Chris Okotie is simply ignorant – Archbishop of Lagos fires back

Recent statements about Catholicism credited to the pastor of the Household of God Church, Chris Okotie, have continued to draw reactions.

Okotie said last year that all adherrents of the catholic faith were going to hell and that the pope was a friend of the devil. A former Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Olubunmi Okogie, in response to the statement, warned Okotie to be careful lest he be disgraced.

 The current Archbishop of Lagos, Most Reverend Alfred Adewale Martins, in a recent interview with The Punch also voiced his opinion concerning Okotie and his controversial utterances. Excerpts below: In a recent interview, Pastor Chris Okotie emphatically said that the Catholic Church perverts the gospel of Christ.

 He said the Catholic Church puts Mary above Jesus Christ who should be the saviour. What do you make of this? I believe that that kind of statement could only have come from an ignorance of what the church believes in and ignorance of what the Catholic Church professes. I will not like to believe that it was an act of ill will, but rather an act of ignorance.


For that reason, it is only appropriate that people should seek to understand what others believe, not from their own point of view but from the point of view of the believer. In other words, what should have happened is to ask the church-what do you believe about Christ?

What do you believe about Mary? I think that was not done and that is why it is difficult to draw a line between ill will and ignorance in this matter. However for any Christian, Jesus is the saviour. Jesus is the son of God who became man in order to save us.

 It is at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. So there is absolutely no question about the place and position of Jesus in Christianity. Catholic Church being the mother church, we teach the basic thing.

So it's absolutely beyond controversy about what the church believes with regards to Jesus and his place in the realms of our salvation. Without Christ, there is no salvation; he's the way, the truth and the light. And so there is no confusion in the minds of any proper Christian with regards to the position of Christ. But of course, in the Catholic Church, it is quite clear in our minds that God used Mary as an instrument by which God would become Christ.

The scriptures have told us that she's blessed among all humans and everyone knows that we all regard Mary as human like you and I. Except of course that she was given that honour which no one else had, being the mother of Jesus. So if she's the mother of Jesus, naturally, she deserves reverence