HISTORICAL DISCOURSE ON SOCIAL WELFARE SERVICES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN OWERRI ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE, NIGERIA, 1968-2016
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- NGN 3000
Background to the Study
The Church from inception has rendered various levels of social welfare services to humanity as a duty and an embodiment of the church. Jesus Christ in His time engaged in welfare services to people apart from teaching the word of God. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, cast out demons, and gave hope to the oppressed. The apostles continued from where Jesus stopped. With the authority invested on them by Jesus, they preached to people, healed the sick and provided for the welfare of the congregation. The early church equally offered welfare services to the people. In the early church, the care was carried out by the deacons and widows under the leadership of the Bishop. Carter (2007) notes that: Welfare service was not limited to members of the Christian congregation but was directed toward the larger community, particularly in times of pestilence and plague. Eusebius noted in his Ecclesiastical History that while the heathen fled the plague at Alexandria, ―most of our brother-Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty‖ in caring for and frequently dying with the victims. (n.p). The foundation of the church was laid on evangelization through preaching the word of God and provision of welfare services to humanity. Part of the social welfare service provision by the church done under pastoral care is identified by Ernst (2007) as the principal interest of pastoral care-whether exercised by clergy or laity. It is the personal welfare of persons who are hurt, troubled, alienated or confused within. The historical expressions of pastoral care have focused on the predominant but not exclusive expressions of ultimate concern characteristics of the periods in question. Fundamentally, however, pastoral care has always attempted to respond to 2 the totality of human needs in every age in consonance with the words of Jesus Christ: ―I was hungry and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me‖ (Matthew 25: 35-36). The Christian congregation has traditionally cared for the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. The letter of James says: ―Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.‖ Widows formed a special group in the congregations and were asked to help with nursing care and other service obligations as long as they did not need help and care themselves. The church by the 4th century had founded orphanages and the monasteries took over this task during the middle ages. They also fought against the practice of abandoning unwanted children and established foundling hospitals. In this era, as in others, a secularization of church institutions took place in connection with the spreading autonomy of the cities. In Protestant churches the establishment of orphanages was furthered systematically. The society keeps changing with the advent of time and as new trends keep on emanating, so does the services provided work to meet the demand of the time. Ernst (2007) stipulates that: the Christian community‘s response to the questions of poverty and the poor may be sketched in terms of four major perspectives, which have historically overlapped and sometimes coexisted in mutuality or contradiction. The first perspective, both chronologically and in continuing popularity, is personal charity. This was the predominant form of the church‘s relationship to the poor from the 1st to the 16th century. The second perspective supplements the remedial work of personal charity by efforts for preventive welfare through structural changes in 3 society. The third perspective is a retreat in to the charity models of the earlier Christian community. This is because of the overwhelming effects of the process of secularization and human misery caused by industrialization, the key to social welfare was expressed that social change depended upon the conversion of individuals. The fourth perspective, present in churches of the modern period, envisions systemic social change to facilitate redistribution of the world‘s wealth. Personal charity is not neglected, but the primary goal is to change the unjust structures of society. The missionaries who brought Christianity to Igbo land engaged in preaching the word of God and provision of social welfare services to the people. Such social welfare services included medical services and school education which served as strategies to reap tremendous success in their work of evangelization. The success and increase is based on numerical strength of converts. There seemed not to be deep-rooted conversion as many hankered over what they were to gain from the white man. They looked for such gain like freedom from oppression, medical attention and other social welfare services. The missionaries used social welfare service as evangelization strategy, while rivalry and competition characterized missionary era of Christianity in Igbo land. The Catholic Church has at various ages provided laudable plan to cater for the needy. In 1943, the council of Bishops in United States of America instituted a body known as The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) as an arm of Caritas to provide relief in emergency situations and help people in the developing world to break the cycle of poverty through community-based sustainable development initiatives as well as peace building. Assistance is based solely on need, not race, creed or nationality. Catholic Relief Services was originally founded as war relief service to aid the refugees of war-torn Europe. By mid 1950‘s, with confluence of events 4 including the independence many countries, the name officially became Catholic Relief Services in 1955. During the Rwanda massacre in 1994, CRS offered tremendous assistance in supply of welfare services. With the effects of the Nigeria civil war which ended in 1970, the church had much more to offer in welfare services. This social welfare services offered by the church at this time hinges more on rehabilitation. The effects of the war left the people hopeless. According to Madiebo (1980), ―the civilian population of Biafra suffered even more than the army‖ (p.383). Achunike (2000) describes it as ―a hopeless situation‖ (p. 45). This state of the society comprised of orphans and refugees who were homeless, hungry and sick without any hope for remedy. By 1968, the war effects had fully blown. Many who were displaced lived in refugee camps, with little or no food, many died of hunger, malnutrition and consequent ill-health like Kwashiorkor. The church saw it as paramount to provide the utmost need of the hunger stricken people with drugs and food. As the war advanced, many lost their homes and family members. The number of the internally displaced persons, indigents, and orphans were on the increase. The Church took up the responsibility of providing the necessary social welfare services to rehabilitate the war-torn people. Taking care of the large population by the church that suffered the same war-effect is amazingly good gesture, though a huge project. Thanks to the Caritas, (a welfare arm of Catholic Church), that supplied some food items, clothes and drugs to the people. The Nigeria-Biafra war just like any other war infested the nation and most especially Biafra with the usual ravaging characteristics of war torn area.
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