By Matthew Don and Baron Ike, with agency report
Bishop Peter Okpaleke will remain the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese not withstanding the protest by Catholic faithful from the place that they desire one of them.
That seems to be the position of Pope Francis who received a delegation of Catholic leaders from Nigeria, including from Ahiara Diocese as he finds a lasting solution to the crisis that has lingered for more than four years.
Going by the thinking of Pope Francis that he would commit the people and the Diocese to the motherly care of Mary, it follows that he thinks the people have sinned and needed the prayers of all, including the Virgin Mary to atone their sins.
The Pope had called the Catholic leaders to a meeting to find a lasting solution to the problem raising hope for a final resolution of the crisis rocking the Diocese.
The meeting, Armadanews.com learnt, was expected to be the last critical move to be made for the resolution of the crisis which has dogged Mbaise Diocese for years now without end.
Though Okpaleke is an Igbo from Anambra State, the Catholic leaders in Ahiara rejected him because he is not an Igbo man from Mbaise. The people claim they have enough human capital in the Catholic faith well qualified that could have been so appointed.
The Vatican Insider said the pope received on Wednesday, June 7 a delegation from the Diocese of Ahiara, accompanied by Archbishop of Abuja and apostolic administrator of Ahiara, Cardinal John O. Onaiyekan.
Others at the meeting were Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri, Monsignor Anthony Obinna, Archbishop of Jos and President of the Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Monsignor Ignatius Kaigama, and the Bishop of Ahiara, Bishop Okpaleke.
Priests Clement O. Ebii, Jude N. Uwalaka, Uhuegbu Innocent Olekamma, Sister Bernadette O. Ezeyi and Stanley Pius Iwu, chief of the staff were also part of the delegation.
After a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Nigerian delegation attended the Pope’s private Mass celebration.
The delegation had previously met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Fernando Filoni, and the superiors of the same dicastery, with whom the Church’s situation in Ahiara was widely examined.
Pope Francis spoke of the inadmissibility of the situation in Ahiara and reserved to take the appropriate measures.
He said he was “entrusting the Diocese of Ahiara to the motherly care of Mary.”
It was Benedict XVI who appointed Monsignor Okpaleke in 2012, only to meet a storm of opposition by the leaders and congregation. He was not even allowed to hold mass in the church.
His predecessor, late Victor Adibe Chikwe, came from Mbaise and was accepted by the worshippers, because he was son of the soil.
Pope Francis appointed John O. Onaiyekan apostolic administrator since July 2013. But the crisis has lingered.
Since Okpaleke’s appointment in 2012, the priests and Catholic faithful from Mbaise had insisted they wanted a Bishop of Mbaise extraction.
Nonetheless, Okpaleke was ordained a Bishop on May 21, 2013 in Owerri, the mother Diocese to Ahiara Diocese.
His ordination was graced by the cream of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, including Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Jos and President Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN); Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop of Owerri and Metropolitan of the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Archbishop Anthony J.V. Obinna and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, His Grace, Archbishop Augustine Kasuija.
In a post-ordination speech, Okpaleke said: “My ordination is a celebration of my marriage to the Church of God in Ahiara. Just like wives married into families, I have left my people and have become “onye” (member of) Ahiara Diocese. I remember a piece of music by monks of Western Priory in the State of Vermont USA, which I love so much. The monks set into song Ruth’s response to Naomi: “wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live I shall live. You people will be my people and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried.”
Mbaise Diocese has been without a substantive Bishop for now after most of the priests in the area allegedly engineered a rejection of the Bishop sent to them to replace late Bishop Chikwe on the grounds that he was not an indigene.
One Rev Father Bede Ekechukwu and another Rev Father Dominic Ekweariri are believed to be the arrowheads of the protests against a non Mbaise as their Bishop.
They had argued that Cardinal Arinze influenced the appointment of Mosignor Okpaleke as Bishop for Mbaise, noting that they come from the same Anambra State.
Events were almost getting out of hand when they prevented the new Bishop from assuming office leading to police intervention.
To bring the matter to a temporary close, Pope Francis detailed Cardinal Onaikan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja to provide administrative support pending final resolution of the crisis.
Since the matter started none of the young priests who had completed their priesthood has been ordained or posted out of Mbaise.
Opinions have been divided among those who are for and those against the appointment of Okpaleke, but it is believed that selfish consideration rather than love for Diocese may have influenced the decision of those leading the protest.
It is hoped that with this meeting with Pope Francis the matter will be dealt with finally, according to a Catholic faithful who gave her name as Joy Opara