Stan Chu Ilo is a senior research professor of world christianity, african studies, and global health at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural theology, DePaul University, and the coordinating servant of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network.
One of the earliest disappointments I experienced as a newly ordained priest was that the first three sick people I anointed never recovered. They all died. I was then serving in a rural community in Eastern Nigeria where many had no access to good healthcare. The visit of a priest was not only for spiritual healing but also, in faith,…
The Nigerian Christian community has been shaken by a recent address given in Rome by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah during the launch of Aid to the Church in Need’s 2025 Religious Freedom in the World Report. In his remarks, the Bishop of Sokoto acknowledged the widespread violence and insecurity ravaging Nigeria but questioned whether Christians in the country are being…
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect this past weekend offers a brief and fragile respite. For many Gazans, it is a pause long overdue: families returning to the ruins of neighbourhoods flattened by rockets and bombardment found dust and silence where kitchens, schools, and lives once were. In the silence, Gaza has revealed itself as…
On October 3, 2025, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina took to Facebook Live with an extraordinary claim. After a week of protests led mostly by Gen Z activists filling the streets of Antananarivo and other cities, Rajoelina dismissed the movement as a coup attempt orchestrated by shadowy forces. He accused “a fringe of the opposition” and unnamed “foreign agencies” of paying…
A recent BBC investigation tore open a wound that has long bled in silence: young African women deceived with promises of education or job opportunity, only to be trafficked into darkness, sex slavery, and domestic violence. They leave home as daughters, chasing dreams of light, only to arrive in foreign lands as commodities. What bleeds here is not only the…
On September 8, Pope Leo will mark four months in office. I write this editorial as both a tribute to Pope Leo and a plea for Africa. It is already clear that Pope Leo has shown himself to be a steady hand at the helm—no missteps, only poise, purpose, and a calm clarity of vision. It was never going to…
In his message for the 2025 World Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Leo XIV calls Christians to unite under the theme “Seeds of Peace and Hope.” He reminds us that “together with prayer, determination and concrete actions are necessary if this ‘caress of God’ is to become visible to our world.” This Season of Creation, he urges, is more…
A brutal Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis claimed at least 20 lives, including five journalists: Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Dagga, Mohammed Salama, Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmed Abu Aziz. They died for doing what every democracy claims to value—telling the truth. Israel dismissed it as a “tragic mishap.” But what we have seen in the conduct of…
❝ Out of Africa can rise a hope capable of reawakening the whole Church” — Stan Chu Ilo In a recent essay, Carlos Lopes warned of the “structural exhaustion” of the global order. Once-stable arrangements like free trade, multilateral institutions, and geopolitical balance are visibly fraying. Rising protectionism, populist nationalism, climate disruption, and deepening inequality have shaken the rules that…
The III Pan-African Catholic Congress revealed five surprising gifts that show how Africa can help reinvent the Church’s mission and prophetic witness for the 21st century. ❝ “The footprints of God in Africa trace the path toward a flourishing future shaped by an African Church confident in her gifts. This is a Church that invests in her own assets, renews…