According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Fulani militia-related violence has been escalating since 2015, with the central states of Nigeria – and particularly Adamawa, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba and southern Kaduna – experiencing cyclical violence.

Fr Ralph Madu of the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Conference called for a peaceful demonstration after two Catholic priests were killed during morning Mass in April.

They were around 30 militia men on St Ignatius’ Catholic Church in the St. Ignatius Quasi Parish of Makurdi Diocese. The attack  also claimed the lives of 17 parishioners and left an unknown number of people injured.

Rev Fr Remigius Ihula from the Markurdi Diocese in Benue state told Premier the killings equate to genocide.

“What has taken place here is at the scale that took place in Rwanda. It has been sustained, it has been it has been well planned and consistent,” he said.

“The attackers come with AK-47 rifles and there at times they’re camouflaged in military fatigue. Sadly, the authorities have not done anything. “

Parish Priest Father Joseph Gor and Father Felix Tyolaha died in an attack

Attacks on villages in Benue intensified following the implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing Law in November 2017, which bans herders from grazing their cattle on land belonging to local…

Rev Gregory Stevens tweeted that the city is as an “elitist s*** den of hate”.

He went on to comment: “I hate ‘social justice’ in Palo Alto. What a f*****g joke.”

He also complained  about having to repeat everything at church council meetings where there are older people and said “I hate Palo Alto.”

His twitter account has now been closed.

Palo Alto is a city in the San Francisco area of California, home to Stanford University.

Many of his tweets centred around his attitude towards the wealth of the area, such as claiming “‘Kind capitalism’ is a myth and our city is proof”.

According to Silicon Valley website sfgate.com, Rev Stevens said he resigned to: “Help minimize the negativity focused on the good community work being done at the First Baptist Church of Palo Alto.”

One city clerk, Beth Minor, wrote to the council saying: “Gregory Stevens comments should concern our community.

“Should a person that hates the City of Palo Alto, hates the Palo Alto Police Dept, hates Palo Alto residents, makes fun of our older citizens and ridicules another faith, be running a Palo Alto Community Center?”

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Juan Carlos Cruz, the main whistleblower in Chile’s clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal, said on Monday he spoke to Francis about his homosexuality during their recent meetings at the Vatican.

The pope invited Mr Cruz and other victims of a Chilean predator priest to discuss their cases last month.

Mr Cruz said he told Francis how Chile’s bishops used his sexual orientation as a weapon to try to discredit him, and of the pain the personal attacks had caused him.

“He said, ‘Look Juan Carlos, the pope loves you this way. God made you like this and he loves you’,” Mr Cruz said.

The Vatican declined to confirm or deny the remarks in keeping with its policy not to comment on the pope’s private conversations.

The comments first were reported by Spain’s El Pais newspaper.

Church teaching says gays should be respected, loved and not discriminated against, but considers homosexual activity “intrinsically disordered”.

Francis, though, has sought to make the church more welcoming to gays, most famously with his 2013 comment “Who am I to judge?”

He also has spoken of his own ministry to gay and transgender people, insisting they are children of God, loved by God and deserving of accompaniment by the church.

As a result, some commentators downplayed the significance of the comments to Mr Cruz, saying they merely were in line with Francis’ pastoral-minded attitude and not in any…

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson was found guilty on Tuesday following a magistrate-only trial at Newcastle Local Court near Sydney.

The 67-year-old, who denied knowing a paedophile priest had sexually abused two altar boys in the 1970s, faces up to two years in prison.

Both former altar boys claimed they told Wilson in 1976 of abuse they had suffered at the hands of James Fletcher.

Found guilty in 2004 of nine counts of child sex abuse, Fletcher died in prison in 2006 after suffering a stroke. He had been serving a nearly eight-year sentence.

One of the former altar boys told the court in December 2017 that he described to Wilson in graphic detail the abuse he experienced.

Wilson said such a conversation slipping his mind would have been unlikely, telling the magistrate: “I don’t think I would have forgotten that.”

The Catholic leader also said that taking prescribed medication had helped treat the early stages of his Alzheimer’s disease and improve his memory, “although it’s not perfect”.

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