A REPLY TO MR. CHRIS OKOTIE’S ALLEGATION THAT, “All CATHOLICS WORSHIP SATAN; THEY WILL ALL GO TO
HELL”

By Very Rev. Fr. Jacob Ugwuoke, CM

I begin with the song, Catholic ka m ga eje
nime ya ka m ga anwu. Chineke bu
eziokwu ife soro uwa fa kwube (Alleluia),
meaning “I will continue to be a Catholic,
die as a member, God is real, no matter
what the world or people are saying”.

I decided to wait for three weeks before
writing a rejoinder to this allegation to
make sure that Mr. Okotie would be sober
while reading this. I am quite sure that a
man who was drunk three weeks ago
should be sober by now, but if at this
moment he is not sober, then people who
say he is insane could be correct.

However, I don’t think he is insane, and
should it be medically proven he is insane,
whenever he recovers, he should read this.

At the same time, I shall keep him in my
prayers. I will try to keep this rejoinder as
simple as possible so that an average
mind could read this rejoinder and
understand the Catholic positions in the
alleged areas.

I concur that:
Eagles do not hide when they see a storm
gathering, lions do not retreat when the
enemy threatens and kings do not run
when they hear the sound of battle. Rather
the eagle flies boldly into the eye of the
storm without a trace of fear but with
power, majesty, grace and passion. The
lion rises and roars with courage and
strength as his adversary approaches.

The king does not yield one inch of the field to
the marauding enemy, but rather gallantly
and boldly leads his captains and princes
into the most dangerous part of the battle.
This surely is our calling and the essence
of our lives. (Femi Kayode)

This is why we are Christians. That is the
essence of our baptism and confirmation.
We need to defend our beliefs. God has not
filled us with the spirit of timidity. “For I am
not ashamed of the gospel, because it is
God's power for the salvation of everyone
who believes, of the Jew first and of the
Greek, as well” (Romans 1:16). I must be
prepared to never be ashamed of or tired of
explaining what I believe to be true.

Mr. Okotie, I trust you are listening. I am writing
this rejoinder for the following reasons:

(1) One of the spiritual works of mercy in
Catholic teaching is to instruct the ignorant
of which Mr. Okotie appears to be one.
(2) According to 2 Timothy 3:16, “All
scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training
in righteousness.
(3) Simply because I am involved, he is
criticizing the faith in which if we are given
an opportunity to reincarnate. I will still be
a Catholic, and Mr. Chris needs to know
and understand the right teachings of the
Catholic Church before criticizing.

MR. OKOTIE’S ALLEGATIONS

(1) CATHOLICS DO NOT BELIEVE IN HEAVEN
Sir, I was told you woke up one Sunday
morning, December 1st, 2013 precisely and
stunned your congregation by declaring
that “All Catholics worship Satan and they
will all go to hell”.

The recent allegations do not portray you
as a gentleman, sir. The speaker of the
House of Rep United States John Boehner
said that, “When you criticize something
you don’t know about it undermines your
credibility”. We all reveal ourselves to the
world when we criticize others’ beliefs. It
may undermine our credibility. Sometimes
it is best for us to remain silent, otherwise
our words may lead to embarrassment.

Please allow me to correct you in
obedience to the word of God that the
whole teachings of the Catholic Church all
aim at helping us to live better with people
here on earth so that we enjoy our eternal
reward in heaven. You do not believe in
heaven more than the Catholic Church. For
the sake of space I shall not highlight all
our teachings about heaven here. If you
need more clarification you can enroll as a
Catechumen, and we will be delighted to
instruct you.

The Annunciation: The Catholic Church in
the first joyful mystery, sir, teaches that
God sent Angel Gabriel from heaven to the
Blessed Virgin Mary to announce to her
that she would be the mother of Jesus (Lk
1:26-38, John 1:14). Sir, God and angels
dwell in heaven and not in limbo or hell as
you might think.

The Nativity: The Catholic Church teaches
that the whole purpose of God becoming
man is for our redemption from the power
of evil so that we can enjoy our eternal
reward in heaven. Jesus wasn’t born on
Christmas (Lk 2:6-20, Matthew 1:18-25)
simply to proclaim the good news only. He
came because mankind lost heaven as a
result of the fall of Adam and Eve. The
purpose of the whole proclamation of the
Kingdom of God as we have them in
Matthew 5:1-16, 6:33, 7:21, MK 1: 14-15
and the miracles were to build our faith so
that we can enjoy our eternal reward in
heaven, sir. The baptism of Jesus in the
river Jordan as recorded in Matthew 3:
11-17, Mk 1:9-11, Lk: 15-22, John 1: 26-34
was to teach us to repent so we may enjoy
our eternal reward in the Kingdom of God.

Please, when the Bible or Catholic Church
makes reference to the “Kingdom of God”
they are referring to heaven, sir. Jesus
answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:
5). The institution of the holy Eucharist in
Matthew 26: 26- 28, Mark 22:25, Lk 22: 14
-20, 14-20, John 6: 33-59 all talked about
the importance of the sacrament of the
Holy Eucharist for the salvation of souls.

These are what we call the luminious
mysteries of the rosary. They are biblical
and were not taken from limbo, and we
believe they are necessary for salvation.
“Whoever eats my body and drinks my
blood abides in me and I in him.”(John
6:56). Any Christian who abides in Jesus
and Jesus in him or her will go to heaven.

It is a Catholic teaching, sir. Christ told the
apostles to do this in memory of Me. “…
and gave thanks to God for it. Then he
broke it in pieces and said, "This is my
body, which is given for you. Do this to
remember me."(1 Corinthians 11: 24). I
don’t know how often you do this in your
Church, or have you omitted it on purpose
simply because it pricks your conscience,
or because it doesn’t sound right for you
even though these are the words of Christ,
Himself?

Well, sadly, I am not surprised. it was
foretold that “For the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine; but
{wanting} to have their ears tickled, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers in
accordance to their own desires (2 Timothy
4:3). What is in the Bible is not a question
of choice.

If we are to make choices of
what to obey or choose teachers who
would tell us what we want to hear then it
is no longer Christianity. One might refer to
it as an ecclesiastical bum-mbam-dabum.

Let me delve more into the Glorious
mysteries that of the Ascension of Christ
into heaven, as recorded in Mark 16:19-20,
Acts 1:6-11. If we do not believe in heaven,
why, therefore, do we pray this prayer, sir?
The Catholic Church believes in the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into
Heaven as the 4th mystery (Rev12: 1). In
fact, it was promulgated as a dogma by
Pope Pius XII. Please, ask questions if you
don’t understand, Mr. Okotie.

Lastly, sir, the fifth mystery is the crowning of Mary
Queen of Heaven and Earth (Rev. 12:12).
You can see they all have biblical citations,
as well. I couldn’t give you all the
mysteries and other citations about our
belief in heaven due to lack of space.

Did I hear you say that we worship Satan?
Probably you were referring to the use of
images in the Catholic Church which is as
old as the bible itself. Sir, could it be that
you are confusing use and worship? When
we stroll down the memory lane together,
you will discover that images have always
been used in the temple during worship in
Jerusalem during the era of Christ, and He
never objected to that.

God commanded the addition of carved images on the ark of
the covenant (Exodus 25:18-22). In some
tabernacles in the Catholic Church you
would find carved images of the lamb,
angels, saints, Jesus. It originated long
ago incase you might think it is a modern
practice. The following sections talked
about temple curtains with images: Exodus
26:1, Exodus 26:31. In Numbers 21:8-9,
God commanded use of statue. Moses
made a brazen serpent. In contrast to
those who believe statues are always
idolatrous, God himself commanded the
use of statues. In 1 Kg 6:23-29, statues in
Solomon's temple particularly that of
cherubim were placed within the Holy of
Holies, which itself was covered in pure
gold. Futhermore,1 Kg 7:29, 1 Kg 7:36
talked about images in Solomon's temple. I
refer you to the followings as well: 1 Kg
7:45 temple items of polished bronze, 1 Ch
28:18-19, altar with cherubim images 2 Ch
3:7-14, temple with carved cherubim. Large
graven statues (15 feet tall with 15 foot
wing-spans) of cherubim plated in gold, in
the Holy of Holies, no less. The curtain or
veil at the entrance had cherubim woven
into its design. Other ornamentation
included trees and fruits. Images and
statues, per se, are not the problem. But
taking something man-made and
worshipping it as a god is a denial of that
which is properly due to God.

Remember that Christmas celebration has a pagan
origin and you accepts that Christians do
not worship juju or have not become
pagans by celebrating Christmas on that
day. Likewise common sense should
inform you that Catholics do not sin or
worship idols by using images to meditate
while praying. Confer my posts on the
origin of Christmas and Sancta Claus on
December 12th and 18th on facebook. Sir,
could you spare us of these your
CHURCHIANITY attitude and sophomoric
stuffs?

We cannot turn the Catholic Church into a
hall for your sake or due to some carnal
criticisms coming from people who refuse
to see things with the eyes of faith, but
continue the rich traditions that we have
inherited from the apostles. Interpretations
of the bible MUST be within a context and
not out of context.

I will further refer you to the write up of my brother Noel Ify Alumona CM on the 13th of December 2013 clarifying Catholic position on the use of
images as follows:
Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures or statues of them. Catholics also use statues as teaching tools. In the early Church they were especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate. Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus and other Bible pictures in Sunday school for teaching certain people and have three-dimensional nativity scenes at Christmas.

God forbids the worship of images as
gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of
images. If he had, religious movies, videos,
photographs, paintings, and all similar
things would be banned. It is when people
begin to adore a statue as a god that the
Lord becomes angry. Thus when people
did start to worship the bronze serpent as
a snake-god (whom they named
"Nehushtan", the righteous king Hezekiah
had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).

Since many Catholics sometimes bow or
kneel in front of statues of Jesus and the
saints, many non-Catholics confuse the
legitimate veneration of a sacred image
with the sin of idolatry. Though bowing
can be used as a posture in worship, not
all bowing is worship. In Japan, people
show respect by bowing in greeting (the
equivalent of the Western handshake).

Similarly, a person can kneel before a king
without worshipping him as a god. In the
same way, a Catholic who may kneel in
front of a statue while praying isn’t
worshipping the statue or even praying to
it, any more than the Protestant who
kneels with a Bible in his hands when
praying is worshipping the Bible or praying
to it.

The bottom line is, when God made the
New Covenant with us, he did reveal
himself under a visible form in Jesus
Christ. For that reason, we can make
representations of God in Christ. Even
Protestants use all sorts of religious
images: Pictures of Jesus and other
biblical persons appear on a myriad of
Bibles, picture books, T-shirts, jewelry,
bumper stickers, greeting cards, compact
discs, and manger scenes. Christ is even
symbolically represented through the
Icthus or "fish emblem."

Common sense tells us that, since God
has revealed himself in various images,
most especially in the incarnate Jesus
Christ, it’s not wrong for us to use images
of these forms to deepen our knowledge
and love of God. That’s why God revealed
himself in these visible forms, and that’s
why statues and pictures are made of
them.

The Church absolutely recognizes and
condemns the sin of idolatry. What non-
Catholics fail to recognize is the distinction
between thinking a piece of stone or
plaster is a god and desiring to visually
remember Christ and the saints (who are
alive in heaven, not dead) by making
statues in their honor.

The making and use of religious statues is
a thoroughly biblical practice, and a
beautiful way to deepen your faith and
grow closer to Christ.

POPE JOHN PAUL II AND POPE FRANCIS AS
ANTICHRISTS?
What challenges my imagination is that
recently you have formed the attitude of
blackmailing different denominations and
men of God. I always believed that
preachers who spent time criticizing other
Christian denominations are preachers who
lacked materials on what to preach or who
do not know how to preach. In 2001, you
were involved in a press war with Chris
Oyakhilome of Chris Embassy Church and
TB Joshua of the Synagogue, Church of all
Nations.

You were purported to have called
T.B Joshua “Son of the devil”. Remember,
it was Mr. Mike Okiro (a Catholic) and the
then Lagos State Commissioner of Police,
and later Inspector General of Police, who
invited you to make peace with them. You
have now turned your back saying that Mr.
Mike Okiro, as a Catholic, will go to hell.
Have you ever seen the following in the
Bible: “Blessed are the peacemakers for
they shall be called the children of
God” (Matthew 5: 9).

If Mr. Okiro is to go to hell as a Catholic for trying to make peace
between you and your enemies, where will
you go for failing to make peace with your
two divorced wives? This time around you
are facing the Catholic Church and its
leaders. Which church will be next?
Probably, the Anglican Church or Deeper
Life Bible Church. Only time will tell. We are
watching. ( PART B TOMORROW).
Uhmmmm