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Cardinal John Onaiyekan appointed apostolic administrator of troubled Diocese of Ahiara.
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ahiara.
Founded in 1987 and located in the Mbaise region of Imo State in southern Nigeria, the diocese was governed by Bishop Victor Chikwe from its inception until his death in 2010.
In December 2012, Pope Benedict appointed Father Peter Okpaleke, a priest of the Diocese of Awka in neighboring Anambra State, as the diocese’s new bishop. 400 priests, angered that a Mbaise priest was not appointed, protested the decision.
The appointment “sends a very reprehensible signal about the status and reputation of about 500 Catholic priests that trace their origins to the soil of Mbaise, a diocese that has been globally acclaimed as the Ireland of Nigeria,” the priests said in a statement.
Some priests and lay protesters saw Cardinal Francis Arinze, the retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as the force behind the appointment of Father Okpaleke. Cardinal Arinze comes from Anambra State.
“Awka has five bishops, Mbaise has no bishop,” said a placard at the priests’ protest. “We want Mbaise son as Mbaise bishop.”
Father Okpaleke was ordained bishop of Ahiara on May 21, but the ordination took place at a seminary in another diocese amid heavy security. At the time of the ordination, youth locked the cathedral of Ahiara in protest. Some protesters placed a coffin with the new bishop’s name at diocesan headquarters.
The Holy See has not announced Bishop Okpaleke’s resignation from his see. Typically, the Pope appoints an apostolic administrator when a see is vacant (sede vacante), but a sede plena appointment is not unprecedented: Archbishop Joseph Miot served as apostolic administrator of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 1997 to 2008, while Archbishop François-Wolff Ligondé remained archbishop, and Bishop Thomas Olmsted was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Gallup in 2008 while Bishop Donald Pelotte remained diocesan bishop.
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Oooh Felix, I
beg to withdraw from this ‘debate’ before it gets to other levels!!!! You are almost taking it personal.
Who are my
people? Catholics, Nigerians, Igbos, Enugu etc? Do you read my posts or replies at all? Read them once more
or invite a third party (i.e non prejudiced person) to read the whole posts on
this issue and analyze. I adopt this some times.
The
penultimate bishop of Enugu was from Delta; on his arrival years back many people may have wished an Enugu person
on that seat but they never
locked off the CATHEDRAL NOR PLACED A COFFIN SOME SOMEWHERE WITH HIS NAME ON IT. We accepted him, obeyed, worked with him , loved him, prayed and asked for our wish to be satisfied one day; One day came, and we
had a bishop from Enugu. If the new
bishop wasn’t still from Enugu I do not think we would still have … locked off the CATHEDRAL
NOR PLACED A COFFIN SOME SOMEWHERE WITH
HIS NAME ON IT nor allowed some
person/group to do so. My dear friend I
insist that that the catholic teachings taught us other ways of doing these
things.
I Know Mbaise
and Mbaise people; I know scores of Mbaise
religious people and have been
with them in many places outside Mbaise
where the have worked and
sacrificed, however you are the person who introduced Mbaise as a
people into an Ahiara diocese palaver
which is not a mistake per se but do
not get
it wrong if the debate takes that turn and tone.
I repeat, the
diocese should have a bishop and I support that any day. I am somehow ignorant
in the modalities of appointment of bishops, however from your report (if it is
not too sentimental) there might have been
some errors or omissions to
be corrected.
I am from a new diocese carved out from the great Enugu diocese. Our first bishop is
from the diocese, he was a student in
Rome when you and I were also there. We love him and work with
him but I do not think we would have loved a bishop from Ahiara diocese less nor
locked off the CATHEDRAL NOR PLACED A COFFIN SOME SOMEWHERE WITH HIS NAME ON IT nor allowed some person/group to do so.
If Boko Haram
or Al qaeda people do this we would cry to the whole world to
see the disrespect from other
religions. This action should be condemned first by all well reasoning people. This is my point.
I rest my pen here giving glory to Jesus and honor to Mary.
Charles
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