CNA Staff, Jun 5, 2025 / 16:09 pm

A Nigerian-born priest who served in the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, for more than half a decade has been captured by the terrorist group Boko Haram after returning to his home country.

Fairbanks Bishop Steven Maekawa, OP, said in a statement this week that Father Alphonsus Afina was “captured by Boko Haram as he was serving the Church in the Diocese of Maiduguri” in the Nigerian state of Borno.

Afina served in the Alaskan diocese for six and a half years before returning to Nigeria last April, the bishop said.

“Pray for his freedom from captivity and for his physical and spiritual strength,” he wrote. The bishop said he planned to offer a special Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Fairbanks for Afina.

The papal charity Aid to the Church in Need r

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