Since 2012, around 39 Catholic priests have been killed and 30 kidnapped.
At the same time, 17 catechists and more than 3,500 Catholic believers were murdered.
The Department of Church and Society, an organ of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, made the announcement on Wednesday.
While protesting against the killing of the priest. Isaac Achi Minna, from suspected bandit Kafin-Koro in Niger State, the organization said 47 attacks against the Catholic Church in Nigeria have been recorded.
The Director (Church and Social Department and Executive Director, Caritas Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, who led others to a press conference in Abuja, said the killing of Achi, other priests and Nigerians across religious divides was unacceptable.
He said: “In fact, about 39 Catholic priests have been killed, 30 kidnapped and ransomed and collected, 17 catechists and more than 3,500 Catholic faithful have been needlessly murdered.
“It begins to ask and ask: what has the Catholic Church in Nigeria done to deserve such barbaric and atabic attacks? Is it possible to think of a planned strategy to uproot Christianity and Christians in Nigeria?’
Obodoechina lamented that in the last decade, Nigeria has become a hell on earth where human life has been belittled, punished and randomly wasted.
He added, “Inevitable pain and death have become the order of the day where not a single day goes by without some bad news of one careless death or the other in the media and various social media platforms.
“Undoubtedly, there have been some good men and women of this country, Catholic priests and nuns, other Christians and Muslims, weak and defenseless victims of the insurgency, the attack by Boko Haram, the kidnapping of suspected Fulani herdsmen, banditry and arson. among the men and women of the underground, who lost their lives in vain.”
The church said on more than one occasion, the attacks on Christians and Catholic priests in Nigeria in the last two years had made Nigerian Christians an endangered species.
