Aug
17
Catholic PriestsAt War! Rev. Fr Accuses Bishop of Corruption. Catholic priests in the Aba Diocese of the church are locked in a renewed battle that can be described as a holy war, with a Rev. fr and his Bishop trading allegations of corruption. The war, which has been raging for some years now, has led to the suspension of some priests from the diocese and the dragging of the bishop to the Zone 9 headquarters of the Nigeria Police in Umuahia, Abia State where the Local Ordinary (Bishop) had gone on some occasions to defend himself against graft allegations levelled against him by one of the priests. The current crisis, according to one of the priests placed on suspension, Rev. Fr. Onyebuchi Ig. Nwoko, started few years back when he preached a homily in his parish, condemning what he described as an illicit partisan romance between the Catholic Church in Aba “and the failed-corrupt insensitive government in place in Abia State at the expense of the poor and unsuspecting citizens of the state.” This Fr. Nwoko said coupled with his stance against absolute worship of money and colossal murder of spirituality and spiritual life that drags the image of the church to the mud and made people not to have respect for it any more, made him the target of the bishop. This homily, Saturday Sun, gathered did not go down well with the Catholic Bishop of Aba, His Lordship, Vincent Valentine Ezeonyia who felt Rev. Fr. Nwoko went too far, and allegedly promised to “deal with the priest in question.” This pronouncement, it was also gathered, was closely followed with a letter of reprimand entitled “Precept” which the Bishop was said to have ordered should be placed against the priest’s name in the Diocese’s Curia. Rev. Fr. Nwoko, who is also a lawyer, took exception to a passage in the precept which said, “I (Bishop) also confine you to your self-chosen legal practice.” With this, the priest felt he was being punished for telling the truth of what was going on in the diocese and the state at large and the battle line was drawn. In his reply, the priest said: “Most of my legal practice is pro bono as many of our institutions, and the office of the education secretary can attest to. My bishop hates to see a priest that is empowered and who swims in excellence. “He is very cagey in placing such priests in places where his friends are residing, so that the word of God may not smack them. A good number of priests working in the diocese preach the gospel of my bishop, and not the gospel of Christ. However, I will dissect and respond adequately on the said ‘precept’ to the appropriate quarters.” The bishop was said to have been livid with this response that some days later, Fr. Nwoko said in a memo to his traditional ruler in Ukwa East about his lingering crisis with the bishop that he was transferred to the same location where kidnappers abducted one of the priests. This transfer, the priest said, was done for a purpose, “to throw his perceived enemy into the lion’s den, but cannot sharpen their claws to take my life. I am conscious of the fact that if there is benefit or reward at all in our apostolate, I do not stand to be rewarded by my bishop.” The matter got to its crescendo on February 23, 2011 when Bishop Ezeonyia reposted some priests, including Nwoko of St. David, Uratta – Umuoha in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government with the new posting not having any parish. Feeling stabbed at the back by the new posting, Fr. Nwoko refused to vacate the parsonage at Uratta until he was given a new parish and the real trouble began. To ensure that another priest took over, the bishop was reported to have threatened to forcefully open the residence of the parish priest, which was under lock and key. In an attempt at forestalling the threat, Nwoko on September 7, 2012 wrote a petition entitled, “The unlawful conduct of Bishop Ezeonyia capable of causing a breakdown of law and order,” to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the need for the police boss to call the bishop to order. Before the IGP could act on the petition of the priest, his residence had been forced open. The action prompted Nwoko to do another petition entitled, “Case of burglary, sealing, threat to life, property and conduct capable of breaching public peace”, this time to the Assistant Inspector General (AIG), Zone 9, Umuahia. In the petition, Fr. Nwoko accused the bishop who he said has been having nocturnal meetings with Catechist Anthony Enwe, Mr. Simeon Nwokoacha, Sir Ajaegbu, Mr Chidinma Agbara and Mr Raphael Nwaeke, while he was away to Enugu sometime in 2012 for the purpose of breaking into his house. He urged the AIG to investigate the bishop, arrest and charge him to court if found culpable. When it appeared the AIG was delaying in acceding to his request, he wrote another letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police “D” Department, Zone 9 headquarters. In the letter, Fr. Nwoko narrated how one Joseph Offor of the legal department, Zone 9 Police Command thwarted every effort he made to ensure that the bishop was prosecuted, alleging that “one of the priests, Fr. Innocent Ajuonu (even) boasted that they have settled the matter and that the prosecutor had assured them that the bishop will never be prosecuted.” As this was going on, Bishop Ezeonyia on May 7, 2013, wielded the big hammer. He issued Fr. Nwoko with ‘Canonical warning’ entitled “Second Admonition” in which the priest was accused, among other things, of disrespect to the Local Ordinary. The bishop threatened not only to impose personal interdict/suspension if within 10 working days Fr. Nwoko failed to write him with a promise of stopping his scanting attacks on him (Bishop), but also directed that the Canonical warning “be placed in the secret archive of the Curia and maintained there in accord with the norm of law.” In an eight-page reply captioned, “Threat to impose further interdict/suspension order”, Fr. Nwoko said unless the bishop restructure the Diocese based on truth and recall the priests he suspended particularly Rev. Fr. Ken Evurulobi, nothing will make him change his stance on issues in the diocese. “You may think that you have the Ecclesiastical power to do what you like, but you do not have the power of the electronic pen. Be assured that in the absence of those serious and unfortunate irregularities going on in this diocese, only when the right reason, respect for the human person, justice, equity and fair play are properly put in place that this matter may seem not to proceed further,” Fr Nwoko replied Bishop Ezeonyia. In response to the allegations leveled against him by Fr Nwoko, Bishop Ezeonyia who spoke through Rev Fr. Alex Okonkwor, Judicial Vicar of the diocese said the truth about the whole issue was that Rev Fr. Nwoko has been disrespectful to the office of the bishop in so many ways. He accused Fr. Nwoko of refusing to honour an appointment with the bishop so that there will “be understanding and peace in the diocese, but he refused and instead chose to rage like the hectic in the body of this diocese by spinning out writings, articles and letters that are crammed with insults against the bishop.”
Posted 17th August by Onu Henry Chidi
Labels: Aba Diocese. Rev. Fr Nwoko Bishop Ezeonyia Catholic Churches of Nigeria
Monday, October 21, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sacked bishop accuses Vatican of authoritarianism
Sacked bishop accuses Vatican of authoritarianism
ShareretweetEmailPrint AFP/Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba – William Morris (foreground), who has been the Catholic Bishop of the vast Queensland diocese of Toowoomba … – 1 hr 24 mins ago
SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian bishop who said he was forced to resign after a dispute with the Vatican on Tuesday accused the Catholic Church of "creeping authoritarianism".
William Morris announced his early retirement on Sunday after being told that Pope Benedict XVI felt that his vast Toowoomba diocese in Queensland state would be better served by another bishop.
Morris, who had been Toowoomba's bishop for 18 years, said he was sad but not angry about his resignation but felt the Vatican had not given him a voice.
"If it hasn't given me a voice, it means it hasn't given the people a voice," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I think -- and I'm not the only one -- that there is a creeping centralism in the church at the moment. There's a creeping authoritarianism.
"I think in many ways local bishops have been sidelined," Morris added.
Morris, who was ordained a priest in 1969, had come to the Vatican's attention over comments five years ago that women and others should be allowed to become Catholic priests to relieve an acute shortage of priests.
He said Tuesday he had never pushed for women priests, but had mentioned the need for the church to be involved in a broad debate on the subject.
"I wasn't advocating at all," he said. "What I was saying was we need to be open to options so that the Eucharist can be celebrated in our community."
Morris, who has been replaced by Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane Brian Finnigan until a permanent replacement can be appointed, will remain as Emeritus Bishop of Toowoomba.
He has the support of local priests, with eight from the Toowoomba diocese signing a media statement saying they believed "Bishop Morris has not been treated fairly or respectfully".
"We find his removal profoundly disheartening," they said.
German "Bling" Bishop: The Face of a Profligate and Wasteful Church, and Arrogant Churchman...
German 'bling bishop' faces grilling in Rome.
By Ella Ide
4 hours ago
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The bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, is seen in the chapel of the bishop's residence in Limburg, central Germany, on December 3, 2012 (AFP Photo/Boris Roessler).Vatican City (AFP) - A German big-spending Catholic bishop has flown to Rome to try and explain himself to humility advocate Pope Francis as he faces multiple calls to resign over his high-roller lifestyle.
Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst flew in with low-cost airline Ryanair -- following accusations he took a business-class ticket on a trip to India and squandered money on luxuries.
His private quarters in a brand-new bishop's palace are reported to have cost some 2.9 million euros ($3.9 million) and included a 63-square-metre dining room and a 15,000 euro bathtub.
Germany's top Catholic cleric Robert Zollitsch, who was also visiting Rome, said the scandal over Limburg should not remain "without consequences".
The 53-year-old bishop is under pressure to resign after using church funds to build himself a diocese headquarters with a museum, conference halls, a chapel and private apartments.
The ostentatious project in the ancient town of Limburg was approved by his predecessor and was initially valued at 5.5 million euros but the final bill ballooned to 31 million euros.
The alleged extravagances of the cleric dubbed "bling bishop" by the press have sparked furore among Catholics in Germany, where Martin Luther's Reformation legacy has left many sensitive to excesses within the Church.
Tebartz-van Elst is also accused of giving false statements in court in a case centred on an expensive flight he took to India to visit poor communities.
Prosecutors allege the bishop twice gave false statements under oath in a Hamburg court battle against news weekly Der Spiegel when he denied having told the magazine's journalist that he flew only business class.
Anger that taxes paid to the Church by ordinary Germans are apparently being squandered has led to demonstrations outside his residence.
"For heaven’s sake!" the headline on the nation’s largest-selling tabloid, Bild, screamed on Friday. Over a graphic that showed the bishop’s living quarters and offices, it asked, "Why does the bishop need a 783,000-euro garden?"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor, said via her spokesman Steffen Seibert that "the government naturally has no instructions or advice to give. But I can express the hope that there will be an answer for believers, for people's confidence in their Church."
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Treves, in West Germany, told Germany's public television chain ARD that the situation has "escalated to the extent that bishop Franz-Peter can no longer on principle work in Limburg."
The embattled Tebartz-van Elst has defended the costly project, saying the centuries-old hilltop cathedral complex adjacent to the modernist new structure is heritage protected, complicating the development.
Critics within and outside the church have contrasted the premium architectural project with the more humble style of Pope Francis and asked how much good the money could do if used as aid in poverty-stricken African countries.
Pope Francis has called for a "poor Church for the poor" and has condemned high-roller clerics.
The 76-year-old pontiff has refused to move into the lavish papal palace in the Vatican, staying instead in the Casa Santa Marta, a residence for visiting clergy and lay people.
He has repeatedly called for the Catholic Church and its faithful to rid themselves of earthly concerns like his namesake, St Francis of Assisi, warning that "worldliness is a murderer because it kills souls, kills people, kills the Church."
Archbishop Zollitsch has set up a commission to investigate the finances of Limburg diocese.
"This weighs on us," Zollitsch told reporters in Rome, adding that he could "not take a position" on the procedures in Germany against the bishop.
"It is the bishop of Limburg who should take a position," Zollitsch said, adding that he should respond "with a spirit of self-criticism".
By Ella Ide
4 hours ago
...
...Content preferences ....Done ..
... .View gallery
The bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, is seen in the chapel of the bishop's residence in Limburg, central Germany, on December 3, 2012 (AFP Photo/Boris Roessler).Vatican City (AFP) - A German big-spending Catholic bishop has flown to Rome to try and explain himself to humility advocate Pope Francis as he faces multiple calls to resign over his high-roller lifestyle.
Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst flew in with low-cost airline Ryanair -- following accusations he took a business-class ticket on a trip to India and squandered money on luxuries.
His private quarters in a brand-new bishop's palace are reported to have cost some 2.9 million euros ($3.9 million) and included a 63-square-metre dining room and a 15,000 euro bathtub.
Germany's top Catholic cleric Robert Zollitsch, who was also visiting Rome, said the scandal over Limburg should not remain "without consequences".
The 53-year-old bishop is under pressure to resign after using church funds to build himself a diocese headquarters with a museum, conference halls, a chapel and private apartments.
The ostentatious project in the ancient town of Limburg was approved by his predecessor and was initially valued at 5.5 million euros but the final bill ballooned to 31 million euros.
The alleged extravagances of the cleric dubbed "bling bishop" by the press have sparked furore among Catholics in Germany, where Martin Luther's Reformation legacy has left many sensitive to excesses within the Church.
Tebartz-van Elst is also accused of giving false statements in court in a case centred on an expensive flight he took to India to visit poor communities.
Prosecutors allege the bishop twice gave false statements under oath in a Hamburg court battle against news weekly Der Spiegel when he denied having told the magazine's journalist that he flew only business class.
Anger that taxes paid to the Church by ordinary Germans are apparently being squandered has led to demonstrations outside his residence.
"For heaven’s sake!" the headline on the nation’s largest-selling tabloid, Bild, screamed on Friday. Over a graphic that showed the bishop’s living quarters and offices, it asked, "Why does the bishop need a 783,000-euro garden?"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, daughter of a Protestant pastor, said via her spokesman Steffen Seibert that "the government naturally has no instructions or advice to give. But I can express the hope that there will be an answer for believers, for people's confidence in their Church."
Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Treves, in West Germany, told Germany's public television chain ARD that the situation has "escalated to the extent that bishop Franz-Peter can no longer on principle work in Limburg."
The embattled Tebartz-van Elst has defended the costly project, saying the centuries-old hilltop cathedral complex adjacent to the modernist new structure is heritage protected, complicating the development.
Critics within and outside the church have contrasted the premium architectural project with the more humble style of Pope Francis and asked how much good the money could do if used as aid in poverty-stricken African countries.
Pope Francis has called for a "poor Church for the poor" and has condemned high-roller clerics.
The 76-year-old pontiff has refused to move into the lavish papal palace in the Vatican, staying instead in the Casa Santa Marta, a residence for visiting clergy and lay people.
He has repeatedly called for the Catholic Church and its faithful to rid themselves of earthly concerns like his namesake, St Francis of Assisi, warning that "worldliness is a murderer because it kills souls, kills people, kills the Church."
Archbishop Zollitsch has set up a commission to investigate the finances of Limburg diocese.
"This weighs on us," Zollitsch told reporters in Rome, adding that he could "not take a position" on the procedures in Germany against the bishop.
"It is the bishop of Limburg who should take a position," Zollitsch said, adding that he should respond "with a spirit of self-criticism".
German Bishop Corruption and Profligacy: The Vatican and a New Church, But what of Africa?
Herein is the case involving the German Catholic bishop of the diocese of Limburg, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, whose inordinate profligacy has casued an uproar in his diocese, and throughout Germany. The Vatican ordered an investigation by sending a delegation to that diocese regarding the matter. The Vatican took this case seriously for the scandal that it is. The Vatican acted and reacted in the right manner. The Vatican under the papacy of Pope Francis 1, has shown that corruption is an odious fragment in the life and functioning of the Catholic faith. Acting thus, he has expressed powerfully his commitment to transparency in the life of the Church. Yet, he needs to spread his tentacles further, especially to the churches of Africa. In many of these churches corruption by bishops and top-members of the hierarchy is rampant, and due to cowardness have always surfaced as rumours that have been proven over time in some cases. This was the case of the adulterous affairs carried out by Archbishop Pius Ncube in Zimbabwe, at the time when he was riding the high-moral-horse pouring venoms against the dictatorial antics of President Robert Mugabe, himself a Catholic.
In Nigeria, many Bishops are building palatial mansions and estates that blows the mind, and depressing and oppressing the bishop with all kinds of fund raising activities, launchings, and arbitrary use of church funds, that many are very poor stewards and managers. Often some of these activities, like their Nigerian politician peers, are outlets for siphoning money into their private accounts, merely using some of these wild goose and white elephant projects as convenient smokescreens to milk off the hardwork of their many innocent adherents, and on another level which they use to bond with some criminal and corrupt network of Nigerian politicians, occultists, businessmen and women, in a manner that endangers the qualitative autonomy and effective impact of the Christian gospel.
Among such criminals is John Cardinal Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, whose antics and tactics have been cleverly orchestrated using sleek strategies. This man harrass, molest, and rape Nigerian nuns and gullible women for his sexual gratification, and also receives bribes from the corrupt Nigerian government officials and politicians. He is also known to have caused enormous problems in many Nigerian dioceses regarding episcopal selection of candidates for the positions of bishops. Of recent, he has lead reticiently but factually the drive to build a mansion for the Ugandan archbishop who is the incumbent Papal Nuncio to Nigeria, using certain fronts but tasking Nigerian dioceses through their bishops to contribute to such malicious objectives. It is, unfortunate, that the Vatican turned around and appointed such a dirty hag of a Cardinal Archbishop to another troubled hot-spot, when nepotic and corrupt channels was used to impose a bishop on the good faithful of Ahiara diocese. The choice of Archbishop Cardinal Onaiyekan as the Apostolic Administration of Ahiara diocese is ill-advised and equally fraudulent as was the initial appointment and ordination of Bishop Peter Okpaleke to that episcopal see.
It is time that the Vatican initiate a wide-ranging investigation into all the affairs of the Nigerian Catholic Church--without exception. In almost all dioceses, the bishops are as corrupt as hell, and have no decorum when it comes to fragrant flamboyant living and profligacy as it pertains to the public ecclesiastical funds of the church, contributed by their adherents, and funds collected from abroad missionary funding agencies and foundations' grants.
+++++++++++++++++++
...Vatican hears about high-spending German bishop
Top German bishop says prosecutors' investigation of high-spending bishop demands action
By Daniela Petroff, Associated Press
Associated Press – 2 hours 9 minutes ago....Email 0Recommend0Tweet0Share0Print.....Related Content.
..
View Photo.Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Episcopal Conference, speaks during a press conference at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. Zollitsch is in Rome this week to brief Pope Francis on the diocese of Limburg, where Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has caused an uproar with the 31-million-euro ($42 million) construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
....
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The head of Germany's bishops conference warned Monday that the Catholic Church must act quickly to deal with a bishop under fire for lavish spending now that German prosecutors are involved in the case, a tacit acknowledgment that the church's finances were on the line.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch is in Rome this week to brief Pope Francis on the situation in the diocese of Limburg, where Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has caused an uproar with the 31-million-euro ($42 million) construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations.
In a country where a church tax provides the Catholic Church with billions in euros in revenue each year, there have long been calls from church reformers for greater transparency in church finances. Those calls have mounted in recent weeks as the Limburg scandal has grabbed headlines and Tebartz-van Elst has faced calls for his resignation.
Zollitsch told reporters Monday that the decision by Hamburg prosecutors to ask the court to fine Tebartz-van Elst for providing false testimony in a related case was deeply worrisome.
"It represents a decisive step for us," he told reporters at the Vatican.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Monday the situation in Limburg was "very difficult."
"Of course, it is not the German government's place to give any advice, but I may express the hope that it will be a solution for the faithful, for people's confidence in their church," Seibert said.
Last year, the church tax provided the German church with some 5.1 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in revenue.
Zollitsch said a canon lawyer was on a committee that has been set up to review the costs of the renovation, the financing and how decisions about the restoration evolved. The lawyer, he said, would determine if Tebarz-van Elst had violated canon law regarding the use of church money.
Tebartz-van Elst told the Bild newspaper that the bill was actually for 10 projects and there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection.
He traveled to Rome on Sunday for talks at the Vatican about the scandal. It wasn't known if or when he would meet with the pope but no meeting was on Francis' official agenda Monday.
___
Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
..
In Nigeria, many Bishops are building palatial mansions and estates that blows the mind, and depressing and oppressing the bishop with all kinds of fund raising activities, launchings, and arbitrary use of church funds, that many are very poor stewards and managers. Often some of these activities, like their Nigerian politician peers, are outlets for siphoning money into their private accounts, merely using some of these wild goose and white elephant projects as convenient smokescreens to milk off the hardwork of their many innocent adherents, and on another level which they use to bond with some criminal and corrupt network of Nigerian politicians, occultists, businessmen and women, in a manner that endangers the qualitative autonomy and effective impact of the Christian gospel.
Among such criminals is John Cardinal Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, whose antics and tactics have been cleverly orchestrated using sleek strategies. This man harrass, molest, and rape Nigerian nuns and gullible women for his sexual gratification, and also receives bribes from the corrupt Nigerian government officials and politicians. He is also known to have caused enormous problems in many Nigerian dioceses regarding episcopal selection of candidates for the positions of bishops. Of recent, he has lead reticiently but factually the drive to build a mansion for the Ugandan archbishop who is the incumbent Papal Nuncio to Nigeria, using certain fronts but tasking Nigerian dioceses through their bishops to contribute to such malicious objectives. It is, unfortunate, that the Vatican turned around and appointed such a dirty hag of a Cardinal Archbishop to another troubled hot-spot, when nepotic and corrupt channels was used to impose a bishop on the good faithful of Ahiara diocese. The choice of Archbishop Cardinal Onaiyekan as the Apostolic Administration of Ahiara diocese is ill-advised and equally fraudulent as was the initial appointment and ordination of Bishop Peter Okpaleke to that episcopal see.
It is time that the Vatican initiate a wide-ranging investigation into all the affairs of the Nigerian Catholic Church--without exception. In almost all dioceses, the bishops are as corrupt as hell, and have no decorum when it comes to fragrant flamboyant living and profligacy as it pertains to the public ecclesiastical funds of the church, contributed by their adherents, and funds collected from abroad missionary funding agencies and foundations' grants.
+++++++++++++++++++
...Vatican hears about high-spending German bishop
Top German bishop says prosecutors' investigation of high-spending bishop demands action
By Daniela Petroff, Associated Press
Associated Press – 2 hours 9 minutes ago....Email 0Recommend0Tweet0Share0Print.....Related Content.
..
View Photo.Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Episcopal Conference, speaks during a press conference at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 14, 2013. Zollitsch is in Rome this week to brief Pope Francis on the diocese of Limburg, where Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has caused an uproar with the 31-million-euro ($42 million) construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
....
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The head of Germany's bishops conference warned Monday that the Catholic Church must act quickly to deal with a bishop under fire for lavish spending now that German prosecutors are involved in the case, a tacit acknowledgment that the church's finances were on the line.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch is in Rome this week to brief Pope Francis on the situation in the diocese of Limburg, where Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has caused an uproar with the 31-million-euro ($42 million) construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations.
In a country where a church tax provides the Catholic Church with billions in euros in revenue each year, there have long been calls from church reformers for greater transparency in church finances. Those calls have mounted in recent weeks as the Limburg scandal has grabbed headlines and Tebartz-van Elst has faced calls for his resignation.
Zollitsch told reporters Monday that the decision by Hamburg prosecutors to ask the court to fine Tebartz-van Elst for providing false testimony in a related case was deeply worrisome.
"It represents a decisive step for us," he told reporters at the Vatican.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Monday the situation in Limburg was "very difficult."
"Of course, it is not the German government's place to give any advice, but I may express the hope that it will be a solution for the faithful, for people's confidence in their church," Seibert said.
Last year, the church tax provided the German church with some 5.1 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in revenue.
Zollitsch said a canon lawyer was on a committee that has been set up to review the costs of the renovation, the financing and how decisions about the restoration evolved. The lawyer, he said, would determine if Tebarz-van Elst had violated canon law regarding the use of church money.
Tebartz-van Elst told the Bild newspaper that the bill was actually for 10 projects and there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection.
He traveled to Rome on Sunday for talks at the Vatican about the scandal. It wasn't known if or when he would meet with the pope but no meeting was on Francis' official agenda Monday.
___
Geir Moulson and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
..
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The Fight Within, the Church and its Nemesis: Rebel Priest: Church's 'No. 1 Enemy' A Symbol of Polish Change
The Catholic Church is undergoing a critical moment in its historical existence. Today, more than ever there is a problem of cohesion within its very ranks. Cardinals disagreeing against each other, Bishops against Bishops, Priests and against Bishops, and Lay faithful against priests, and various polarizing and diverse opinions and viewpoints, in what used to be hitherto a cohesive organization, speaking with a unified voice and standardized practice is fast disintegrating. Within the pinnacle of its hierarchy there is discord and the top echelons of the Catholic organization is bedevilled with corruption and scandals of all sorts. Stupid appointments of bishops and a disordered array of institutional leadership and decisions has dented the image of the authorities and leadership of the global Catholic faith. Money, material things, sexual disorder and perversion has become the hype that is destroying the fabric of this once reverred organization. It is in deed, a new era, a novel dawn of what the future represents. Hope it is not yet a dying Church breathing its last breaths! Whatever it is, the Catholic Church, as is, present an enormous example of a decadent organization, at least in its human aspects and profile.
***********************************
ABC News
Rebel Priest: Church's 'No. 1 Enemy' A Symbol of Polish Change
He's Loved by His Congregation but Loathed by the Archbishop
By JAN PUHL, SPIEGEL
July 20, 2013—
He's loved by his congregation but loathed by the archbishop. Rebellious priest Wojciech Lemanski is seen as the church's No. 1 enemy in Poland. His dismissal highlights the deep divide between church authorities and the faithful in this staunchly Catholic nation.
Pastor Wojciech Lemanski stepped up to his small pulpit on Wednesday morning to hold what may be his last sermon at his church in the town of Jasienica near Warsaw. The slender cleric, with his close-cropped gray hair, has become a household name in Poland in recent weeks. Newspapers have run stories about him and he's been a topic of discussion on television in what has been dubbed "Pastor Lemanski vs. the Curia." The case shows that support for the church is even crumbling in devoutly Catholic Poland.
Lemanski, who was ordained in 1987, was never a compliant priest. He repeatedly used his pulpit and his blog to voice his criticism of the church. He has accused the church leadership of not doing enough to oppose anti-Semitic tendencies among Poland's Catholics. He has also critcized the establishment's lenient treatment of clerics accused of sexual abuse, and its fierce rejection of artificial insemination and contraceptives. His vocal criticism drove Henryk Hoser, the archbishop of Warsaw-Praga, to suspend Lemanski last week. But Lemanski wrote the archbishop a letter informing him that he wouldn't budge.
When, on Sunday, three envoys dispatched by Hoser showed up at Lemanski's church, they were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd. "This is our parish," they called out. Lemanski said he still considered himself to be shepherd of his flock according to canonical law. The three clerics finally retreated after they were jeered at and booed. They barely managed to get into their car when the crowd began pushing the vehicle in the direction of Warsaw. After that, the Polish edition of Newsweek ran a cover story describing Lemanski as the "Church's No. 1 Enemy".
Wojchiech Wishes Successor Well
Despite the show of support from his congregation, Pastor Wojciech ultimately decided to resign. He said he still considered the bishops' decision to be unfair, but that he would yield. "Today you are pushing a car, but tomorrow you will flip it over or possibly even hurt somebody," he sternly told his followers. Lemanski then packed his things and left the parsonage. He said he will wait for a decision from the Vatican regarding his dispute with the church hierarchy, but that he wishes his successor well.
The controversy surrounding the fearless priest underscores just how distant the Catholic Church has become from its flock in Poland. Some 90 percent of Poles still identify themselves as faithful Catholics, but ever less are attending church services. For many, faith has become a totally private issue.
During the Nazi occupation and later under the communists, the Catholic Church was considered the true protector of Poland's national identity. The formula applied that anyone who was Polish was also Catholic. But 24 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and nine years after Poland's accession to the European Union, the public image of the clergy is predominantly negative. Bishops and priests seem to be preoccupied with internal church intrigues and are failing to supply answers to the people on everyday issues -- at least that's the image many have of the church.
Poland Is Changing Rapidly
Poland was the only EU country that recorded growth during the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 and, statistically, Poles are among the hardest-working people in Europe. Stressed-out couples in Warsaw or Poznan simply have little understanding for the church prohibiting artificial insemination. A large part of the Polish population, particularly in the cities, has experienced an enormous upswing in recent years. Gay people living openly has become normal in many places and fewer and fewer women are willing to eschew careers to have children, as the church would like them to.
Pawel Wronski, a church expert at the respected daily Gazeta Wyborcza, says the dispute surrounding Lemanski is a fundamental one. It reveals a "major conflict over what shape the church should take. Should it be more open and engage with believers and non-believers -- or should it be a shamanic church?"
Copyright © 2013 ABC News Internet Ventures
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ABC News
Rebel Priest: Church's 'No. 1 Enemy' A Symbol of Polish Change
He's Loved by His Congregation but Loathed by the Archbishop
By JAN PUHL, SPIEGEL
July 20, 2013—
He's loved by his congregation but loathed by the archbishop. Rebellious priest Wojciech Lemanski is seen as the church's No. 1 enemy in Poland. His dismissal highlights the deep divide between church authorities and the faithful in this staunchly Catholic nation.
Pastor Wojciech Lemanski stepped up to his small pulpit on Wednesday morning to hold what may be his last sermon at his church in the town of Jasienica near Warsaw. The slender cleric, with his close-cropped gray hair, has become a household name in Poland in recent weeks. Newspapers have run stories about him and he's been a topic of discussion on television in what has been dubbed "Pastor Lemanski vs. the Curia." The case shows that support for the church is even crumbling in devoutly Catholic Poland.
Lemanski, who was ordained in 1987, was never a compliant priest. He repeatedly used his pulpit and his blog to voice his criticism of the church. He has accused the church leadership of not doing enough to oppose anti-Semitic tendencies among Poland's Catholics. He has also critcized the establishment's lenient treatment of clerics accused of sexual abuse, and its fierce rejection of artificial insemination and contraceptives. His vocal criticism drove Henryk Hoser, the archbishop of Warsaw-Praga, to suspend Lemanski last week. But Lemanski wrote the archbishop a letter informing him that he wouldn't budge.
When, on Sunday, three envoys dispatched by Hoser showed up at Lemanski's church, they were quickly surrounded by an angry crowd. "This is our parish," they called out. Lemanski said he still considered himself to be shepherd of his flock according to canonical law. The three clerics finally retreated after they were jeered at and booed. They barely managed to get into their car when the crowd began pushing the vehicle in the direction of Warsaw. After that, the Polish edition of Newsweek ran a cover story describing Lemanski as the "Church's No. 1 Enemy".
Wojchiech Wishes Successor Well
Despite the show of support from his congregation, Pastor Wojciech ultimately decided to resign. He said he still considered the bishops' decision to be unfair, but that he would yield. "Today you are pushing a car, but tomorrow you will flip it over or possibly even hurt somebody," he sternly told his followers. Lemanski then packed his things and left the parsonage. He said he will wait for a decision from the Vatican regarding his dispute with the church hierarchy, but that he wishes his successor well.
The controversy surrounding the fearless priest underscores just how distant the Catholic Church has become from its flock in Poland. Some 90 percent of Poles still identify themselves as faithful Catholics, but ever less are attending church services. For many, faith has become a totally private issue.
During the Nazi occupation and later under the communists, the Catholic Church was considered the true protector of Poland's national identity. The formula applied that anyone who was Polish was also Catholic. But 24 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and nine years after Poland's accession to the European Union, the public image of the clergy is predominantly negative. Bishops and priests seem to be preoccupied with internal church intrigues and are failing to supply answers to the people on everyday issues -- at least that's the image many have of the church.
Poland Is Changing Rapidly
Poland was the only EU country that recorded growth during the global financial crisis in 2007 and 2008 and, statistically, Poles are among the hardest-working people in Europe. Stressed-out couples in Warsaw or Poznan simply have little understanding for the church prohibiting artificial insemination. A large part of the Polish population, particularly in the cities, has experienced an enormous upswing in recent years. Gay people living openly has become normal in many places and fewer and fewer women are willing to eschew careers to have children, as the church would like them to.
Pawel Wronski, a church expert at the respected daily Gazeta Wyborcza, says the dispute surrounding Lemanski is a fundamental one. It reveals a "major conflict over what shape the church should take. Should it be more open and engage with believers and non-believers -- or should it be a shamanic church?"
Copyright © 2013 ABC News Internet Ventures
Friday, July 5, 2013
Beating God in the Nigerian Catholic Church, Corruption, Nepotism, Injustice and Outright Lies: The Case of the Ahiara Bishop
Herein, we continue to place before the consciences of good Christians the mood of inbuilt corruption, nepotism, injustices, and outright lies embedded within the Nigerian Catholic Church, especially as it relates to episcopal succession. The Ahiara diocese case casts this problematic and there is therefore a call for renewal, resistance, protect that is grounded first and foremost in the Christian responsibility before God to be truthful and transparent.
Further, it is also on record that the current Papal Pro-Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Augustine Khalijah is terribly corrupt and is been reportedly now known that the Nigerian Catholic Bishops have been collecting money to line his pocket and even currently building a contracted mansion for him in his native Uganda. It is for this reason that he has become manipulative and a vested party in the episcopal selection processes, rather than as a neutral referee of the process. It is sad that blacks, especially Africans often have to take such routes, that vilify and minimize them, given reasons to whites to belittle the African genius and mindset.
We hope that the Vatican, also another emblematic institution, stained with corruption within its bureaucracy, banks, and tainted in money laundering and all sorts of financial crimes and ties to mafia groups and prominent interests as shown recent by the case of Msg. Scalano (aka "Msgr. 500 for flashing 500 Euro notes in his wallet), among others will, in the era of Pope Francis, would initiate a thorough investigation as it did using a Nigerian born Papal Pro-Nuncio and a Guinean Archbishop for the church of the Central African Republic.
The writing below, courageously credited to a priest of Ahiara diocese noting and tracing the injustices melted out to their faith experiences within the Catholic, merits close attention and suspended judgments as one digest the facts. The answers to the emergent questions should be sought at the door step of a callous order and an hegemonic mafia-like operants within the Nigerian Catholic imagination.
This blog have consistently highlighted such abuse of powers, arrant corruption of certain Nigerian church officials, who gets promoted by the Vatican after their dirty affairs have been exposed, such as John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, a Kabba Yoruba, who was recently promoted to the ranks of Cardinal (Cardinal Priest) in November 2012, long after we exposed his abuses of young Nigerian nuns, pimped to him by their superiors as they seek his influence and favours toward acquiring property in the Nigerian Federal Capital of Abujam where the aforesaid Onaiyekan is an archbishop. The same holds for Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, an Igbo-hater whose atrocities and abuses against some Igbo priests in the Kaduna Archdiocese was posted herein, and who even thereafter was clandestinely patched and promoted to the ranks of the Bishop of Sokoto in northern Nigeria.
One thing must be pointed out that the church after its errors, patent falsehood, and cover-ups have always through sordid silence denied its wrongdoings until social pressures ensure that they can no longer hide. This was the case of the Fr. Marcel Legionary of Christ order, the American and overall western sexual abuses of minors in the USA, Austria, Australia, Ireland, Germany (including those involving Fr. George Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), Poland, and other climes. In fact, one can remember how Cardinal Groer of Austria was well protected even in the face of abuses until the wind blow up his false cover, and the truth could no longer be cowered and covered. The same holds true of Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, a known protector of sexually perverted priests (who himself was severally accused though using his influence to stymie the tide of the accusations).
In Nigeria, we saw this happened with the Irish born Archbishop Richard Burke (also reported, commented, and posted herein), former Archbishop of Benin City and Bishop of Warri dioceses in Nigeria, who raped and abused a then pre-teen Nigerian girl, Dolores Atwood, now an adult resident in Canada, and was also alleged to be serially doing the same to Dolores' younger sister, until he was forced to resign from his office and episcopal see. Even then archbishops Onaiyekan and Job were trying to defend his abuses, slanting it as an intentional media onslaught against the church and re-villainizing the victims of Burke's calculated and conscious acts.
In Zimbabwe, Archbishop Pius Ncube was focally abusing the tyranny of the Zimbabwean president and fellow Catholic Robert Mugabe, only for him to be exposed tyrannizing a married man, whose wife he was sexually bunking. Even when caught in the acts, media-exposed, he kept lying, not probably as remarkably different from the Mugabe he was criticizing. The a former bishop and later President of Paraguay was also later known to have defiled a minor girl, impregnating her, he would later accept responsibility long after the deception and fact of his criminality.
The day is dawning when the truth will surface with full transparency....
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For more than four months now, the people and the church of the Catholic diocese of Ahiara Mbaise have been on the fire of religious tension and threat incited by some highly placed church hierarchies in the Vatican and Nigeria. Unfortunately, the advantage of hierarchical superiority, the propaganda of “it was done by Rome”, “they are rebellious and disobedient” and “they want only a bishop from their diocese”, have turned a wrong verdict on the neck of Mbaise people in the mind of few biased and uninformed people. It is pertinent therefore to break the Emmaus bread in order to open the eyes of those either ignorant or biased regarding the truth of the current episode of Fr. Peter Okpaleke, why the people of Ahiara Diocese are resisting and why Okpaleke and his cohorts are still deadly daring and insisting. This excurses is necessary because of the few who have been biased to brand the Mbaise people ethnic or rebellious because of indisposition to the truth.
Before the Okpaleke saga, there has been a history of systemic, silent and consistent marginalization and suppression of Mbaise in the Catholic Church and a power play in and against the entire present Owerri Ecclesiastical Province and which has always at the long run boiled down to the detriment of the Mbaise church. This charade of organized discrimination and relegation machinery was instituted and pioneered by a single personality force in the Church since the 1950s. It is an imperial religious fascism which has long been parceled, garlanded and ornamented beautifully in such a presumptuous religious creed that has rather sanctified and made it sacrosanct and hidden its sin in the pious docility of the people and deceptively applied papal infallibility. It is said in Igbo that aru gbaa afo, o buru omenala (when evil is allowed unchallenged for a whole year, it becomes a tradition). But when evil is challenged and questioned for once, those who challenge it rather become evil themselves in the eyes of its beneficiaries and the uninformed.
The history of the manipulation of the bishopric succession in Igbo land and the constant shoving of the Mbaise right with complacent impunity has been a recurrent datum from the earliest time. There was the incident in which Rev. Fr. Edward Ahaji of Umuokirika Ekwereazu Mbaise who was considered one of the best and was expected to be a bishopric candidate of the then prospective Umuahia Diocese, was eliminated in favour of Fr. A. Gogo Nwedo of Umuahia in 1945 even to the surprise of Fr. Mark Unegbu. But “There was no cry of anit-Mbaise sentiments or stereotype then when Ahaji was not selected”. Again, history had it that Fr. Nwedo was supposed to be transferred from Umuahia to succeed Bishop Heery in the then Onistsha Diocese in 1967 as the Holy Ghost Fathers did not want Arinze to succeed Bishop Heery. But Nwedo was frustrated and prevented from being the bishop of Onitsha by the combined forces of Bishop Mark Unegbu and Fr. Francis Arinze. Arinze personally insisted that only the son of the soil could become the bishop of Onitsha Diocese. Bishop Unegbu being his mentor, fought tooth and nail in his favour and helped Arinze enthroned on the Onitsha Episcopal seat. Another most favoured Mbaise priest, Rev. Fr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu was again denied the bishopric of old Owerri Diocese in favour of Rev. Fr. Mark Unegbu. This time, Bishop Arinze had to “pay off” Fr. Mark Unegbu for giving him the Episcopal seat of Onitsha. Thus, another favoured Mbaise priest was stopped against the will of the predecessor. This Same act was initiated, superintended and achieved, in the words of erudite Fr. David Iheanacho, when, “In non-subtle manoeuvre, Archbishop Arinze cornered the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese to his mentor, Fr. Mark Unegbu while blocking the will of Whelan and the missionaries that stated quite clearly they wanted Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu to shepherd the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese”. It is not surprising that this accumulated vendetta annoyed Mbaise people and soured their relationship with Bishop Unegbu for long. It was this relationship of victimization and animosity that resulted in the long refusal to create the Diocese of Ahiara until after a long drawn fight.
But the greatest shock came when on the creation, yet another person outside the new Diocese was being eyed for the Episcopal seat of the diocese but was bluffed. It is also on record that not less than two Mbaise priests still alive today have been denied being the bishops of other dioceses in Igbo land some years back. The plan to appoint them were immediately nipped in the bud before it was ever pronounced, in spite of the fact that they are usually qualified and marketable. One wonders why a people so treated like this for years by an institutionalized and unjust hierarchy in a civilized and spiritual institution like the church, should not react once to liberate themselves from an entrenched and unjust structure. It is only a pity that the blind Timeus of our time who see human beings as if they are trees walking around, never know these paganistic dealings fraught in favoritism, son of the soil sentiment and despotism meted to Mbaise people in the past and intending to continue it in this age of enlightenment. It is unfortunate too, that they and the papal Nuncio have rather preferred to tag the Mbaise people clannish and ethnic in other to intimidate, blackmail and oppress them further.
The blackmail of the people of Ahiara Mbaise is only a defence mechanism to hide and sustain the holy apartheid against a people and continue the domination trend already institutionalized by those who have shot themselves up to the Vatican by the same sharpness. Their plan is to extend this colonization beyond the Mbaise church and continue to mystify it with holy obedience to the Church and the Pope when the Pope is not part of their clandestine skirmishes. But embarrassed and shocked that it is now demystified and once resisted, they become hysteric, aggressive and resort to all manner of intimidation, threat and blackmail to transfer the guilt they are supposed to bear on the defenders and discredit them for blocking their prodding ambition. An information reached us that on the rejection of the appointment of Okpaleke, some priests from Awka Diocese said, “Mbaise people have divulged and exposed this thing we have been managing to do for ourselves for a long time now”.
We are therefore bound and forced to tell our story to the world, of the imminent threat and possible clamp down intended to hatch on Mbaise on a date they have fixed and imposed for themselves in order to cause mayhem and blackmail the people for not submitting to their fraud and arbitrariness.
It would be recalled that before the death of the former Bishop, he was supposed to have actually submitted “only names from his diocese” as his prospective successors according to tradition, and this is renewable as directed and demanded by the Canon law and the Vatican. In the event of a sudden death those priests whose names were submitted or other persons outside the list, but who are from the diocese by incardination or as indigenes, would be screened for appointment to the bishopric. Coincidentally, the bishop died around the time Awka Diocese also needed a replacement for the retiring bishop, Eze Okafor. Rev. Fr. Peter Okpaleke from Awka Diocese was attempted by the godfather(s) to take over Awka, in spite of the then sitting auxiliary bishop of the diocese. But he was rejected in his own diocese for untoward and unbecoming desperation and other reasons best known to them. It was then that, impelled by frustration and urged by the forces of distorted and unholy ambition and power, he and his allies started manipulating for Ahiara Diocesan succession with great audacious intrusion. It was this hidden and dark interference that made the two year prayer and attempt for smooth selection of the bishop of Ahiara diocese a huge frustration. Unaware of this, the lay faithful started embarrassing Ahiara priests for their delay in selecting a bishop for two years, ignorant of the fact that it is not the priests themselves that should directly appoint the bishop and that the appointment from those submitted was being compounded by something yet unknown.
Ultimately, the obsession of Fr. Peter Okpaleke and his godfathers is purely a problem of settlement. There is an accumulation quagmire that might logjam to a frustrating alley if he fails to cling to Ahiara Diocese unstopped. The greatest aggression of a man would always come from the frustration of accumulated and unbridled ambition that trespasses beyond his capacity and the none availability of personal resources. But such aggression could be transferred to whoever becomes the obstacle that neutralizes and brings to vanity an erroneously concluded enterprise. This has been the secrete behind their battle of survival in Ahiara Diocese and Owerri province, making Msgr. Peter Okpaleke, a supposed spiritual priest of the Church saying, “over my dead body” that he should resign the bishopric of Ahiara Diocese, in spite of all persuasions by some wise advisers.
The settlement problem choking up those masterminding the crisis of Ahiara Diocese is obvious. It should be noted that a big shot in the Vatican power broker is alleged to be choked up with the dire urgency of settling Msgr. Jonas Benson Okoye who was once his secretary and personal aid, as well as Denis Isiuzor and Peter Okpaleke, and perhaps others. It is learnt that these have been flown for the bishopric of some dioceses, for instance Awka in 2010 and the attempt met a brick wall. Nsukka Diocese also failed to yield because the bishop emeritus warned the Nigerian bishops never to attempt to do in his Nsukka Diocese what they have done in Ahira Diocese. Therefore, Nsukka was recently given an indigenous diocesan bishop. But there is an impending urgency to create Ekwulobia Diocese from Awka where Okpleke rightly belongs. Many wonder why Okpaleke should not have been announced for his new Ekwulobia Diocese to stop the long raging battle for Mbaise. The obvious reason is to safeguard Ekwulobia for the settlement of the remaining others born for bishopric. Hence, it became necessary and strategic to hurriedly announce Okpaleke for Ahiara Diocese and install him at all cost to create room in Ekwulobia for the remaining lining up for settlement. If Okpaleke is militarily imposed on Ahiara, he becomes the third from Onitsha province in the seven Dioceses of Owerri Province without one from Owerri shepherding in Onitsha and till date no religious from Owerri is heading any religious congregation in Onitsha province. What a Holy Spirit and universality! If Mbaise must continue to obey the Holy Spirit and the Pope against them and in favour of a certain group since the1950s, then the Holy Spirit must have her maternal home with those people. Why then did the same Spirit not continue to allow the Papacy remain in Italy but decided to change to Germany and now Argentina?
The rejection and resistance of Ahiara Mbaise therefore stems from both the history of suppression of the people of Mbaise in particular, Owerri province, as well as the above chess play of vain ambition by those who see the episcopacy as their exclusive vocation in Igbo land. But this is not an Anambra collective action. Although “Anambra” has been used in the course of this struggle as a matter of illustration, it is never an issue of Anambranaization. The diocese is not fighting against Anambra, the papacy, his infallibility or that it must be their own son, but against injustice by one man, who is coincidentally, from Anambra. It is not a struggle of clannishness or ethnic either on the side of Mbaise people. It is purely a battle against religious imperialism and suppression of a people, who must fight for self-survival and preservation in spite of using the name of the Pope to blackmail and sedate them. Apart from these, have those who preach selfish universality asked themselves the type of justice where the people of Mbaise scattered through out the churches in Nigeria, and one of the first Diocese to loan their priests to almost all the dioceses in Nigeria to start their new dioceses and even now feed them with human, religious and financial resources, not have an indigenous bishop in the midst of the Nigerian bishops in the name of a lop-sided universality?
To crush this resistance against their huge handedness, privileged Church hierarchies have to be employed in sophisticated manners to execute the imposition and conjure up blackmail and stigmatization to indict their challengers. Like Judas Iscariot, the Papal Nuncio, who seemed to have long perfected the act of external imposition with a grip to an offer in cash or kind, unknowingly betrayed his mind on visit to the Diocese in September 2011 in their midst of anxiety for a new bishop. He was on visit for a thanksgiving reception of a friend in Mbaise, to which he attached “accidental pastoral visit”. He personally enquired from the priests and lay faithful their pulse for the delay in the announcement of the new bishop and to know the type of bishop they would want for their Diocese. He was told. Surprisingly, he told the priests in a sophistry of language that they would be given a “catholic Bishop”, as if they were expecting a muslim bishop. He again unusually emphasized and exaggerated the “universality of the church” without regard to the local regard of the church, thereby adding to the suspicion and scare.
The suspicion for treachery came to limelight when the ordour of blackmail and accusation fouled the air that there was petition and counter petition among the priests of Ahiara. Meanwhile, the papal Nuncio was the only one to whom the documents of enquiry were passed under very high and exclusive secrecy. In a twinkle, the rumour of petition was followed with another strange rumour of a strange name as strong contender among the proposed candidates of priests of the Diocese. Up till today, the bishops and the Nuncio have not answered the question of who put the name, for what reason and when all the possible candidates in the diocese and province were exhausted before extending the search to Awka.
Following the rumour, the Nuncio was immediately warned and appealed to in writing that this suspected imposition “would mean that none of all the Ahiara Diocesan priests is trustworthy now and implicitly poses the question of whether any could become trustworthy in the future. This could cause a big rift between people and priests in this Diocese for a long time because suspicion of sectarian in fighting would have been admitted if not approved. And if this happens, political considerations would have been respected… And on a very serious note, this would make late Bishop Chikwe’s twenty two years’ efforts in correcting the false image of Mbaise among her neighbours and through out the nation come to nothing; and believe me, I know my people they will fight it at the level one may least expect. Let it be clear that any decision based on fabricated, false and unproven information is bound in and by itself to be false and wrong and, as such, may be resisted to the detriment of faith and morals”. This letter was written more than one year before the announcement of Fr. Peter Okpaleke. But the battle of conscience between letting Fr. Okpaleke go uncompensated since the stealth and craft had been exposed and warned against, having also already committed themselves with a “promise of settlement”, and insisting to select him at all cost, urged them on.
On the 7th of December, 2012, the strangest thing happened. Flying news on the internet, of the appointment of a new bishop of the Diocese held sway in the air but was taken for a joke by those who know and believe that such appointment should not be made in the internet without being officially related to the Diocese in hard copy. But the internet information was not inadvertent. It was a highly sophisticated and calculated action typical of the Nigerian election tactics of, “just announce it first, let them go and contest it in the court, the court belongs to some people, and we will win them in the court”. But unlike in the political court, the perpetrators of this kangaroo act never expected that Ahiara people would contest the appointment “made by the Pope”. They only thought, they would as usual be contented to believe the appointment was done by the Pope. But they underrated their knowledge of this past marginalization, their intelligence and ability.
Few days to the announcement of the manipulated selection, the Owerri provincial bishops made the first and several other visits and tasted an unprecedented bitter water of resentment. Each tried to wash his hand from the blood of innocent Jesus like Pilate. But they ended up revealing their contradiction in the act. The secrete they wanted to cover up was expunged. It became clear that it was no longer that the Ahiara priests destroyed themselves with petition but that an elderly Ahiara priest was purportedly put conditionally in the first position, surrounded by Fr. Peter Okpaleke, the youngest and second in the list, and another third and non-Ahiara candidate for screening. The highlight of the information was that the purported Ahiara candidate and the first in the list declined “in good conscience” in consequent to which Fr. Okpaleke, the second in the list was nominated. This was the information the bishops considered a “privileged information” from Cardinal Philoni. They intended to use this information to both indict and make the priests feel guilty and give up the fight. Till today the veracity, specification and authenticity of that insinuation has not been proved. What a holy religious politics! How came a person from a different Diocese and province to be the second person? Again, who put him and why? Why was an elderly priest possibly with age and health challenge put as spare part for indictment? Is it true that such a person was actually consulted? Was it after all not more honourable and noble for him to decline in good conscience for personal reasons than Okpaleke who today want to die for power? Why was the Diocese not imposed with another priest from the diocese but outside the list the way Okpaleke was imposed? Why could no other person be imposed from Owerri province?
With the raging of the rejection of the appointment and the revelations of power play which has pervaded and suppressed all the Onitsha Ecclesiastical dioceses and now traversed to Owerri province, the Nuncio came to spiritualize and palliate the fire of tension he was probably paid to ignite in Igbo land. But he rather aggravated the insult and betrayed his deliberate intension by a pedagogy, in which he made a theological synthesis of the priesthood and the bishopric, when he told the priests that the vocation of the priesthood is different from that of the bishopric. Did he imply that the bishopric is exclusively for some people? It was then clear that the Dunukofia people of Awka from where Cardinal Arinze and Okpaleke came and whoever they chose have the monopoly of the bishopric on behalf of the priests of Onitsha Ecclesiastical province and Owerri could dictate and distribute it gratuitously at will. The priests did only one thing after listening to his new theology. They read to the embattled and terrified looking Nuncio, the forewarning letter written to him more than one year ago on hearing the rumour of the strange name for imposition. He tacitly acknowledged receiving such a letter but confoundedly lacked words to contradict or challenge it. He was also reminded that all the documents of enquiry and investigation for the candidates were passed under high and holy secrecy through his office and yet there was rumour of alleged and unsubstantiated petition heard even in overseas countries. He was indicted for personally and deliberately conjuring and acting up something one way or the other in order to create a loophole to satisfy the gratification with which he must have been influenced to enthrone the son of somebody in the Vatican and incite the crisis of Owerri-Onitsha provinces and further compound the divide in Igbo land.
Almost with tears, the priests reminded the Nuncio of the damage done to the credibility of the entire Ahiara priests who now worth nothing before their people because of the blackmail of petition and that none of them qualifies for the bishopric. It was based on this dangerous calumny that the Priests of Ahiara told the Nuncio and insisted that no other solution could repair their image before their people other than ordaining one of their own the bishop of Ahiara Diocese. Ordaining Peter Okpaleke or any other would sustain and validate that stigma. This is the beginning of the insistence that it must be Ahiara indigenous priest or nothing else.
Before their visit, the Papal Nuncio, Augustine Kasujja had thought that Archbishop Obinna could not effect the ordination of Okpaleke up to that day. But he saw to it himself that it was their collective blunders and injustice that made the acceptance impossible and why it met with such hardened resistance. Unable to break the impasse of the crisis by the provincial bishops, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria took the debate to their conference and ended up in a logjam. The matter was finally left exclusively to the Owerri provincial bishops to settle as a provincial matter. Embarrassingly, few weeks after the transfer of responsibility of settlement, the bishops merely gathered in Owerri and without any attempt for dialogue, declared a week prayer for the ordination of the bishop-elect even as the canonical period for the ordination had already expired two times within the raging tension. Scandalized by this insensitivity, some priests wrote and explained to the world what has been happening in Ahiara Diocese. This was necessary because of the false propaganda that the appointment was “by the Pope” and that the Mbaise people are merely disobedient, clannish and are insisting that only an Mbaise indigenous priest can be the bishop in their diocese. Consequently, one of them who was forced to enlighten the world about this covering propaganda and insincerity was invited and warned to stop writing the issue on public news papers. Why are they afraid of letting the world know the truth of what they have been doing with innocent Mbaise people and the lies they have been telling from Owerri to Abuja?
At the end of the one week purported prayer which was never prayed faithfully in any diocese, the ordination failed to hold. But Peter Okpaleke was disclosed to have, under an obsession and addiction for power, personally prevailed over the desperate authorities to grant him another extension of date for the Episcopal ordination. They met and hurriedly gave a date. Note that the umbrella of Igbo Diocesan priests called ANIMAEE, after listening to Ahiara priests, went to tell Archbishop Obinna to suspend the ordination for the moment given the situation and circumstances. But he was quoted as saying, “the date has already been fixed, go and meet Bishop Ugorji”. It is the Ahiara Diocese that is supposed to fix the date of the ordination and print the invitation card, but they fixed the date themselves as another imposition.
It is obvious by the attitudes of the bishops that they are under the burden of guilt and bad conscience to push on the Okpaleke ordination and are impelled to do so for face saving and survival instinct. This is why in spite of the forewarnings to the Nuncio that any attempt to foist an orchestrated and corrupt institution and desperate person rejected by his home diocese on Mbaise would be resisted to the end, they insisted. They now resorted to force by the involvement of the Federal security allegedly through the alleged auspices of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state and the Episcopal seat in Abuja in order to achieve the invasion. The Federal security and the Anambra state governor which would be used as a disguise for order is actually intended to subdue, intimidate, suppress and scare the people of Ahiara Mbaise and Imo state to effect the enthronement of one man produced under suspicious circumstances against the wish of the whole church. The Anambra state government security entourage is believed to have supplied such a security deception for a similar jamboree Episcopal ordination in Benin Diocese and is strongly believed to be on hand again to supply for Peter Okpaleke in Ahiara.
The ordaining prelate of the Hitler power and questionable installation is Cardinal John Onaiyekan, who information discloses, has since been verbally battering and castigating the people of Mbaise for rejecting an ostensibly obnoxious process of selection through a corrupt and unjust means. But to the greatest shock of the people, the ordaining prelate who visited Ahiara on Saturday May 4, 2013, was said to be yet unaware of the date of the ordination, and until the day of his visit, had no clear information of the politics and arbitrariness that produced Okapaleke and why he is being rejected.
While the clergy of the diocese would not personally initiate violence, they may not guarantee that the visiting power drunk security force would not initiate their own Nigerian crude brutality to scare their opponents, who would certainly react and resist. The youths of Ahiara Mbaise have also vowed not to watch this immoral rascality and arbitrariness succeed in the holy church of Christ by the hierarchy of the church. But by their insistence to invade Mbaise with Anambra and Federal security, the bishops and Fr. Okpaleke have tacitly appropriated responsibility for whatever would be the result of a possible physical conflict during, months or years after the ordination if they succeed on the ordination. Unfortunately, their insistence is hinged on the claim that, in the words of the Archbishop of Owerri, “the appointment is a papal one. The pope appoints whoever he wants, despite our feelings. So the appointment stands”. They are working on what they call “Roman Locuta”, when Rome speaks, it is final, an axiom that is at times abused and exploited by the powerful and the privileged and imposed on Rome even before Rome speaks and at times lacks humanistic sensitivity. Their other source of desperation is to avoid setting a precedence of succumbing to further rejections in the future even when they act curiously and arbitrarily with impunity or to avoid the same Rome what happened to query the process. The question is, does the Pope come to any diocese and pick somebody for appointment or just impend his signature on the person given to him by those at the corridors of power even in deception, since he does not personally do the selection? Is it true that the Pope appoints “despite our feelings” and yet inquiries are done before the appointment to know our knowledge of and the feelings for the person to be appointed? Was it why Okpaleke was forcefully given for appointment in spite of the fact that the inquiries about him rightly said, “we do not know who this person is” as certainly, not even one person knows him in the diocese in any sense expected. Was the appointment of Matthias not preceded by this foreknowledge “Out of the men who have been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us, from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us – one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). If the hierarchy of the church is afraid of setting a precedence of rejection, is it better to set a scandalous moral precedence of arbitrariness, injustice and force in order to save the face of some people and condemn the innocent Mbaise people?
There is now an intended blackmail of the innocent people who have the right to refuse and resist injustice and wicked act that lack spirituality. The Mbaise people only wish to inform Nigerians that the hierarchy of the Church from Abuja to Owerri, have accepted responsibility of enacting the precedence of moral and physical force without any dialogue in order to achieve the inordinate and desperately asserted ambition of one man over a people for their own office security. The provincial bishop of Owerri and the rest have accepted a priori any hurt or lost of life that may be directly or indirectly involved in their application of force. When did the church start using the government, police and military force to install their spiritual leaders? Would the government of Good Luck Jonathan, Anambra and Imo states actually allow the use of their security to interfere in religious ordination either for attack or defence? Would Peter Obi smear and dent his already noted catholic piety and cherished achievement in governance with the debasing style of Nigerian political hooliganism and vandalism by dabbling into this mess because of one priest? Will the bishop-elect continue to use the same security force to celebrate mass on daily basis till he retires from the diocese or takes over Owerri province? At the end, what would remain of the morality and ethics of the hierarch if they now prove that the morality of force in ascending to power is superior to the morality of humility and dialogue and justice? The world is watching them to strike.
RE. FR. BEN OGU, AHIARA DIOCESE
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Further, it is also on record that the current Papal Pro-Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Augustine Khalijah is terribly corrupt and is been reportedly now known that the Nigerian Catholic Bishops have been collecting money to line his pocket and even currently building a contracted mansion for him in his native Uganda. It is for this reason that he has become manipulative and a vested party in the episcopal selection processes, rather than as a neutral referee of the process. It is sad that blacks, especially Africans often have to take such routes, that vilify and minimize them, given reasons to whites to belittle the African genius and mindset.
We hope that the Vatican, also another emblematic institution, stained with corruption within its bureaucracy, banks, and tainted in money laundering and all sorts of financial crimes and ties to mafia groups and prominent interests as shown recent by the case of Msg. Scalano (aka "Msgr. 500 for flashing 500 Euro notes in his wallet), among others will, in the era of Pope Francis, would initiate a thorough investigation as it did using a Nigerian born Papal Pro-Nuncio and a Guinean Archbishop for the church of the Central African Republic.
The writing below, courageously credited to a priest of Ahiara diocese noting and tracing the injustices melted out to their faith experiences within the Catholic, merits close attention and suspended judgments as one digest the facts. The answers to the emergent questions should be sought at the door step of a callous order and an hegemonic mafia-like operants within the Nigerian Catholic imagination.
This blog have consistently highlighted such abuse of powers, arrant corruption of certain Nigerian church officials, who gets promoted by the Vatican after their dirty affairs have been exposed, such as John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, a Kabba Yoruba, who was recently promoted to the ranks of Cardinal (Cardinal Priest) in November 2012, long after we exposed his abuses of young Nigerian nuns, pimped to him by their superiors as they seek his influence and favours toward acquiring property in the Nigerian Federal Capital of Abujam where the aforesaid Onaiyekan is an archbishop. The same holds for Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, an Igbo-hater whose atrocities and abuses against some Igbo priests in the Kaduna Archdiocese was posted herein, and who even thereafter was clandestinely patched and promoted to the ranks of the Bishop of Sokoto in northern Nigeria.
One thing must be pointed out that the church after its errors, patent falsehood, and cover-ups have always through sordid silence denied its wrongdoings until social pressures ensure that they can no longer hide. This was the case of the Fr. Marcel Legionary of Christ order, the American and overall western sexual abuses of minors in the USA, Austria, Australia, Ireland, Germany (including those involving Fr. George Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), Poland, and other climes. In fact, one can remember how Cardinal Groer of Austria was well protected even in the face of abuses until the wind blow up his false cover, and the truth could no longer be cowered and covered. The same holds true of Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, a known protector of sexually perverted priests (who himself was severally accused though using his influence to stymie the tide of the accusations).
In Nigeria, we saw this happened with the Irish born Archbishop Richard Burke (also reported, commented, and posted herein), former Archbishop of Benin City and Bishop of Warri dioceses in Nigeria, who raped and abused a then pre-teen Nigerian girl, Dolores Atwood, now an adult resident in Canada, and was also alleged to be serially doing the same to Dolores' younger sister, until he was forced to resign from his office and episcopal see. Even then archbishops Onaiyekan and Job were trying to defend his abuses, slanting it as an intentional media onslaught against the church and re-villainizing the victims of Burke's calculated and conscious acts.
In Zimbabwe, Archbishop Pius Ncube was focally abusing the tyranny of the Zimbabwean president and fellow Catholic Robert Mugabe, only for him to be exposed tyrannizing a married man, whose wife he was sexually bunking. Even when caught in the acts, media-exposed, he kept lying, not probably as remarkably different from the Mugabe he was criticizing. The a former bishop and later President of Paraguay was also later known to have defiled a minor girl, impregnating her, he would later accept responsibility long after the deception and fact of his criminality.
The day is dawning when the truth will surface with full transparency....
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Tue, May 7th, 2013
Religion |
Ahiara Mbaise Catholic Diocese Rejection Of Anambra Indigene As Bishop
Before the Okpaleke saga, there has been a history of systemic, silent and consistent marginalization and suppression of Mbaise in the Catholic Church and a power play in and against the entire present Owerri Ecclesiastical Province and which has always at the long run boiled down to the detriment of the Mbaise church. This charade of organized discrimination and relegation machinery was instituted and pioneered by a single personality force in the Church since the 1950s. It is an imperial religious fascism which has long been parceled, garlanded and ornamented beautifully in such a presumptuous religious creed that has rather sanctified and made it sacrosanct and hidden its sin in the pious docility of the people and deceptively applied papal infallibility. It is said in Igbo that aru gbaa afo, o buru omenala (when evil is allowed unchallenged for a whole year, it becomes a tradition). But when evil is challenged and questioned for once, those who challenge it rather become evil themselves in the eyes of its beneficiaries and the uninformed.
The history of the manipulation of the bishopric succession in Igbo land and the constant shoving of the Mbaise right with complacent impunity has been a recurrent datum from the earliest time. There was the incident in which Rev. Fr. Edward Ahaji of Umuokirika Ekwereazu Mbaise who was considered one of the best and was expected to be a bishopric candidate of the then prospective Umuahia Diocese, was eliminated in favour of Fr. A. Gogo Nwedo of Umuahia in 1945 even to the surprise of Fr. Mark Unegbu. But “There was no cry of anit-Mbaise sentiments or stereotype then when Ahaji was not selected”. Again, history had it that Fr. Nwedo was supposed to be transferred from Umuahia to succeed Bishop Heery in the then Onistsha Diocese in 1967 as the Holy Ghost Fathers did not want Arinze to succeed Bishop Heery. But Nwedo was frustrated and prevented from being the bishop of Onitsha by the combined forces of Bishop Mark Unegbu and Fr. Francis Arinze. Arinze personally insisted that only the son of the soil could become the bishop of Onitsha Diocese. Bishop Unegbu being his mentor, fought tooth and nail in his favour and helped Arinze enthroned on the Onitsha Episcopal seat. Another most favoured Mbaise priest, Rev. Fr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu was again denied the bishopric of old Owerri Diocese in favour of Rev. Fr. Mark Unegbu. This time, Bishop Arinze had to “pay off” Fr. Mark Unegbu for giving him the Episcopal seat of Onitsha. Thus, another favoured Mbaise priest was stopped against the will of the predecessor. This Same act was initiated, superintended and achieved, in the words of erudite Fr. David Iheanacho, when, “In non-subtle manoeuvre, Archbishop Arinze cornered the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese to his mentor, Fr. Mark Unegbu while blocking the will of Whelan and the missionaries that stated quite clearly they wanted Msgr. Ignatius Okoroanyanwu to shepherd the Episcopal See of Owerri Diocese”. It is not surprising that this accumulated vendetta annoyed Mbaise people and soured their relationship with Bishop Unegbu for long. It was this relationship of victimization and animosity that resulted in the long refusal to create the Diocese of Ahiara until after a long drawn fight.
But the greatest shock came when on the creation, yet another person outside the new Diocese was being eyed for the Episcopal seat of the diocese but was bluffed. It is also on record that not less than two Mbaise priests still alive today have been denied being the bishops of other dioceses in Igbo land some years back. The plan to appoint them were immediately nipped in the bud before it was ever pronounced, in spite of the fact that they are usually qualified and marketable. One wonders why a people so treated like this for years by an institutionalized and unjust hierarchy in a civilized and spiritual institution like the church, should not react once to liberate themselves from an entrenched and unjust structure. It is only a pity that the blind Timeus of our time who see human beings as if they are trees walking around, never know these paganistic dealings fraught in favoritism, son of the soil sentiment and despotism meted to Mbaise people in the past and intending to continue it in this age of enlightenment. It is unfortunate too, that they and the papal Nuncio have rather preferred to tag the Mbaise people clannish and ethnic in other to intimidate, blackmail and oppress them further.
The blackmail of the people of Ahiara Mbaise is only a defence mechanism to hide and sustain the holy apartheid against a people and continue the domination trend already institutionalized by those who have shot themselves up to the Vatican by the same sharpness. Their plan is to extend this colonization beyond the Mbaise church and continue to mystify it with holy obedience to the Church and the Pope when the Pope is not part of their clandestine skirmishes. But embarrassed and shocked that it is now demystified and once resisted, they become hysteric, aggressive and resort to all manner of intimidation, threat and blackmail to transfer the guilt they are supposed to bear on the defenders and discredit them for blocking their prodding ambition. An information reached us that on the rejection of the appointment of Okpaleke, some priests from Awka Diocese said, “Mbaise people have divulged and exposed this thing we have been managing to do for ourselves for a long time now”.
We are therefore bound and forced to tell our story to the world, of the imminent threat and possible clamp down intended to hatch on Mbaise on a date they have fixed and imposed for themselves in order to cause mayhem and blackmail the people for not submitting to their fraud and arbitrariness.
It would be recalled that before the death of the former Bishop, he was supposed to have actually submitted “only names from his diocese” as his prospective successors according to tradition, and this is renewable as directed and demanded by the Canon law and the Vatican. In the event of a sudden death those priests whose names were submitted or other persons outside the list, but who are from the diocese by incardination or as indigenes, would be screened for appointment to the bishopric. Coincidentally, the bishop died around the time Awka Diocese also needed a replacement for the retiring bishop, Eze Okafor. Rev. Fr. Peter Okpaleke from Awka Diocese was attempted by the godfather(s) to take over Awka, in spite of the then sitting auxiliary bishop of the diocese. But he was rejected in his own diocese for untoward and unbecoming desperation and other reasons best known to them. It was then that, impelled by frustration and urged by the forces of distorted and unholy ambition and power, he and his allies started manipulating for Ahiara Diocesan succession with great audacious intrusion. It was this hidden and dark interference that made the two year prayer and attempt for smooth selection of the bishop of Ahiara diocese a huge frustration. Unaware of this, the lay faithful started embarrassing Ahiara priests for their delay in selecting a bishop for two years, ignorant of the fact that it is not the priests themselves that should directly appoint the bishop and that the appointment from those submitted was being compounded by something yet unknown.
Ultimately, the obsession of Fr. Peter Okpaleke and his godfathers is purely a problem of settlement. There is an accumulation quagmire that might logjam to a frustrating alley if he fails to cling to Ahiara Diocese unstopped. The greatest aggression of a man would always come from the frustration of accumulated and unbridled ambition that trespasses beyond his capacity and the none availability of personal resources. But such aggression could be transferred to whoever becomes the obstacle that neutralizes and brings to vanity an erroneously concluded enterprise. This has been the secrete behind their battle of survival in Ahiara Diocese and Owerri province, making Msgr. Peter Okpaleke, a supposed spiritual priest of the Church saying, “over my dead body” that he should resign the bishopric of Ahiara Diocese, in spite of all persuasions by some wise advisers.
The settlement problem choking up those masterminding the crisis of Ahiara Diocese is obvious. It should be noted that a big shot in the Vatican power broker is alleged to be choked up with the dire urgency of settling Msgr. Jonas Benson Okoye who was once his secretary and personal aid, as well as Denis Isiuzor and Peter Okpaleke, and perhaps others. It is learnt that these have been flown for the bishopric of some dioceses, for instance Awka in 2010 and the attempt met a brick wall. Nsukka Diocese also failed to yield because the bishop emeritus warned the Nigerian bishops never to attempt to do in his Nsukka Diocese what they have done in Ahira Diocese. Therefore, Nsukka was recently given an indigenous diocesan bishop. But there is an impending urgency to create Ekwulobia Diocese from Awka where Okpleke rightly belongs. Many wonder why Okpaleke should not have been announced for his new Ekwulobia Diocese to stop the long raging battle for Mbaise. The obvious reason is to safeguard Ekwulobia for the settlement of the remaining others born for bishopric. Hence, it became necessary and strategic to hurriedly announce Okpaleke for Ahiara Diocese and install him at all cost to create room in Ekwulobia for the remaining lining up for settlement. If Okpaleke is militarily imposed on Ahiara, he becomes the third from Onitsha province in the seven Dioceses of Owerri Province without one from Owerri shepherding in Onitsha and till date no religious from Owerri is heading any religious congregation in Onitsha province. What a Holy Spirit and universality! If Mbaise must continue to obey the Holy Spirit and the Pope against them and in favour of a certain group since the1950s, then the Holy Spirit must have her maternal home with those people. Why then did the same Spirit not continue to allow the Papacy remain in Italy but decided to change to Germany and now Argentina?
The rejection and resistance of Ahiara Mbaise therefore stems from both the history of suppression of the people of Mbaise in particular, Owerri province, as well as the above chess play of vain ambition by those who see the episcopacy as their exclusive vocation in Igbo land. But this is not an Anambra collective action. Although “Anambra” has been used in the course of this struggle as a matter of illustration, it is never an issue of Anambranaization. The diocese is not fighting against Anambra, the papacy, his infallibility or that it must be their own son, but against injustice by one man, who is coincidentally, from Anambra. It is not a struggle of clannishness or ethnic either on the side of Mbaise people. It is purely a battle against religious imperialism and suppression of a people, who must fight for self-survival and preservation in spite of using the name of the Pope to blackmail and sedate them. Apart from these, have those who preach selfish universality asked themselves the type of justice where the people of Mbaise scattered through out the churches in Nigeria, and one of the first Diocese to loan their priests to almost all the dioceses in Nigeria to start their new dioceses and even now feed them with human, religious and financial resources, not have an indigenous bishop in the midst of the Nigerian bishops in the name of a lop-sided universality?
To crush this resistance against their huge handedness, privileged Church hierarchies have to be employed in sophisticated manners to execute the imposition and conjure up blackmail and stigmatization to indict their challengers. Like Judas Iscariot, the Papal Nuncio, who seemed to have long perfected the act of external imposition with a grip to an offer in cash or kind, unknowingly betrayed his mind on visit to the Diocese in September 2011 in their midst of anxiety for a new bishop. He was on visit for a thanksgiving reception of a friend in Mbaise, to which he attached “accidental pastoral visit”. He personally enquired from the priests and lay faithful their pulse for the delay in the announcement of the new bishop and to know the type of bishop they would want for their Diocese. He was told. Surprisingly, he told the priests in a sophistry of language that they would be given a “catholic Bishop”, as if they were expecting a muslim bishop. He again unusually emphasized and exaggerated the “universality of the church” without regard to the local regard of the church, thereby adding to the suspicion and scare.
The suspicion for treachery came to limelight when the ordour of blackmail and accusation fouled the air that there was petition and counter petition among the priests of Ahiara. Meanwhile, the papal Nuncio was the only one to whom the documents of enquiry were passed under very high and exclusive secrecy. In a twinkle, the rumour of petition was followed with another strange rumour of a strange name as strong contender among the proposed candidates of priests of the Diocese. Up till today, the bishops and the Nuncio have not answered the question of who put the name, for what reason and when all the possible candidates in the diocese and province were exhausted before extending the search to Awka.
Following the rumour, the Nuncio was immediately warned and appealed to in writing that this suspected imposition “would mean that none of all the Ahiara Diocesan priests is trustworthy now and implicitly poses the question of whether any could become trustworthy in the future. This could cause a big rift between people and priests in this Diocese for a long time because suspicion of sectarian in fighting would have been admitted if not approved. And if this happens, political considerations would have been respected… And on a very serious note, this would make late Bishop Chikwe’s twenty two years’ efforts in correcting the false image of Mbaise among her neighbours and through out the nation come to nothing; and believe me, I know my people they will fight it at the level one may least expect. Let it be clear that any decision based on fabricated, false and unproven information is bound in and by itself to be false and wrong and, as such, may be resisted to the detriment of faith and morals”. This letter was written more than one year before the announcement of Fr. Peter Okpaleke. But the battle of conscience between letting Fr. Okpaleke go uncompensated since the stealth and craft had been exposed and warned against, having also already committed themselves with a “promise of settlement”, and insisting to select him at all cost, urged them on.
On the 7th of December, 2012, the strangest thing happened. Flying news on the internet, of the appointment of a new bishop of the Diocese held sway in the air but was taken for a joke by those who know and believe that such appointment should not be made in the internet without being officially related to the Diocese in hard copy. But the internet information was not inadvertent. It was a highly sophisticated and calculated action typical of the Nigerian election tactics of, “just announce it first, let them go and contest it in the court, the court belongs to some people, and we will win them in the court”. But unlike in the political court, the perpetrators of this kangaroo act never expected that Ahiara people would contest the appointment “made by the Pope”. They only thought, they would as usual be contented to believe the appointment was done by the Pope. But they underrated their knowledge of this past marginalization, their intelligence and ability.
Few days to the announcement of the manipulated selection, the Owerri provincial bishops made the first and several other visits and tasted an unprecedented bitter water of resentment. Each tried to wash his hand from the blood of innocent Jesus like Pilate. But they ended up revealing their contradiction in the act. The secrete they wanted to cover up was expunged. It became clear that it was no longer that the Ahiara priests destroyed themselves with petition but that an elderly Ahiara priest was purportedly put conditionally in the first position, surrounded by Fr. Peter Okpaleke, the youngest and second in the list, and another third and non-Ahiara candidate for screening. The highlight of the information was that the purported Ahiara candidate and the first in the list declined “in good conscience” in consequent to which Fr. Okpaleke, the second in the list was nominated. This was the information the bishops considered a “privileged information” from Cardinal Philoni. They intended to use this information to both indict and make the priests feel guilty and give up the fight. Till today the veracity, specification and authenticity of that insinuation has not been proved. What a holy religious politics! How came a person from a different Diocese and province to be the second person? Again, who put him and why? Why was an elderly priest possibly with age and health challenge put as spare part for indictment? Is it true that such a person was actually consulted? Was it after all not more honourable and noble for him to decline in good conscience for personal reasons than Okpaleke who today want to die for power? Why was the Diocese not imposed with another priest from the diocese but outside the list the way Okpaleke was imposed? Why could no other person be imposed from Owerri province?
With the raging of the rejection of the appointment and the revelations of power play which has pervaded and suppressed all the Onitsha Ecclesiastical dioceses and now traversed to Owerri province, the Nuncio came to spiritualize and palliate the fire of tension he was probably paid to ignite in Igbo land. But he rather aggravated the insult and betrayed his deliberate intension by a pedagogy, in which he made a theological synthesis of the priesthood and the bishopric, when he told the priests that the vocation of the priesthood is different from that of the bishopric. Did he imply that the bishopric is exclusively for some people? It was then clear that the Dunukofia people of Awka from where Cardinal Arinze and Okpaleke came and whoever they chose have the monopoly of the bishopric on behalf of the priests of Onitsha Ecclesiastical province and Owerri could dictate and distribute it gratuitously at will. The priests did only one thing after listening to his new theology. They read to the embattled and terrified looking Nuncio, the forewarning letter written to him more than one year ago on hearing the rumour of the strange name for imposition. He tacitly acknowledged receiving such a letter but confoundedly lacked words to contradict or challenge it. He was also reminded that all the documents of enquiry and investigation for the candidates were passed under high and holy secrecy through his office and yet there was rumour of alleged and unsubstantiated petition heard even in overseas countries. He was indicted for personally and deliberately conjuring and acting up something one way or the other in order to create a loophole to satisfy the gratification with which he must have been influenced to enthrone the son of somebody in the Vatican and incite the crisis of Owerri-Onitsha provinces and further compound the divide in Igbo land.
Almost with tears, the priests reminded the Nuncio of the damage done to the credibility of the entire Ahiara priests who now worth nothing before their people because of the blackmail of petition and that none of them qualifies for the bishopric. It was based on this dangerous calumny that the Priests of Ahiara told the Nuncio and insisted that no other solution could repair their image before their people other than ordaining one of their own the bishop of Ahiara Diocese. Ordaining Peter Okpaleke or any other would sustain and validate that stigma. This is the beginning of the insistence that it must be Ahiara indigenous priest or nothing else.
Before their visit, the Papal Nuncio, Augustine Kasujja had thought that Archbishop Obinna could not effect the ordination of Okpaleke up to that day. But he saw to it himself that it was their collective blunders and injustice that made the acceptance impossible and why it met with such hardened resistance. Unable to break the impasse of the crisis by the provincial bishops, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria took the debate to their conference and ended up in a logjam. The matter was finally left exclusively to the Owerri provincial bishops to settle as a provincial matter. Embarrassingly, few weeks after the transfer of responsibility of settlement, the bishops merely gathered in Owerri and without any attempt for dialogue, declared a week prayer for the ordination of the bishop-elect even as the canonical period for the ordination had already expired two times within the raging tension. Scandalized by this insensitivity, some priests wrote and explained to the world what has been happening in Ahiara Diocese. This was necessary because of the false propaganda that the appointment was “by the Pope” and that the Mbaise people are merely disobedient, clannish and are insisting that only an Mbaise indigenous priest can be the bishop in their diocese. Consequently, one of them who was forced to enlighten the world about this covering propaganda and insincerity was invited and warned to stop writing the issue on public news papers. Why are they afraid of letting the world know the truth of what they have been doing with innocent Mbaise people and the lies they have been telling from Owerri to Abuja?
At the end of the one week purported prayer which was never prayed faithfully in any diocese, the ordination failed to hold. But Peter Okpaleke was disclosed to have, under an obsession and addiction for power, personally prevailed over the desperate authorities to grant him another extension of date for the Episcopal ordination. They met and hurriedly gave a date. Note that the umbrella of Igbo Diocesan priests called ANIMAEE, after listening to Ahiara priests, went to tell Archbishop Obinna to suspend the ordination for the moment given the situation and circumstances. But he was quoted as saying, “the date has already been fixed, go and meet Bishop Ugorji”. It is the Ahiara Diocese that is supposed to fix the date of the ordination and print the invitation card, but they fixed the date themselves as another imposition.
It is obvious by the attitudes of the bishops that they are under the burden of guilt and bad conscience to push on the Okpaleke ordination and are impelled to do so for face saving and survival instinct. This is why in spite of the forewarnings to the Nuncio that any attempt to foist an orchestrated and corrupt institution and desperate person rejected by his home diocese on Mbaise would be resisted to the end, they insisted. They now resorted to force by the involvement of the Federal security allegedly through the alleged auspices of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state and the Episcopal seat in Abuja in order to achieve the invasion. The Federal security and the Anambra state governor which would be used as a disguise for order is actually intended to subdue, intimidate, suppress and scare the people of Ahiara Mbaise and Imo state to effect the enthronement of one man produced under suspicious circumstances against the wish of the whole church. The Anambra state government security entourage is believed to have supplied such a security deception for a similar jamboree Episcopal ordination in Benin Diocese and is strongly believed to be on hand again to supply for Peter Okpaleke in Ahiara.
The ordaining prelate of the Hitler power and questionable installation is Cardinal John Onaiyekan, who information discloses, has since been verbally battering and castigating the people of Mbaise for rejecting an ostensibly obnoxious process of selection through a corrupt and unjust means. But to the greatest shock of the people, the ordaining prelate who visited Ahiara on Saturday May 4, 2013, was said to be yet unaware of the date of the ordination, and until the day of his visit, had no clear information of the politics and arbitrariness that produced Okapaleke and why he is being rejected.
While the clergy of the diocese would not personally initiate violence, they may not guarantee that the visiting power drunk security force would not initiate their own Nigerian crude brutality to scare their opponents, who would certainly react and resist. The youths of Ahiara Mbaise have also vowed not to watch this immoral rascality and arbitrariness succeed in the holy church of Christ by the hierarchy of the church. But by their insistence to invade Mbaise with Anambra and Federal security, the bishops and Fr. Okpaleke have tacitly appropriated responsibility for whatever would be the result of a possible physical conflict during, months or years after the ordination if they succeed on the ordination. Unfortunately, their insistence is hinged on the claim that, in the words of the Archbishop of Owerri, “the appointment is a papal one. The pope appoints whoever he wants, despite our feelings. So the appointment stands”. They are working on what they call “Roman Locuta”, when Rome speaks, it is final, an axiom that is at times abused and exploited by the powerful and the privileged and imposed on Rome even before Rome speaks and at times lacks humanistic sensitivity. Their other source of desperation is to avoid setting a precedence of succumbing to further rejections in the future even when they act curiously and arbitrarily with impunity or to avoid the same Rome what happened to query the process. The question is, does the Pope come to any diocese and pick somebody for appointment or just impend his signature on the person given to him by those at the corridors of power even in deception, since he does not personally do the selection? Is it true that the Pope appoints “despite our feelings” and yet inquiries are done before the appointment to know our knowledge of and the feelings for the person to be appointed? Was it why Okpaleke was forcefully given for appointment in spite of the fact that the inquiries about him rightly said, “we do not know who this person is” as certainly, not even one person knows him in the diocese in any sense expected. Was the appointment of Matthias not preceded by this foreknowledge “Out of the men who have been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us, from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us – one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). If the hierarchy of the church is afraid of setting a precedence of rejection, is it better to set a scandalous moral precedence of arbitrariness, injustice and force in order to save the face of some people and condemn the innocent Mbaise people?
There is now an intended blackmail of the innocent people who have the right to refuse and resist injustice and wicked act that lack spirituality. The Mbaise people only wish to inform Nigerians that the hierarchy of the Church from Abuja to Owerri, have accepted responsibility of enacting the precedence of moral and physical force without any dialogue in order to achieve the inordinate and desperately asserted ambition of one man over a people for their own office security. The provincial bishop of Owerri and the rest have accepted a priori any hurt or lost of life that may be directly or indirectly involved in their application of force. When did the church start using the government, police and military force to install their spiritual leaders? Would the government of Good Luck Jonathan, Anambra and Imo states actually allow the use of their security to interfere in religious ordination either for attack or defence? Would Peter Obi smear and dent his already noted catholic piety and cherished achievement in governance with the debasing style of Nigerian political hooliganism and vandalism by dabbling into this mess because of one priest? Will the bishop-elect continue to use the same security force to celebrate mass on daily basis till he retires from the diocese or takes over Owerri province? At the end, what would remain of the morality and ethics of the hierarch if they now prove that the morality of force in ascending to power is superior to the morality of humility and dialogue and justice? The world is watching them to strike.
RE. FR. BEN OGU, AHIARA DIOCESE
08037233611
Monday, May 6, 2013
The Crises of the Nigerian Church: Bishops' selection Nepotism, Imposition and Resistance
The featured article was found posted in the Nigeriaworld.com of May 2nd, 2013. It has become a sad and recurring feature of the current state of Nigerian Catholicism, where bishops, acting like Nigerian politicians have vested interests and nepotic in imposing their own candidates, some not very well formed and qualified as episcopal candidates, and destroying the cogent work of evangelization and ministry that has occured over so many decades, just for their vested reasons and career advancements, and also creating puns and clones that would secure their inordinate and gullible financial tastes in retirement.
Ambition is the order of the day, and as a result different strategies and corrupt plots and machinations rule the day within the chamber of episcopal functioning, as becoming a bishop today has become in the fast filling fold of priestly ministry, the one major distinctive meal ticket that favours a cliques' flight from poverty, and assure a life of Trojan bestraddling over the affairs of the humble and heaven-oriented faithful.
This rupturing bizarre turn of events has attracted the vociferous condemnation of one bold and courageous Nigerian priest, the Rev. Fr. Dr. Joseph Francis Mali, PhD, an intelligent theologian and renewing agent of Christ-like faithfulness, have authored a book on this issue regarding the poor qualitative nature of selection of episcopal candidates in many northern Nigerian dioceses. Such courageous witness is rare, but Fr. Mali is an oddity. Many Nigerian priests cower and are afraid of countering the illness and rut within the system because it may impede their own subtle and well-masked ambition to tower over others rather than serve. Like the rest of the wider Nigerian society, no one wants to confront the truth, the heinous dirts and criminality that refracts upon the dynamics of power as an abusing and traumatically tyrannizing experience that has hijacked the God-given happiness of Nigerians as God's noble creatures.
]The article below points to the magnitude of the issue. Yet, what has not been boldly asserted is the role of the Francis Cardinal Arinze in the Ahiara debacle, and the hubris of power, through which he is lining up his "Anambra boys" for episcopal office. One of Cardinal Arinze's boy is Archbishop Jude Okolo, the incumbent Papal Nuncio to Chad and Central African Republic, whose role in the later country's problem of CAR African bishops and priests, reflect an image of a bestial order, who is trying to do right to please the power that be within the church, with an eye upon more lucrative ecclesiastical and prestigious diplomatic posting.
Triste also is the fact that a recent Nigerian Cardinal, John Olurnfemi Onaiyekan, is a known sexual pervert, a known zipless molester and harrasser of Nigerian nuns. There is also the case of the ill-celebrated Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah is a fly in the ointment of all corrupt political heads of government in Nigeria, an Igbo-hater and cunningly ambitious iconoclast of all that is wrong with Nigeria; that celebrates hero worship, even is that hero is a demagogue and hydra-monstrous personality.
These evil men wearing the tiara of power in God's name are killing the faith, and are uplifting grave evil masking as angels of light, fakes using God's name to bolster their own positions and privileges.
Featured article in www.nigeriaworld.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chinedu Mbawuike Thursday, May 2, 2013
mbawuikec@yahoo.com
Fr. PETER OKPALEKE & THE "AHIARA SPRING"
"God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments; loyalty is doing the will of God. Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them." (Sirach 15:14 - 17)
uch of the debate arising from the principled rejection of Fr. Peter Okpaleke as Bishop of Ahiara diocese centers on the attempt to unmask and expose the role played by ecclesiastical Godfathers from the Onitsha ecclesiastical metropolis to continually reward their cronies with vacant Episcopal positions in the South East and some places in the South West. Very little has been said about the man who ill-advisedly accepted this ill-inspired appointment. The ongoing attempt by some bishops from places as various as Owerri, Okigwe, Benin, Awka, Abuja, etc. to impose him on the indomitable people of Mbaise by frenetically scheming and plotting to pillage and militarize their beloved diocese occasions the need for scrutinizing his ambition, probing his motive to ascertain why he is so doggedly bent on using military force to become a bishop. Adversities and challenges have a way of exposing the stuff of which people are made; they give indications of the underlying motivations of people.
A cursory look at the profile of Father Peter Okpaleke suggests that he has had sustained and active interest in ecclesiastical administration as can be gleaned from the themes of some of his published writings: The Administrator of Diocesan Property, Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church, Pastoral Visitation: Towards Knowing the significance and Necessary Preparations, The Role of Deans in Diocesan Apostolate, The Establishment Competence, Function, and Organization of Diocesan Pastoral Council, etc. While his interest in Church administration might have issued from the desire to better equip himself for the competent discharge of the many administrative/managerial positions he has held in his 20 years priestly "career", his fierce determination and unprincipled quest to bulldoze his way into the Episcopal see of Ahiara suggests that his writings were calculated and designed to favourably position himself as an incontrovertibly qualified candidate for the episcopacy whenever any seat in the zone of influence of his Godfathers was vacant.
While he might have arguably constructed for himself a sterling ecclesiastical administrative resumé, he unavoidably comes off as inordinately ambitious and disturbingly overcome by the lust for power. The impulse for domination, hidden and buried under his stellar credentials has been exposed by the ruthless militancy with which he intends to "resolve the conflict". Notice that he is the author of: Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church. While not having read the book, I am familiar enough with the Church's approach to conflict resolution to expect that he could not have suggested the use of intimidation and military force to resolve conflicts in the Church. His approach to the current impasse in Ahiara suggests that he could have easily written the medieval political philosophical work, The Prince, in which the author suggests amongst other things that a ruler is justified to use any means possible to attain his objectives. Hence the saying "the end justifies the means".
If Fr. Okpaleke truly believes his theory and recommendations in Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church (all of which I am sure contradict his current practice), he should give up his alarmingly unchristian and unorthodox approach to the current conflict. He knows that nothing in the current conflict resolution teaching of the church would endorse an approach that would leave the faithful spiritually scandalized, psychologically terrorized, physically assaulted and perhaps have their properties vandalized. The idea around which Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church ought to be organized is "the salvation of souls" not "the scandalization of souls".
His recent move to storm Mbaise with his Godfathers, enablers and political elites armed with military power to claim the kingdom prepared for him from the beginning of the ages would no doubt be an unsightly spectacle, a spectacle that would completely pale in comparison with the ideals of the gospel. The very thought of bishops using threats and military force to assume a position of Christian service is, to say the least nauseating. Such a move is totally out of synch with ecclesiastical law and morality. It is an approach that is theologically unorthodox, liturgically indecorous, morally appalling, optically revolting and absolutely unchristian. Ecclesiastical authority does not flow from the barrel of the gun!
As a keen observer of the history of Episcopal succession in Eastern Nigeria, I can say without fear of contradiction that it has not been a very inspiring or spiritually uplifting one. Benin and Okigwe are good cases in point. The ongoing impasse in Ahiara would undoubtedly bring this unedifying history to a new low. If this happens, it would all come down to the injudicious decision of Fr. Okpaleke. He knows very well that this impasse will come to a peaceful resolution if he resigns.
Every choice, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, is a renunciation. If Fr. Okpaleke sticks to his guns, his ignominious obstinacy would be tantamount to renouncing peace, humility, and decency. The persons we are are the cumulative outcomes of the choices we make. Before now, the autobiographical narrative of Fr. Okpaleke has been unfolding and he continues to write this story by the choices he makes. To be sure, some of these choices are more defining and consequential than others. The decision he ultimately makes (wise or unwise) in the coming days/weeks would unquestionably factor very prominently in defining the kind of person he is. The person you are, who you are is different from what you do or the positions you hold. So what kind of person does he want to be?
The author of the Book of Sirach says, "Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them." Fr. Peter Ebere Okpaleke, your life is at crossroads, you have been placed at the point of divergence between the treacherous alley of self-destruction and dignifying highway of honour. Which do you want? It is up to you. You are the DECIDER! Those whom the gods want to kill they first make mad. Your decision will ultimately confirm if you are mad with inordinate ambition or just testing the will of Mbaise people.
Over and above the unfolding profile of the man, the machinations of some bishops in this crisis is shaping up to be a story of ecclesiastical thuggery. In a sense, the principled rejection of Fr. Okpaleke by Mbaise people is a struggle to end the reign of ecclesiastical nepotism in Nigeria. The struggle of the People of God in Ahiara diocese is also the struggle of the people of God in Okigwe, Uromi, and Benin who have been forced to a state of disillusioned acquiescence to an authoritarian ecclesiastical establishment. The struggle is aimed not only at liberating the People of God in Ahiara from the forces of domination and nepotism in the Church, but also to ultimately usher in an ecclesiastical ethos that is consistent with the spirit of the gospel.
In the struggle of the People of God in Ahiara, we are seeing the awakening of activist consciousness that has the potential of emancipating and transforming the Church in Nigeria. In this struggle, in this "Ahiara Spring", we are seeing the birth of a new way of being Church, a Church that discourages nepotism and careerism amongst priests, a Church that is suspicious of cozy relationships between corrupt politicians and clerics, a Church that listens to the voices of the laity and encourages them to be more actively engaged in the life of the Church, and a Church that discourages the impulse to use threat, intimation and violence to execute Church appointments when the faithful justly demand for a review of such appointments.
The struggle of Mbaise people is not a struggle against Anambra people. It is a struggle against the decadent culture of ecclesiastical nepotism. Mbaise people have nothing against Anambra people. What they are against is the procedural injustice and the lopsidedness of Episcopal appointments that have too often been arguably masterminded by highly placed clerics from the Onitsha ecclesiastical axis. Their struggle is against a system that is dysfunctional, a system that damages faith, hope, trust and destroys the devotion with which the faithful regard the Church. It is a system in need of redemption and transformation. They are asking for the establishment of a system that would facilitate the salvation of souls, not the "scandalization" of souls.
Like all conflicts, this crisis offers the opportunity for growth and redemption. The outcome depends on the decision Fr. Okpaleke and his enablers make. In the interim, they need to remember that people are watching, the news is diffusing beyond the shores of Nigeria. The people of Mbaise are ready to utilize mass communications technology to expose the ecclesiastical militarism being visited upon them by men who ought to know better. On May 21st, we shall know which way they intend to follow, the way of self destruction or the way of honour.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
Ambition is the order of the day, and as a result different strategies and corrupt plots and machinations rule the day within the chamber of episcopal functioning, as becoming a bishop today has become in the fast filling fold of priestly ministry, the one major distinctive meal ticket that favours a cliques' flight from poverty, and assure a life of Trojan bestraddling over the affairs of the humble and heaven-oriented faithful.
This rupturing bizarre turn of events has attracted the vociferous condemnation of one bold and courageous Nigerian priest, the Rev. Fr. Dr. Joseph Francis Mali, PhD, an intelligent theologian and renewing agent of Christ-like faithfulness, have authored a book on this issue regarding the poor qualitative nature of selection of episcopal candidates in many northern Nigerian dioceses. Such courageous witness is rare, but Fr. Mali is an oddity. Many Nigerian priests cower and are afraid of countering the illness and rut within the system because it may impede their own subtle and well-masked ambition to tower over others rather than serve. Like the rest of the wider Nigerian society, no one wants to confront the truth, the heinous dirts and criminality that refracts upon the dynamics of power as an abusing and traumatically tyrannizing experience that has hijacked the God-given happiness of Nigerians as God's noble creatures.
]The article below points to the magnitude of the issue. Yet, what has not been boldly asserted is the role of the Francis Cardinal Arinze in the Ahiara debacle, and the hubris of power, through which he is lining up his "Anambra boys" for episcopal office. One of Cardinal Arinze's boy is Archbishop Jude Okolo, the incumbent Papal Nuncio to Chad and Central African Republic, whose role in the later country's problem of CAR African bishops and priests, reflect an image of a bestial order, who is trying to do right to please the power that be within the church, with an eye upon more lucrative ecclesiastical and prestigious diplomatic posting.
Triste also is the fact that a recent Nigerian Cardinal, John Olurnfemi Onaiyekan, is a known sexual pervert, a known zipless molester and harrasser of Nigerian nuns. There is also the case of the ill-celebrated Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah is a fly in the ointment of all corrupt political heads of government in Nigeria, an Igbo-hater and cunningly ambitious iconoclast of all that is wrong with Nigeria; that celebrates hero worship, even is that hero is a demagogue and hydra-monstrous personality.
These evil men wearing the tiara of power in God's name are killing the faith, and are uplifting grave evil masking as angels of light, fakes using God's name to bolster their own positions and privileges.
Featured article in www.nigeriaworld.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chinedu Mbawuike Thursday, May 2, 2013
mbawuikec@yahoo.com
Fr. PETER OKPALEKE & THE "AHIARA SPRING"
"God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice. If you choose, you can keep the commandments; loyalty is doing the will of God. Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them." (Sirach 15:14 - 17)
uch of the debate arising from the principled rejection of Fr. Peter Okpaleke as Bishop of Ahiara diocese centers on the attempt to unmask and expose the role played by ecclesiastical Godfathers from the Onitsha ecclesiastical metropolis to continually reward their cronies with vacant Episcopal positions in the South East and some places in the South West. Very little has been said about the man who ill-advisedly accepted this ill-inspired appointment. The ongoing attempt by some bishops from places as various as Owerri, Okigwe, Benin, Awka, Abuja, etc. to impose him on the indomitable people of Mbaise by frenetically scheming and plotting to pillage and militarize their beloved diocese occasions the need for scrutinizing his ambition, probing his motive to ascertain why he is so doggedly bent on using military force to become a bishop. Adversities and challenges have a way of exposing the stuff of which people are made; they give indications of the underlying motivations of people.
A cursory look at the profile of Father Peter Okpaleke suggests that he has had sustained and active interest in ecclesiastical administration as can be gleaned from the themes of some of his published writings: The Administrator of Diocesan Property, Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church, Pastoral Visitation: Towards Knowing the significance and Necessary Preparations, The Role of Deans in Diocesan Apostolate, The Establishment Competence, Function, and Organization of Diocesan Pastoral Council, etc. While his interest in Church administration might have issued from the desire to better equip himself for the competent discharge of the many administrative/managerial positions he has held in his 20 years priestly "career", his fierce determination and unprincipled quest to bulldoze his way into the Episcopal see of Ahiara suggests that his writings were calculated and designed to favourably position himself as an incontrovertibly qualified candidate for the episcopacy whenever any seat in the zone of influence of his Godfathers was vacant.
While he might have arguably constructed for himself a sterling ecclesiastical administrative resumé, he unavoidably comes off as inordinately ambitious and disturbingly overcome by the lust for power. The impulse for domination, hidden and buried under his stellar credentials has been exposed by the ruthless militancy with which he intends to "resolve the conflict". Notice that he is the author of: Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church. While not having read the book, I am familiar enough with the Church's approach to conflict resolution to expect that he could not have suggested the use of intimidation and military force to resolve conflicts in the Church. His approach to the current impasse in Ahiara suggests that he could have easily written the medieval political philosophical work, The Prince, in which the author suggests amongst other things that a ruler is justified to use any means possible to attain his objectives. Hence the saying "the end justifies the means".
If Fr. Okpaleke truly believes his theory and recommendations in Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church (all of which I am sure contradict his current practice), he should give up his alarmingly unchristian and unorthodox approach to the current conflict. He knows that nothing in the current conflict resolution teaching of the church would endorse an approach that would leave the faithful spiritually scandalized, psychologically terrorized, physically assaulted and perhaps have their properties vandalized. The idea around which Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in the Church ought to be organized is "the salvation of souls" not "the scandalization of souls".
His recent move to storm Mbaise with his Godfathers, enablers and political elites armed with military power to claim the kingdom prepared for him from the beginning of the ages would no doubt be an unsightly spectacle, a spectacle that would completely pale in comparison with the ideals of the gospel. The very thought of bishops using threats and military force to assume a position of Christian service is, to say the least nauseating. Such a move is totally out of synch with ecclesiastical law and morality. It is an approach that is theologically unorthodox, liturgically indecorous, morally appalling, optically revolting and absolutely unchristian. Ecclesiastical authority does not flow from the barrel of the gun!
As a keen observer of the history of Episcopal succession in Eastern Nigeria, I can say without fear of contradiction that it has not been a very inspiring or spiritually uplifting one. Benin and Okigwe are good cases in point. The ongoing impasse in Ahiara would undoubtedly bring this unedifying history to a new low. If this happens, it would all come down to the injudicious decision of Fr. Okpaleke. He knows very well that this impasse will come to a peaceful resolution if he resigns.
Every choice, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, is a renunciation. If Fr. Okpaleke sticks to his guns, his ignominious obstinacy would be tantamount to renouncing peace, humility, and decency. The persons we are are the cumulative outcomes of the choices we make. Before now, the autobiographical narrative of Fr. Okpaleke has been unfolding and he continues to write this story by the choices he makes. To be sure, some of these choices are more defining and consequential than others. The decision he ultimately makes (wise or unwise) in the coming days/weeks would unquestionably factor very prominently in defining the kind of person he is. The person you are, who you are is different from what you do or the positions you hold. So what kind of person does he want to be?
The author of the Book of Sirach says, "Set before you are fire and water; to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand. Before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them." Fr. Peter Ebere Okpaleke, your life is at crossroads, you have been placed at the point of divergence between the treacherous alley of self-destruction and dignifying highway of honour. Which do you want? It is up to you. You are the DECIDER! Those whom the gods want to kill they first make mad. Your decision will ultimately confirm if you are mad with inordinate ambition or just testing the will of Mbaise people.
Over and above the unfolding profile of the man, the machinations of some bishops in this crisis is shaping up to be a story of ecclesiastical thuggery. In a sense, the principled rejection of Fr. Okpaleke by Mbaise people is a struggle to end the reign of ecclesiastical nepotism in Nigeria. The struggle of the People of God in Ahiara diocese is also the struggle of the people of God in Okigwe, Uromi, and Benin who have been forced to a state of disillusioned acquiescence to an authoritarian ecclesiastical establishment. The struggle is aimed not only at liberating the People of God in Ahiara from the forces of domination and nepotism in the Church, but also to ultimately usher in an ecclesiastical ethos that is consistent with the spirit of the gospel.
In the struggle of the People of God in Ahiara, we are seeing the awakening of activist consciousness that has the potential of emancipating and transforming the Church in Nigeria. In this struggle, in this "Ahiara Spring", we are seeing the birth of a new way of being Church, a Church that discourages nepotism and careerism amongst priests, a Church that is suspicious of cozy relationships between corrupt politicians and clerics, a Church that listens to the voices of the laity and encourages them to be more actively engaged in the life of the Church, and a Church that discourages the impulse to use threat, intimation and violence to execute Church appointments when the faithful justly demand for a review of such appointments.
The struggle of Mbaise people is not a struggle against Anambra people. It is a struggle against the decadent culture of ecclesiastical nepotism. Mbaise people have nothing against Anambra people. What they are against is the procedural injustice and the lopsidedness of Episcopal appointments that have too often been arguably masterminded by highly placed clerics from the Onitsha ecclesiastical axis. Their struggle is against a system that is dysfunctional, a system that damages faith, hope, trust and destroys the devotion with which the faithful regard the Church. It is a system in need of redemption and transformation. They are asking for the establishment of a system that would facilitate the salvation of souls, not the "scandalization" of souls.
Like all conflicts, this crisis offers the opportunity for growth and redemption. The outcome depends on the decision Fr. Okpaleke and his enablers make. In the interim, they need to remember that people are watching, the news is diffusing beyond the shores of Nigeria. The people of Mbaise are ready to utilize mass communications technology to expose the ecclesiastical militarism being visited upon them by men who ought to know better. On May 21st, we shall know which way they intend to follow, the way of self destruction or the way of honour.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
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