Fr. Anthony Adetayo

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Childermas or Innocents’ Day, is a Christian feast in remembrance of the massacre of young children in Bethlehem by King Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18). The day is still observed as a religious feast day and, in Roman Catholic countries, as a day of merrymaking for children.

For this reason the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode, Most Rev. Francis Obafemi Adesina celebrates with the Holy Childhood Association of Ijebu-Ode Deanery at St. Sebastian Cathedral on 28^th December 2022.

The program started with the Holy Mass by 10:00am where the liturgical functionaries were all children. The Bishop encourages the children not to be like Herod, not to be jealous, angry or be murderous, but be good children of God. The Cathedral Administrator; Very Rev. Fr. Albert Igbodipe was at the Mass with some Holy Childhood animators and Sr. Dominica Izunwanne of the Passionist Congregation.

At the reception, the Bishop sang for the children and danced with them. They also did some presentations to entertain themselves. Cathedral children had a choreography presentation while Kajola children had a drama presentation. Ejinrin-Road children had a Christmas medley and the entire children had quiz performance and dancing-round-the chair-competition. They were all given different awards and gifts by the Bishop.

It was a gathering the children cherished around the Bishop with an invaluable pastoral imparts on their lives.