Why Catholics Celebrated Mass With Oba Esigie – Benin Monarch

Why Catholics Celebrated Mass With Oba Esigie – Benin Monarch

The Benin monarch, His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II, has explained the reason the Catholic Church celebrated mass in Oba’s palace in the 13th Century.

The mass “was intended to bring liberation to the Benin Kingdom the way Christ saved humanity”, Oba Ewuare II explained, saying it dated back to the reign of Oba Esigie who was the first Benin monarch to have contact with Europeans.

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Oba Ewuare disclosed this while delivering a lecture at the 3rd National Pastoral Congress of the Catholic Church in Benin City, Edo State, with the theme: ‘For a Synodal Church, Communion, Participation, Mission’.

While analysing the evolution the Benin Royal Court and her relationship with the early Catholic missionaries under the famous Benin Empire, now part of the sovereign authority of Nigeria, the Oba explained that “the Catholic Church uses different format to operate,” and even attempted to convert some of his forebears and himself to Christianity, but it was resisted.

The monarch said due to the cordial relationship Oba Esigie had with the Catholics, some early Roman missionaries began to push for Christianity to become a ‘state religion in the Kingdom’, having converted, the then Benin Crown Prince Uhogua — first Benin Prince that was exposed to Western Education, but he later returned home after his father died.

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