An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIV.

 

Your Holiness,

My name is Tochukwu Joann Ekoh, a Nigerian writer, and a Catholic. But I am writing to you not just on behalf of Catholics, but on behalf of Nigerian Christians and Nigeria as a whole.

There is a kind of silence that comes from waiting too long.

Nigerians are really suffering. Nigeria has been waiting.

Waiting for peace that feels real.
Waiting for leadership that listens.
Waiting for a country that breathes like home, not survival.

And in the middle of all this waiting, we pray.
We fast.
We hope.

And yet, so many souls have been lost, killed, and still suffer because of the faith and the identity we carry.

But sometimes… prayer feels like it is rising into a sky that is already heavy with too many cries.

And because of this, I want to respectfully bring before you a heartfelt petition concerning Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi.

Other nations have saints they call their own; names that sound like home, voices that feel close. Intercessors who walked their soil, breathed their air, and carried their struggles.

Recently, you canonized Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. Carlo Acutis was named the first millennial saint, an “influencer for God,” and I am grateful to have witnessed such an occasion.

But while I feel blessed to be alive to witness this, something in me still aches to have a saint from my nation. A saint who understands what it is to be Nigerian. Someone I can call on when I need an intercessor who was once Nigerian.

Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi was an Igbo Nigerian priest of the Catholic Church who worked in the Archdiocese of Onitsha and later became a Trappist monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in England.

He died on the 20th of January, 1964, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on the 22nd of March, 1998.

The same Pope John Paul II, who beatified him, has since been canonized by Pope Francis on the 27th of April, 2014.

And yet, Blessed Iwene Tansi remains “Blessed”… still waiting.

He lived holiness in our land. He knew our people. He understood the weight of being Nigerian long before it became this heavy.

And yet, we are still here, calling him “Blessed” while our nation bleeds and our voices tremble.

This is not just about titles.

It is about connection.
It is about faith that feels near.

Nigeria is going through a lot right now; insecurity, bad government, bad leadership, hunger, Christians being killed for their faith, and so much more.

We have so much that we are crying about.

And we need somebody.

We need a saint from our own country; someone who knows this soil, someone we can call on, cry to, someone who can intercede for us, pray for us, and stand before God and say:

“I know them. Hear them.”

We are not asking for decoration.
We are asking for intercession.

We are asking that the life and sacrifice of Blessed Iwene Tansi be fully recognized, not just for history, but for now.

Because Nigeria is not just struggling. Nigeria is crying.

And we need a voice in heaven that sounds like us.

If it were in the traditional way, we would say, we need to call on our ancestors, our forefathers, to pray for us. But in the Catholic, liturgical way, we need to call on our saints, our own saints from Nigeria.

And that is Blessed Iwene Tansi.

I am not just speaking as a Catholic.
I am not just speaking for myself.

I am speaking as a Nigerian; as someone who sees what is happening in this country every day.

Nigeria is a blessed country; rich in minerals and resources, rich in culture, rich in abundance. It just needs to become better.

And if canonization comes, it will not just be a moment for the Church.

It will be a moment for a people who are holding on to faith with everything they have left.

And maybe…just maybe… it will remind us that God has not forgotten this land.

Yours faithfully,
A concerned Nigerian