Give Us Our Son, Ahiara Catholic Community Insists “All we are saying, give us our son,” was the chorus chanted by the Ahiara Catholic faithful who gathered at the Cathedral on December 22, 2014 to listen to the Papal representative, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Kadwo Appaiah Turkson who arrived in Nigeria on December 20, 2014 to deliver a letter to the Priests and Laity of Ahiara Diocese from Pope Francis. Having addressed the Priests on Sunday, December 21, 2014, Cardinal Turkson was greeted by a mammoth crowd of Christian Fathers, Mother and Youths of the Ahiara Catholic Community clad in their various uniforms to which he read out the letter he came with. And after the letter, he addressed them on the need for their Christian light to outshine any agitation they might have. He spoke elaborately and gave them the opportunity to respond. One of those who responded was HRH Eze Julius Nnabugwu Ahamefule, Aladinma 11of Obama Ezinihitte Mbaise, who is the immediate past Chairman of Mbaise Council of Traditional Rulers, Patron Ahiara Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria, a Youth Ambassador, Secretary to the Royal Stars of Ndi Eze Mbaise. In an interview after the address, Eze Ahamefule maintained that, “All we are saying is give us our son as Bishop. When the Cardinal said, give to God what belongs to God, we are saying, give to Ahiara what belongs to Ahiara as you see the people chanting now at his exit? The Pope wrote to us. This is a reply to the Pope. What the people are chanting is a reply to the Pope. Because definitely the Pope will ask him, what did you observe? It is not a question of what he has come to read to our hearing. What did you see?” The Traditional Ruler stated, and maintained that the process of electing a Bishop was not followed in the case of Bishop Peter Okpaleke and there is no way he can work or function properly in the Diocese when the Priests and Laity don’t want him. On whether their insistence is not an act of rebellion, the Royal father said; “No, no, no. This is the mistake you people make. There is no rebellion about that. It’s a kind of respect to the Holy Father that we are telling him our feelings, not doing one thing and saying the other.” He maintained, pointing out that they Priests and Laity now expect the Pope to listen to his children here because he speaks and they listen and obey, therefore it is normal that his children have spoken, he has to listen to them and look properly into the matter. However, according to one of the Priests who have always spoken in favor of Bishop Peter Okpaleke as the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Rev. Fr. Chima Ahaneku said the outcome of the letter is that Pope Francis has graciously told them that they should accept their Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Okpaleke in good faith and with open heart and arms, that he remains the substantive Bishop of Ahiara Diocese and that they should allow him, the Pope to exercise freely his Partite Authority, as well as allow him exercise his function as the Vicar of Holy Roman Catholic Church. Fr. Ahaneku stated that the people agitating for their son as Bishop is against the process of election and appointment of Bishops because in the Catholic Church, Bishops are not appointed based on where they come from and where they would be serving. In sharp contrast, Rev. Fr. Bernard Ekechukwu also disclosed that the objection of the Priests and Laity to the Bishophoric status of Bishop Peter Okpaleke over Ahiara Diocese is a simple thing, which is that the normal process was not followed, in the sense that there was no consultation among the Laity. Not even the Clergy knows him in the Presbytery. Being the leader that sees to the welfare of Priests in Ahiara Diocese, Rev. Fr. Bernard Ekechukwu has consistently accused the Nigerian Bishops of conspiring to make Okpaleke Bishop over Ahiara Mbaise Diocese because he is a pre-ordained Bishop whereby Cardinal Arinze wanted his son to be there. This he said made them to avoid the necessary Protocol that ought to have been followed in electing a Bishop for Ahiara Diocese since the demise of their late Bishop, Rt. Rev. V.A Chikwe in 2010. He said they had written a letter to the Nuncio before any nomination, that they were hearing that Bishop Okpaleke would be ordained as Ahiara Mbaise Diocese, warning them that the people of Ahiara Diocese didn’t want his kind of function. He confirmed that the letter was given to the Nuncio who signed it, promising the then Administrator, Monsignor Nwalo that they would give them a Priest from Ahiazu. Unfortunately Monsignor Nwalo believed them and felt it was unnecessary to have sleepless night over it. “Nwalo didn’t do his home work. They perfected their own home work with Arch Bishop Obinna being overtaken by some other characteristic that are peculiar to him, pride, arrogance and hatred for Mbaise. He did not do his work. In fact the cause of this problem is the inability of the Metropolitan Bishop to recognize his function. If he said no from the word go, nobody would have ordained this boy. But he insisted, maybe he has some favor he is asking for, this and that, and he wanted to acquiesce, and he has acquiesced. Even he told people that this thing would not work.” Fr. Ekechukwu lamented bitterly. He noted that His Eminence Peter Cardinal Kadwo Appaiah Turkson has come as a delegate who was asked to deliver and communicate to them, which he has done and also listened to the people. He expressed the belief that the Pope should invite them right now to hear their complaint and they are prepared to meet the Pope because he is the last See of Justice the church has, and they believe he would listen to them because nobody can impose any Bishop on anybody. “Bishop Anthony Obinna is not able to say the truth, he is hiding. He is the arch enemy of Mbaise and the man that really controlled this mess. If he spoke up as the Metropolitan Bishop that this is not fair and that this Metropolitan belongs to him, this boy cannot be thrown from nowhere to be imposed here. Even the Church knows there would be no imposition acceptable to the Priests. Pope clement said it long ago and this Pope now have reiterated it, give them a Pastor close to them.” Fr. Ekechujwu said, adding that the Nigerian Bishop have closed their eyes because they are naive. They are sectional, partisan and because of the hatred they have for Mbaise they want to stifle them so that they cannot talk, so that there would be no Mbaise Bishop for the next upward fifteen years, stressing that it cannot work. “We have rejected Okpaleke, heaven fall, rain fall, Okpaleke will not function here. The Pope I think knows what he is doing. After our rejection now, the Pope will make a statement because he is a father. He knows what we are angling for and the only thing the Nigerian Bishops cannot own up is their pride, arrogance, and authoritarian mentality. They cannot accept they have made a mistake, they cannot tell the truth that Okpaleke is not worthy to be a Bishop here because he doesn’t belong to us; he is not a member of the Presbitarium. He didn’t study here, we didn’t know him, and he hasn’t known us. They know that, but they simply want to impose him.” He said, adding that when they initially advocated dialogue they refused, and insisted on ordaining him, expecting the people to bow down to what he has always described as imperialistic decisions. He maintained that they have only succeeded in ordaining him, and making him a Vagus. “We have not accepted him so now they have ordained him and they have no place for him in Mbaise , Mbaise the Laity and the Clergy , they have the mandate to say no, they are exercising their power, their democratic power and the fact that they belong to the Church, the Clergy and the religious, we have spoken today. The Clergy have spoken, the Laity has spoken, women folk have spoken, Mabise have spoken in general. So there is no going back.” He said and maintained that any attempt to bring Okpaleke to the diocese ends in futility because there would be bloodshed that would lead to the complete destruction of Roman Catholicism in Mbaise. “If they venture, let them try. So we appreciate the presence of Cardinal Turkson here. He has delivered his lesson and we have given him a good feedback. Let him go and tell the people what he has seen and tell the Pope what he has heard. When Onaikan was coming here, he didn’t come with any Secretary to make any recording. He did a shabby job and never reported our case seriously for the first six months of his administration here. He failed completely. I think Rome knows he has failed. If he had not failed, why are they bringing this guy to come and penetrate and hear us? They refused to hear us, now they are hearing us.” He said. Meanwhile, a Reverend Sister, Sister Judith Anyanwu of the SDV, expressed happiness for whatever happened on the visit, and confirmed that with the Papal intervention so far in Ahiara Diocese, the lay faithful have given their own opinion that they wish not to have Bishop Okpaleke as their Bishop, that they wish to have somebody from their Diocese because since they have been having problem with Bishop Okpaleke, if Rome should insist and post him to the Diocese it may cause problem within the Diocese because they will not work in harmony with him. Also, Rev. Fr Wisdom Akalefu, who said he was the Laity Chairman in the Diocese in years passed, disclosed that he just returned from New York and knows that his people love God and they don’t like cheating. “Since they don’t like cheating, they want the Church to look into the Priesthood to do the wish of the Priests and Laity because Mbaise people are staunch Catholics, and it is a Church that knows has love for its children. The Church should employ the heart of motherhood and fatherhood and look into the cries of the children. When they must have done this God will accept it. Since the Church doesn’t want injustice, the Church should look into it. Everybody is expecting the will of God to take place. We shall keep praying to God to listen to us because if you see how the Christian Mothers came out today, you would see that they are carrying the Church on their heads, we pray that these women carrying the burden of the Church are heard by God.” He said and prayed that the will of God would take place Also Christian father, Chief B.C Onuoha expressed happiness on the Cardinals’ visit, and believes that having seen with his own eyes that the people are being fooled, and that he sees that they don’t need a Bishop from outside their flock certainly he knows what to tell the Pope, and expressed hope that they would come back with something reasonable. He strong condemned the insinuations that the people’s response is a revolt against Pope’s decision, stressing that that is exactly what they want it to appear like. “That is why he came because he wouldn’t see us being Christians and disobeying the instruction of the Pope. We have known from our Pastors that the system of creating a Bishop has been misused and has been definitely been misunderstood, and then we got it at very late hour that we have to response and we are responding to allow the Pope do his work the way he does it. That’s all.” He said. However, it would be recalled that since after the appointment of Bishop Chidiebere Okpaleke as the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese by his Holiness Pope Benedict the XVI and then reconfirmed by Pope Francis Ahiara Mbaise Diocese has been raging of crisis. The Priests have been agitating and longing to have a son of the Soil to be their Bishop since they have over six hundred qualified Priests who can be a bishop. They have always pointed accusing finger on Cardinal Arize whom they claim have constituted imperialistic leadership of the Church in Nigeria, imposing Priests from Anabara State, his home State above their contemporaries elsewhere in Nigeria. In this agitation that has lasted over 7years, the Priest have always maintained that in this 21st Century, the Church should be able to do Justice in their decisions because Light has shunned in the world through Christ, and Africans are no longer in darkness but a people that have embraced the light of Christ with its all goodness.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:39:13 +0000
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