Pope Francis remembered Fr. Isaac Achi, who burned alive last Sunday, 15 January, in the diocese of Minna, in northern Nigeria.
The Holy Father evoked the figure of the murdered priest and prayed to God “to give us a pastoral heart that suffers and risks to bear witness.”
“How many Christians – lamented the Pontiff – suffer violence in their own skin. Let’s pray for them!”
Likewise, he directed his thoughts to the citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that he will visit at the end of this month.
“Let us ask God to give us a pastoral heart that suffers and risks to bear witness,” Pope Francis said.
In addition, he defended that “bringing the Word of God to those who have been entrusted to us and to whom we meet in our daily lives is not only an honor, but also a duty.”
Father Isaac Achi was burned to death and another priest was shot on the morning of Sunday, January 15, after bandits burned down the parish house where they were residing in northern Nigeria.