Pyrates and the rays of light on Nigeria

I wish to sincerely thank the National Association of Seadogs for inviting me to be part of this your 70th Anniversary and to give a keynote address on a matter that is very much at the heart of every one of us namely: The State of the Nation. I wish to thank especially my friend Mr. Uche Odozor who screwed up the courage to drag me into this adventure. Because of my long-term friendship with him, I did not have much difficulty accepting the invitation.

No doubt it is quite unusual for a person of my stature and ecclesiastical position to be in your midst. But we are living in unusual times. And if we want change for the better not only in our nation but in our world, such change obviously demands that we begin to learn to do things differently, breaking up new frontiers, making new friends and forging contacts. I want to thank you for the opportunity you have given me to broaden my perspective on what you stand for and what you live for.
A Cardinal with the seadogs

I have been invited to talk on the state of the nation. But before I do that, permit me to make a few remarks on my presence at this occasion. For many people, it was a surprise that I should be featuring prominently in an invitation to a major event by the Seadogs otherwise called the Pyrates. One of my younger siblings sent me a copy on WhatsApp of your invitation card and asked; “Is it for real or is it just a fake posting?” I replied and told him, “It is for real.”

Another nephew of mine sent me a text message with serious concern asking if I really know who these people who are inviting me are. “You mean you are going to talk to Pyrates?” My reply to him was that I don’t know very much about them, but on the other hand, I have not known anything about them to stop me from honouring their gracious invitation. Some of these remarks almost bother on a kind of query: “Why should you be going to talk at a meeting of Seadogs?” Fortunately, I thank God that I have reached a stage in my life now that I am beyond queries. Nobody queries me anymore. I do what I believe in and what I want to do. And so here I am. This is all the more reason why I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you.
Surprise galore

The surprise expressed by my friends reflects much of the general impression about the Pyrates. Those impressions are largely coloured by the activities of the wide spread contemporary campus cult groups that are unfortunately largely characterized by anti-social behaviours often almost criminal. We hear about groups like “eiyes” and similar groups and one tends to consider them as same with the Seadogs.
Catholic negative position

There is the further dimension of the negative position of the Catholic Church to which I belong against anything that seems like freemasonry or secret cults. This includes also groups like the Ogbonis whether reformed or non-reformed. Beyond the classical masonic organisations, the negative attitude of the Catholic Church also spreads to other groups like the Rosicrucian’s, the Ekankar, etc.
The Catholic Knighthoods

This general negative attitude has coloured our impression of the Seadogs. Let me give you a simple example. You are probably aware of the knights of the Church. The oldest and most prominent is the Knights of Saint Mulumba, (KSM). It was set up precisely to counter the inability of Catholics to access opportunities and advantages which membership of the masonic lodges were alleged to confer.

Catholics high up in the elites strata of society saw their non-Catholic peers joining masonic lodges and getting advantages from membership. Their Catholic Church tells them that they cannot be members. A Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Anselm Ojefua, who later became a monk and died a monk, came up with a good idea of a Nigerian Catholic Knighthood, taking a cue of already existing groups of Catholic knights elsewhere, like the Knights of Columbus in the USA.

This was the origin of the KSM. No wonder that a firm rejection of any links with secret cults was considered necessary for membership of the Catholic knighthood. Recently, an applicant to the knights of St. Mulumba was required to give up his membership as a Seadog as it was considered incompatible with being a Catholic Knight. But it was brought to my notice that this gentleman was circulating the invitation card to this event, with my picture boldly on it. He tried to suggest that this would be a proof that the KSM ought not to have considered his seadog membership as an obstacle. I had to clarify that my presence here does not entail any form of official Catholic endorsement of this group, and that in no way goes against the rules of the KSM.

The Catholic Church and secret cults
A simple search on Google on the “Catholic Church and freemasonry” will show very clearly that even now the official position of the church is that membership of freemasonry is incompatible with the Catholic faith. There may well be some Catholics who are members of the secret cults. Technically anyone who is a freemason ought not to receive Holy Communion in our church. But since such membership is normally secret, the rule is almost impossible to enforce. But the rule is there all the same.
Clearing misunderstanding

It is possible that such negative impressions about the Pyrates are based on ignorance of what they really stand for. To break such ignorance will require an open mind to hear and to see what you are and what you are doing. It may well be that Seadogs are not a secret cult like the freemasons, in which case the Catholic law against freemasons would not apply to them.

But I also believe that the Pyrates themselves, on their part have to try harder to present themselves in a more transparent and positive way to the general public. I see this invitation to me as a good step in the right direction. But the task of making the Pyrates better known especially to those of us in church circles will fall more particularly on those among the Pyrates confraternity who also are active members of our church. Such persons in one way or the other would have managed to reconcile their membership of the confraternity with their belonging to the Catholic Church.
• To be continued tomorrow
Onaiyekan, (CON), Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja delivered this as Keynote Address at the 70th Anniversary of National Association of Seadogs in Abuja recently.