“This war destabilized not only our region, but all of Mozambique,” said Luiz Fernando Lisboa, C.P., bishop of the Diocese of Pemba, the province’s capital. “The church’s role has been to help victims. But we must also speak out.”

“It definitely will save lives, especially in countries where there is active persecution of L.G.B.T.Q. people.”

The demands of the demonstrators have quickly expanded into a broad critique of government corruption, incompetence and impunity as human rights abuses and economic malaise continues in Nigeria.

The latest move to militarize Zimbabwean society appears an attempt not to reward career military officers who remain loyal to the ruling ZANU-PF party but to exert control over a different group of professionals who have been pressing for reform.

Father Maccalli was serving in a parish in Bomoanga, Niger, when militant extremists from Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, a branch of al-Qaida in Mali, kidnapped him in September 2018.

President Buhari’s push to corporatize religious houses is causing tension with religious leaders who accuse him of bias against Christians.