THE PARISHIONERS OF St Michael’s, Yemetu, Ibadan, on Saturday 3 March, held an evangelisation tour of the neigbourhood.

The evangelisation programme gave the parishioners the opportunity to spread the message of the season of Lent to their neighbours.

Having been divided into groups, Rev. Fr Felix Akinyode, parish priest, tutored the participants briefly on the theme of the outreach and the places to go.

The parishioners, thereafter, visited homes and shops and preached the “Sanctity of the human life and dignity of the human person” to the people. They also encouraged families to promote good values such as home-training among their children.

In places like Beere, Oje, Gate and Total Garden, there was open preaching and the sharing of pamphlets and tracts on various catholic themes.

The kids, who could not engage in active preaching, carried placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t kill,” “Life is sacred,” “Abortion is evil,” “Contraception is evil,” “Every life is precious,” “PMB, please, save Nigerians from killer-herdsmen,” “Pro-life is Pro-God,” “Hate speech does not warrant death by hanging,” “Lovers of human life are true friends of God,” “Protect life from conception to natural death,” “Please allow the unborn to live,” “Rape is evil,” “Right to life comes from God not from parents, society or human authority.”

The exercise was rounded off at mid-day and the faithful returned to the Church with pleasant stories of what transpired in the course of the outreach.

They had encountered people of other churches, Muslims as well as adherents of the traditional religion.

Many of the participants admitted that the exercise challenged them to be more serious with the study and practice of the catholic faith.

They noted that many family values have broken down and teenage pregnancies, promiscuity, drug abuse, use of foul languages and all sorts of untoward behaviours have become the order of the day. They hence asked that the exercise be done regularly to correct the social malaise.

-REV. FR FELIX ADEDIGBA & BEATRICE ADIGUN