A Time To Break Silence

In A Time to Break Silence, Joseph F. Mali argues that given the complexity of Nigeria as a multi-ethnic society, and considering the political instability of the nation, especially the violent religious situation in the northern, there is an urgent need to change the present system of appointing Catholic bishops in Northern Nigeria. The present system allows only the hierarchy and a select few to name a bishop.
Northern Nigerian Catholics, Mali maintains, are the best judge of their deteriorating circumstances. They deserve a chance to elect church leaders who could really attend to their social, political, and religious concerns. To this end, Mali calls on Catholic bishops, priests, and laity to enlarge their views beyond the existing method of nominating bishops by a privileged few, and pave way for all the clergy and laity of each diocese to be part of the whole process for the churchs good.
Drawing on the New and the Old Testament, Mali discusses succinctly the biblical foundations of the election of leaders by the Christian community. Citing the good old saying, vox populi, vox die (the voice of the people is the voice of God), and pointing to a distinguished African bishop, Saint Augustine of Hippo, who became a priest and later a bishop by the popular vote of the people, Mali believes the Catholic communities in Northern Nigeria are well capable of deciding worthy bishops.