Photo shows married Kenyan pastor, not Nigerian Catholic priest

Published on June 12, 2024 at 17:14
2 min read
By Tonye BAKARE, AFP Nigeria

A social media post caused a stir in May 2024 when it claimed that a Nigerian Catholic priest got married while retaining his priesthood. But the claim is false: AFP Fact Check found that the photo shows a Kenyan pastor who wedded in 2023 after leaving the Catholic church. A spokesman for the church in Nigeria denied that the wedding happened in the country.

“This is Reverend Father Jude Obasi who hails from Afikpo North local government area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria who got wedded publicly to his long time lover of over 6yrs just this last Saturday at St Mary's Catholic Church, Abakiliki,” reads the post published on Facebook on May 24, 2024.

A screenshot of the misleading post, taken on June 9, 2024

Shared more than 1,100 times, the post goes on to mention that Catholic priests have fathered children in secret despite an “oath of celibacy”.

Catholic's celibacy vows

Catholic priests are forbidden from having sex and getting married (archived here).

Yet there have been in-depth reports about priests fathering “thousands of children” worldwide (archived here).

According to the New York Times, a website dedicated to providing support for children fathered by Catholic priests had 50,000 members as of 2019.

Despite the celibacy vows, married men have been ordained priests by the church (archived here).

However, the claim that the photo shows a Nigerian priest getting married is false.

Priest from Kenya

Using a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that the picture has been online since October 2023.

It was published by Kenyan news outlet Pulse on October 22, 2023, as part of a story about a Kenyan Catholic priest identified as Edwin Gathang’i Waiguru who married after joining a splinter church that broke with the celibacy ban (archived here).

Other national media also covered the event (archived here) while a Facebook account called “Kikuyu Digital TV” published the same photo on the same day (archived here).

Reverend Patrick Mulau, who ordained Waiguru as a priest in his new church and conducted the wedding, said in a YouTube video that the Catholic Charismatic Church was “Catholic in nature” but rejected celibacy.

“The major difference here is that we allow marriage,” Mulau said in the clip posted to YouTube on October 23, 2023. “That’s the reason why you have seen our deacon here (referring to Waiguru) who has solemnized his marriage.”

Meanwhile, several Nigerian news outlets reported that the Catholic church had also refuted the claim circulating online (archived here).

AFP Fact Check has reached out to church representatives for comment.

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