The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, says the proposed minimum wage by the organised labour will not help low income earners to meet their basic needs.
Onaiyekan made this known at the first National Catechetical Summit, on Thursday, in Abuja.
He said that there was need for the minimum wage to be approached in a way it would benefit both low and higher wage earners.
“The whole issue of minimum wage has been so problematic in Nigeria.
“Whenever the minimum wage is increased, it is not the low income earners that gain, but the senior workers along the ladder who earn bigger salaries.
“It should be done in such a way that it really targets those who need it and not be used as an excuse, to increase the wage of those who are not within the minimum wage,” he said.
The clergy called on the Catholic Church in Nigeria to consider full time remuneration along the new minimum wage for catechists as their priority of diocesan budgets.
“As Catholics let’s not forget that the catechists give information to the Christian in his daily life and it is a major task which belongs to the whole church.
“If we neglect this task, we pay heavily in terms of the shallow faith of our Catholics, who are unable to stand their ground against all kinds of attacks.
“The new sets of catechists that lie ahead will need to be properly funded.
“Our local churches will need to put the funding of catechists much higher on our priority of diocesan budgets.
“This should be as important as building the churches and erecting lavish rectories,” he said.
The clergy said that from the point of remuneration, full time catechists of different grades, part time catechists and volunteers, would be placed in different categories of wage.
“Generally, a good number of people volunteer to be catechists without any pay. Those people need to be encouraged in any way possible, we should also think of catechists who are young.
“Very often, children can be catechists and teach their peers, especially at the level of secondary schools.
”There is also the adult catechists who can decide to spend their free time to teach catechism,” he said.
Onaiyekan said that for a long time, catechists had always been men.
He said that it was about time for the Catholic Church to seriously promote and consider women catechists, even as full time professional catechists.
He said that the Church had long neglected opening up the way for women to be involved in this very important aspect of the Catholic Church.
The archbishop said that as Catholics in Nigeria, there was a need for them to begin to think of pastoral assistants who would work with the parish priests in the pastoral care of the modern parish.
According to him, such pastoral assistants will be expected to be of a higher level of academic and theological formation.
“The time has come for us to open the door for graduates, who can do post graduate, higher diploma or degree courses in theology,” he said.
Earlier, the President of the Nigerian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Archbishop of Benin City, Augustine Akubeze, said that the issue of remuneration of workers in the church was addressed in Canon 1286.
Akubeze said it was stipulated that administrators of ecclesiastical goods ensured that their wages were in line with that of civil labour and be observed following the catholic social principles.
“Do we consider full time catechists remuneration along the newly established minimum wage?
“We must think seriously spending on the training of our catechists and their remuneration and social welfare,” he said.
The cleric said that the church in Nigeria was ever grateful to many catechists, who made to pass on the gospel message to the people of God.
“We know that our catechists are among the poorly remunerated and at times not well respected in our society,’’ he said.
Akubeze, however, called on diocesan bishops to seriously consider revamping the remuneration of catechists in their dioceses.
“Let us provide for their welfare. We need to establish a minimum wage for those on full time and those on part time,” he added. (NAN)
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