The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law has expressed dismayed by what it described as “the Holy See’s increasingly doublespeak concerning the systematic, well-coordinated and political leadership-enabled massacre of Christians (“Christian Genocide”) in Nigeria.”

“The Vatican doublespeak which started since Oct 21, 2025, has intensified, thereby putting Nigeria’s estimated 113m Christians including 60m Catholics and the entire global Christian population of 2.4b and estimated 1.4b Catholics at high risk and endangerment,” the foremost rights group said in a statement issued in Enugu-Nigeria, on Sunday, November 23, 2025.

“The Holy See’s doublespeak was also found to have arisen following sustained attempts by the Office of “the Secretary of State to His Holiness” to “deny Christian Persecution and Genocide in Nigeria”; a narrative strongly promoted, exported and marketed by Nigerian Government-which has also widely earned the country’s political leadership a widespread international condemnation and character untrustworthiness. The most annoying, disappointing and shocking of it is that the Holy See under which the International Religious Freedom was proclaimed as “First Human Right” in 313AD through the Edith of Milan under Popes Constantine and Licinius; is today promoting the same narrative and script of the Government of Nigeria by way of: there is no Christian Genocide in Nigeria.

“The above has also landed the Holy See, with Mr. Pietro Parolin as Vatican Secretary of State in a quandary of doublespeak and inconsistencies – such that the Holy See has since then continued to probate and reprobate, by speaking from both sides of its mouth especially since October 2025 when the United States Government and other leading and respected international religious voices strongly blamed the Nigerian Government for turning blind eyes to egregious and grisly, attacks on defenseless Christian population and their sacred places of worship, learning, living and livelihood. The height of the Holy See’s doublespeak and inconsistencies was spotted by the Intersociety on Oct 21, 2025, during the launch of the 1,248-Page 2025 Religious Freedom Report by the Aid to the Church in Need at Rome and Vatican.

“The duo of Mr. Pietro Parolin as Vatican Secretary of State and Father Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, had on the sideline of the launch of the massive Report which surveyed 196 countries especially Nigeria – found by the Report to be one of the worst countries to be a Christian; extraneously delved into the direct opposite of the Report by hijacking the opportunity to downplay Nigeria’s worst human rights record on Religious Freedom. This, the duo did by openly promoting and defending the Government of Nigeria’s no Christian Genocide in Nigeria. The action of the duo also de-marketed the internationally released and referenced Report till date,” Intersociety said in the statement signed by the Head, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Dept. of Campaign and Publicity, Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Esquire; and Head, Field Data Collection and Documentation Department, Comrade Samuel Kamanyaoku.

Intersociety lamented that, “it has been one controversial and contradictory statement or the other by the Holy See – where Mr. Pietro Parolin holds sway as Vatican Secretary of State’.” Giving an example, the rights group said: “Pope Leo XIV (an American) had on Nov 17, 2025 listed Nigeria, Congo DRC, Sudan, Bangladesh, among others as countries facing serious Christian Persecution. Contradictorily on Nov 20, 2025, three days after, Nigeria’s Daily Trust published a report, saying, “Pope Leo XIV, head of the Catholic Church has pushed back claims that Christians are facing genocide in Nigeria, emphasizing that the country’s violence affects Christians, Muslims and other groups alike”. From Intersociety’s checks, this false narrative promoted, exported and disseminated by Nigerian Government has gained uniformity of replication and reproduction in more than 300 social circles reviewed since October 2025; including the Vatican, the Sharia Council, the Sultanate of Sokoto, the Muslim Rights Concern, some lobbied US Democrats and allied others, the Father Hassan Kukah, the pro-Government Christian and Islamic preachers, the CBCN leaders, the PFN leaders, the leaders of Fulani Bandits and others promoting Fulani Banditry, the Fulani Cattle herders’ proprietary bodies, the leaders of Nigeria’s Northeast-based Islamic Jihadists and Nigerian Government’s top functionaries including Ministers of Information and Foreign Affairs and Presidential Advisers on Communications and Information, etc.”

In the circumstances, Intersociety is “strongly calling for immediate resignation of Mr. Pietro Parolin as Vatican Secretary of State who had also worked for three years in the 80s as a top staff of the Apostolic Nunciature in Lagos, Nigeria. His immediate resignation as “the Secretary of State to His Holiness” is urgently needed to avoid further putting Nigeria’s estimated 113m Christians including about 60m Catholics and world’s 2.4b Christians and 1.4b Catholics at high risk and endangerment. His official title of “His Eminence” is also hereby suspended in all our advocacy publications and references until further notice. It is our further demand that he should be removed or transferred outside the Vatican by the Holy Father if he fails to resign as a matter of uttermost immediacy. Catholicism is everybody’s property!”

Intersociety in the statement gave an update on the genocide against Nigerian Christians. According to it, “Our records have shown that a worse than the 2014 Chibok Christian school girls’ Boko Haram abduction of 276 Christian Chibok girls has occurred in five days of Nov 17-21, 2025, during which 388 Christians including 314 Christian school children, 12 teachers and 62 other Christians were abducted by the political leadership-protected Islamic Fulani Jihadists who cumulatively killed 280 Christians and abducted 623 others in 90 days of Sept to Nov 2025. The abducted Christians in five days included a Catholic Priest and ten others abducted in Southern Kaduna on Nov 17; 26 school girls including at least ten Christians-abducted in Wasagu/Danko, an indigenous Christian populated area of Kebbi State on Nov 17; 38 parishioners of the Christ Apostolic Church including a Pastor abducted on Nov 18, 2025 in Kwara State; a Catholic Church leader abducted in Southern Kaduna on Nov 19, 2025; 315 including 303 school children and 12 teachers abducted on Nov 21, 2025 in a Catholic Nursery, Primary and Secondary School in Agwara County of Niger State; and 13 Christian women including 12 in 15-20 age brackets and an elderly woman-abducted by Jihadist Boko Haram in Christian-held Askira-Uba on Nov 20 in Southern Borno State.

“We had in our Report of August 10, 2025 found that “more than 7000 Christians were killed by Islamic Jihadists and estimated 7,800 others abducted in 220 days of 2025 (Dec 2024-August 10, 2025”); with additional 280 Christians killed in three months of Sept to Nov 2025 and 623 others abducted. Those 280 slain Christians and 623 abducted others included 100 killed and 120 abducted in 76 days of third week of August 2025 to October 26, 2025; and additional 180 others killed and 503 abducted by Jihadist Fulani Militants (90%) and Jihadist Boko Haram (10%) in three weeks of Oct 28 to Nov 21, 2025; including between 70 and 80 Taraba State Christians killed in Ussa County and Chanchanji in Takum County. Intersociety had also in its statement of Nov 19, 2025, found that “115 Christians were killed by Jihadist Fulani Militants and 170 others abducted in three weeks of Oct 28 to Nov 17, 2025”.”

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