WorldStage Newsonline in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State added that the practice of honouring the Holy Mary was based on theological facts that were not for the Catholic Church in Ekiti alone but for the church all over the world.
Addressing the misunderstanding, Fagun said: “When it comes to doctrine, any Catholic should be able to know that God is one. All Christians know there’s purity in one God: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. God the father is the creator of the world. But when the world went into a mess of disobeying God and abandoning His principles, he sent His son Jesus Christ out of love to come and deliver the world by reconciling it to Him.
“Jesus came in flesh and what comes in flesh must be born of a woman, and that woman is Mary. We respect the woman, we honour her but we don’t worship her. Beyond that, we have the Holy Spirit that gives the Apostles power to preach the gospel of God and with that power they were able to operate under any challenge.”
Fagun also spoke on the nature of divine call in the context of failed prophecies coming from many so-called men of God and pontificated that a divine call was not for material purposes but spiritual which, according to him, should not be used to the advantage of one person but rather for all humanity.
He expatiated on the true meaning of prophecy by drawing on prophecies about the coming of Christ which were delivered by many prophets and came to pass, saying it was so because they were delivered for spiritual welfare of humanity, not for money or politics.
Describing most of the prophecies being churned out these days as guess work, the retired bishop said any prophecy without a spiritual purpose was no prophecy. “When Jesus healed David, he didn’t just heal the body but the soul. So, all those prophecies were guessing. You could have said it, I could have said it. We don’t need to prophesy about some of the things going on in the country because it takes just common sense to understand them,” he said.
On men of God prophesying on political and election matters, Fagun rated them as not divinely called but that they were just looking for money and popularity. “In Catholic, no priest must participate in party politics. Any member that goes for politics is advised to do it with the fear of God. But unfortunately, some don’t heed the advice,” he stated.
Expressing that he was happy to be a priest, Fagun said he never had reason to regret be a servant of God, and that if there’s ever any it would be that he had not done enough for God given the favour and inspiration He endowed him with.
Asked if there was any prophecy about him becoming a priest, he said there was none and that prophesying was not common in the Catholic Church.
He said: “Normally when you talk of all these local prophecies, they are psychological projections. My vocation is to evangelize, for there’s salvation in eternity. I live well here but I do not depend on the things here. Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven all the time but not this world. There is no kingdom here. I don’t have any personal account and I’m living well. My pleasure isn’t here but in heaven.”
