Margaret Attah, a nurse and mother of four who survived the Pentecost Sunday attack on St Francis Xavier’s Church in Owo, Nigeria last year, received the inaugural “Courage to be Christian” award from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) on Red Wednesday, 22 November.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, celebrated ACN’s annual Red Wednesday Mass for persecuted Christians, held for the first time in St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, when he presented the award to Mrs Attah.
Addressing the congregation, Mrs Attah described the events of 5 June 2022, when gunmen killed 41 people at Mass in St Francis Xavier’s Church. “We heard the first shots after the priest said ‘Go in peace’,” she said, describing how she had lain on the floor behind the altar with others lying on top of her as the shooting continued and the gunmen threw dynamite into the building.
She was one of 70 people injured in the attack, losing both her legs and her sight in one eye. The ACN award recognises fortitude, witness to the faith and a willingness to forgive in the face of persecution.
“As for the attackers,” she said, “I believe in forgiveness, so I forgive them…I do sin, every minute, every second, every hour, every day. I need forgiveness. I am forgiving them so that my mind will be free. I don’t hold any grudges.”
Dr Caroline Hull, ACN’s national director, said that Mrs Attah “represents so many others in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere who are called to live out their faith in ways we in the West can hardly imagine”.
“And they do it – Margaret does it – with so much dignity and love and devotion.”
Earlier in the day, Mrs Attah and her husband Dominic had visited the Houses of Parliament where Fiona Bruce MP, the prime minister’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, hosted an event attended by 20 parliamentarians. Mr Attah described how he searched for his wife after the attack but did not recognise her at first with her limbs shattered by the dynamite explosions.
At prime minister’s questions immediately afterwards, Mrs Bruce cited Margaret Attah’s in a call for the UK’s international development policy to include support for victims of religious persecution. Rishi Sunak acknowledged that Red Wednesday was “an important moment to demonstrate our solidarity with Christians and all those persecuted around the world for their religion or belief”.
ACN has consistently called for the UK government to apply diplomatic pressure to the Nigerian government to act decisively against attacks on Christians in the country. In her remarks at St George’s Cathedral, Mrs Attah said: “The blood of the faithful that flowed from the sanctuary cries out for justice.”
Concelebrants at the Mass included the Archbishop of Southwark John Wilson, ACN UK’s chaplain Fr Dominic Robinson SJ and priests from the Archdiocese of Southwark including several raised and trained in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, which has seen some of the worst recent attacks against Christians.
Refreshments at the reception following the Mass included the Nigerian snacks puff puff and chin chin, accompanied by a three-piece drum band.
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