WHERE LIES THE DIFFERENCE....? WAKE UP! AFRICAN CHRISTIANS!!!!!!

Most of us, just like myself, have two names, the one we call English name and the one we call local/native name. It is so amazing how this has not only come to stay but has become so normal.

Let's assume  we were colonized by China, France or by the Portuguese, maybe we would be having Chinese, French or Portuguese names and not English names.

Some of us answering John would have been answering the Portuguese version João or Carlos for Charles. While some others may be answering Chinese names like; Chi chin chu, Kin Chu, Chang etc.

This is a very serious matter.....which we ought to be settling o.

The man bearing schwarzenegger will not be worried about introducing his name to me on the basis that it will be too hard for me to pronounce or even to spell. But me, instead of introducing myself as Ikenna, will prefer to say Augustine because to the mentality I was born into, Augustine sound more acceptable and easier for him to pronounce.

What sort of mental slavery is this?

Then to make matters worst, you bring your child for baptism. You want to call the child Chizoba, Ebube, Musa, Etim, Oluwaseun or Dooshima. But you are worried that the name may not be accepted because you have been taught by the catechist that you must choose what is called "a saint name" or an "English name", even though that is not what the Canon law of the church says. Thus, you are forced to give your baby a different Identity.

How long must we live with this? Just how long?

Based on the names that should be given for baptism, the canon law is very clear.  Canon 855 states, "Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to take care that a name foreign to Christian sensibility is not given."

Note the key words: FOREIGN TO CHRISTIAN SENSIBILITY! The law never said it must be saint or English name.

Why would some catechists refuse to register a candidate's preferred/chosen native names for baptism? Huh? How is Ikechukwu/Ikenna, which means 'Godspower/The power of God/The strength of God/The father, foreign to Christian sensibility?

And to imagine that names with deep Christian meanings are rejected during baptism simply because they don't sound English or French, is just too sad.

Then as though I have not had enough, people will ask, "what is your name?" Then I answer "Ikenna." They will immediately cut in, "I mean your Christian/English name, the name you were baptised with?" (Sometimes if I say 'Augustine' the interlocutor would say why not say 'Austin'...Augustine is too local.... Austin sounds polished and sexy....) Then I ask myself, why can't 'Ikenna' be seen as a Christian name? Why? Shey if I have mentioned Calistus, even if I was not baptized with it, and even when I don't know the meaning, they would have seen it as Christian name.

What do you call that? Don't paint it, say it as it is. What exactly do you call that?

Let me note this before I get misunderstood. It is a different thing to simply like a particular English or French or Spanish name or a saint name and may wish to bear the name or to name your child with it. Provided it is not on the basis that having those names against your local names make you more acceptable, no wahala!

Again, It is a different thing to see a particular saint or person as model, and sincerely from your heart wish to give their names to your child with the hope that the child will grow to be like the saint or person. Provided you understand and it is something you freely undertook, then, it is fine.

Aside that, let us all ask ourselves, why do we feel the need after giving a child a native name to necessarily add another one that is not "native"?

Finally, by the special grace of God..... I am now a Catholic priest, though unworthy I am....while administering the Sacrament of Baptism, I do baptize the infants/candidates with the names their parents provided or they themselves  (in the  case of an adult) chooses....provided the native names are not contrary to or foreign to Christian sensibility...according to the teaching of the Church...#Canon 855.

NB....Most of the ideas were gotten from Fr. Kelvin Ugwu.

God bless him.