By Matthew Don
The Catholic community in Ahiara Diocese in Mbaise, Imo State have defied Pope Francis, insisting that Bishop Peter Okpaleke originally posted to them must not be allowed to resume.
Okpaleke was appointed Bishop and consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, but both the Laity Council and the priests in the diocese rejected his appointment on the grounds that he is not an indigene of the area, Mbaise and was not incardinated at the diocese.
Indications that the order of Pope Francis after a June 8 meeting at the Vatican with a delegation from the Ahiara Diocese had been defied emerged at the weekend when about 3,000 members of the Diocese again protested the appointment of Bishop Okpaleke.
The laity, priests and community leaders participated in nthe latest protest.
They had converged on Saturday, July 1 on the Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral, Mbaise to restate their rejection of Okpaleke, an Anambra indigene, even though the Pope said he could not be rejected.
At the Vatican meeting the Pope held with representatives of the Diocese, the Pontiff had called for a truce and directed all the priests and major actors in the crisis to tender letters of obedience to the Church. He also solicited prayers for them through Mary the mother of Jesus Christ over their behaviour.
The Pope also threatened the defiant priests of Ahiara Diocese with loss of their job if they failed to obey him and their bishop.
Pope Francis gave them up to Sunday, July 9, to observe “total obedience” to him and accept Okpaleke’s as their bishop.
The Pope said the priets disobeying him “want to destroy the church, which is not permitted.”
But it seems the person beating the drum of disobedience for the priest in Ahiara Diiocese are still unrelenting going by the latest rally involving the diocesan youths, laity amd some priets who put on black attire, chanting solidarity songs to reaffirm their support for the position taken by the Ahiara Diocese clerics earlier and the laity council to reject Okpaleke.
President of the Diocesan Laity Council, Gerald Anyanwu, said that the people of Mbaise were not against the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis I, but that they were against the irregularities and injustices allegedly perfected against the people of the diocese in the selection of the bishop.
Anyanwu insisted that Okpaleke was forced on the Diocese, and that he was not a priest “incardinated in the Ahiara Presbyterian.”
His words: “There was no time we insisted that the bishop of the diocese must be an Mbaise son, but the prelate must be a priest incardinated in the diocese. We shall accept any bishop whether a Hausa man or a Yoruba man as far as he is incardinated in Ahiara Diocese.”
Regardless of Saturday’s rally, there are also some members of the Diocese who think the best thing to do is to allow Okpaleke to resume if those championing his rejection do not have physical agenda attached to the entire saga.