NewsReligionChimamanda Adichie Reveals How Catholic Priests Extort Bereaved Families In The Southeast

Popular Nigerian author cum feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has called out the Catholic Church over unreasonable financial demands made during burial and other ceremonial rites, especially in the eastern region of Nigeria.

In an interview with TVC on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, the global award-winning writer narrated how she and her family were humiliated and extorted during her mother’s burial by a Catholic priest.

Identifying the priest as Christopher Eze, the parish priest at St. Paul’s, Abba, Njikoka LGA, Anambra state, the author said the priest, during her mother’s thanksgiving mass, called her out publicly for an interview she granted months prior, pointing out how the Church sometimes makes a lot of monetary demands on members.

According to her, “This Priest at the mass called me out during my mother’s funeral with a hostile tone saying I’m against people giving money to the Church, I don’t want the Church to give to the widows which made people upset and the place rowdy.

“I was shocked by his utterances and needed to address the Church; I got the Microphone and told villagers that I’m not against supporting the Church but priests ambushing/forcing people to give and make them feel they don’t get special blessings if they don’t give money. Why ambush poor villagers that can’t feed themselves?”

Chimamanda shared that despite Holy Mass for the dead being sacred in the Catholic Church, many priests are lacking in compassion and use it as an opportunity to settle petty scores.

“To do this at my mother’s funeral who devoted her life in that Church, I was sad the Priest lacked compassion to give my mum the last respect. My mother deserved better, that Priest failed at his duty to comfort us but increase our pains. I’ve not been able to mourn my mother in peace because this man has not faced any action for his irresponsibility nor apologized.”

The ‘Americanah’ writer added that the priest was more interested in cash and preferred it to cheques or transfers, and she narrated how she had to withdraw cash when she wanted to make donations at the church’s bazaar event.

“This Priest bullied my family about money when my father died, he was upset I gave a cow, and didn’t monetize it, even for bazaar I had to withdraw cash because he does not want cheques or transfers.”

She noted that this attitude seems to be prevalent in the Southeast, adding that she and her family never got justice or an apology following the embarrassing incident, but she’s speaking up publicly because she doesn’t want another family to go through what she and her family were subjected to.

“I’m saying this publicly because I don’t want this to happen to people anymore.

“There’s so much that happens during burials in Igbo land, especially Catholic Church in the southeast which shows the Priest is lacking in compassion, they make all sort of demands and may refuse to bury someone because of rites that can’t be fulfilled.

“This needs to be addressed and stopped. So far, no one has faced any consequences and we have not received any apologies.

“The wrong we suffered has not been corrected, there are people who have experienced humiliation just to give their parents a befitting Catholic funeral, and this is wrong.”

She also set up a movement to end the issue on her Instagram, encouraging others to share their experiences of burials and funerals in the Catholic Church and went on to name the parish, town, and dates of their experiences.

Click here to watch the interview.