Crux Now Exclusive: Bishop Kukah wants to see the arc of justice bend toward Africa

Pope Leo XIV has reappointed the outspoken Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto diocese in Nigeria to a five-year term on the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development, the influential Vatican department dedicated to the promotion of Catholic social teaching.

Kukah, whose diocese in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria is among the most seriously affected by violence related to herder-allied armed groups, vigilantes and criminal groups, has been a staunch advocate for human and civil rights in his native country and throughout the continent of Africa over the whole of his nearly 50 years of priestly ministry.

In an expansive interview with Crux Now, Kukah says he was surprised by the nomination to a second term as a member of the dicastery and is ready to tackle the host of global and regional challenges facing the dicastery, which focuses on issues ranging from ecological stewardship, human rights, migration and economic justice, to broader ethical concerns affecting vulnerable communities worldwide.

He says the Church still has a vital role to play, especially in the formation of young generations for citizenship and in the shaping of political order in an epoch signed by instability, particularly though by no means exclusively in Africa.

“The social teachings of the Catholic Church shaped politics in Europe after World War II,” Kukah says. “They can become the source of inspiration for all our people,” he says, “anxious to be good fathers, good mothers, good politicians and good actors in the public sphere.”

What follows is our interview with Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, edited for length and clarity.

Crux Now: What was your initial reaction to the news of your appointment to the Dicastery?

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah: Well, I had served a first term with the Dicastery and felt that we had made our own little contribution. So, this came to me as a surprise and I honestly did not see it coming at all. But thanks be to God for an opportunity to make the little contribution one can and a chance to learn from the wisdom of many great minds.

You are rejoining this Dicastery at the beginning of a new pontificate, but Pope Francis created the department in 2017. How do you see your role in ensuring continuity with the founding vision while also adapting to the new pastoral direction of Pope Leo?

The mission of the Church never changes. It is natural for us to see men and women in terms of continuity and legacy. However, as Scripture, no one takes this honor upon himself. So, fulfilling the mandate and mission entrusted to the Church through Peter is the mission of every Pope since he is a successor of Peter while the Bishops are successors of the apostles.

The running of the Dicastery is still under the leadership of his Eminence, Cardinal Czerny, a man of great experience and a very good heart. Pope Leo, by taking the name alone already signposted the direction he wants the Church to take. His speeches and sermons have focused on human progress, development, friendship, ending war, interfaith dialogue and working for peace in the world. To that extent, the message is still the same.

How does the Church’s approach to human development differ fundamentally from secular approaches?

The Church does not live in abstraction from the daily realities. Its sons and daughters continue to carry the message of the gospel into public life. We should not become prisoners of words. There is convergence in the work that we do as long as it is for the progress of society and the guarantee of a more peaceful world.

This is why the Vatican is represented at the United Nations.

The United Nations, organizations like Amnesty International derived their inspiration from men who had moral convictions. Peter Benenson who founded Amnesty International was a good Catholic who was moved by his moral convictions. Even in our local Churches, we are very much involved with civil society groups in areas of human rights, election monitoring and many issues related to human development.

The Dicastery covers a vast portfolio: justice, peace, migration, healthcare, and ecology. Given the breadth of these crises today, how does the Dicastery avoid just being a ‘talking shop’ and actually effect change on the ground?

As it is with these issues, there are broad guidelines and it is the duty of the Members to identify areas of interest. For example, we are expected to take up initiatives that align with the objectives of the Dicastery. As I said, there is a convergence with some of the thematic areas that are dear to me.

Are there areas where you feel the Dicastery has fallen short or faced unexpected hurdles in promoting integral human development globally?

You know the famous saying of Joseph Stalin: “How many divisions has the Pope?”

The role of the Church is often moral suasion. But as you can see, without the contribution and moral guide of St. John Paul II, the history of what the world has come to know as the end of history in 1989 would have been different.

Similarly, these moral voices have overthrown governments in Poland and the entire power structure of the Soviet Union, it has changed the pace and tempo of politics in many parts of the developing world. The Church provides a moral compass, but she has no intention of taking over the steering wheels from the political actors.

The world has convulsed in the last ten or so years and as you can see, human arrogance and greed for power and the resources of others is bringing us back to wars we thought we had forgotten.

You are the Bishop of Sokoto, the epicenter of violence, insecurity, and poverty in Nigeria. What does your presence on this Dicastery mean for the average Nigerian who is struggling with economic hardship and violence?

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah: We live day by day. The problems of our country defy the laws of both geography and gravity. We haven’t been at this kind of horrible junction in our history. Insecurity has enveloped our country and the easy thing now is to look for whom to blame.

Yet, the challenge for us in Africa is that politics has become toxic, a vehicle for hatred and injustice. We are in a fix.

Muslims are being killed as well as others across the board. Yet, we know that for now, most of the perpetrators of this evil have invoked the name of Allah (Allahu’ Akbar!) as their murderous signature tune.

The Nigerian grounds remain fertile for the violence that we are witnessing today: poverty, ignorance, squalor, misery, destitution and so on.

Africa is often the subject of development discussions rather than the author of them. Does your appointment represent a shift where Africa is finally at the table helping to design the global framework for human development?

I think that would overstate the issue. However, I happen to be of the view that what we need as Africans is a mobilization of our resources because the continent faces an existential threat based on how to manage God’s gift of our enormous resources.

We do not have the sophistication to turn these into wealth for our people. Yet, increasingly, a combination of factors is keeping the continent volatile with our young people either desperate to flee their countries or caught in the web of internecine violence.

You have spent decades on the frontlines of interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding in northern Nigeria, often at great personal risk. Which specific lessons from Sokoto do you intend to bring to Rome?

I have been quite restless in my quest for ensuring that the Catholic Church presses the throttle a bit in the area of engagement in our politics in the area of the formation of our politicians and public servants.

Once Robert Prevost took the name Leo XIV, it ignited antennae because, immediately, I concluded that this new pope wants to take us back to the Pope of Rerum Novarum, the Pope Leo XIII -of new things.

He immediately caught my attention and I could see the continuity and the hope that we can push the Church a bit further not into politics but a greater engagement with the structures that are producing injustice in our world. And, here, the holy father has not disappointed at all.

It is this feeling of urgency that led me to start The Kukah Centre which, hopefully by this time next year, should be running the School of Government as a platform for the formation of our Catholics for a concrete role in politics and public life.

Across Africa, our Catholics are famished, they are not nourished by the Catholic doctrine and many have fallen to the clutches of ruthless pastors hawking the dubious “Prosperity Gospel” and offering quick fixes to overcome the fear of our people.

The social teachings of the Catholic Church shaped politics in Europe after World War II. They can become the source of inspiration for all our people anxious to be good fathers, good mothers, good politicians and good actors in the public sphere.

I would like to bend the arc of justice towards us.