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| AHIARA DIOCESE - Vatican risks losing over 2 million Catholic faithfuls in Mbaise |
The Vatican-led Catholic Church is risking losing over 2 million catholic faithfuls in Mbaise. As
the world await the final pronouncement of the Pope on the Ahiara Mbaise
crises, the people of Mbaise and their priests have again restated that they
will not accept Fr Peter Okpaleke as their bishop even for a second.
Rising
from a crucial meeting of the priests and Mbaise stakeholders recently, the
people said that it is most irrational and insensitive for anyone to
contemplate or beg them to accept Okpaleke for a day or even a month as the people will not concede to that
arrangement.
They
believe that the insistence of Okpaleke and his supporters who are still
fighting, lobbying and bribing people to bring him to Mbaise even when the
people have vehemently rejected him is very suspicious as the most honorable
thing to have done in the circumstance would have been to resign to fate.
While
speaking to pressmen after the meeting, the president of the Ahiara catholic
priests’ association, Reverend Father Austin Ekechukwu emphasised that the
supporters of Okpaleke cannot say they are avoiding setting a wrong precedence
because Okpaleke from history and records is not the first person to be
rejected by the diocese he was prepared for. Arguing that bringing Okpaleke to
Mbaise as a matter of fact is the worst precedence since it is obvious that the
people do not want him.
Fr
Ekechukwu appealed to the Vatican not to heed to the pressure and ill advise of
Cardinal Arinze and his coconspirators to bring Okpaleke to Mbaise, which he
said will twist fairness and justice and also ridicule the pontificate who has
always emphasised on giving people pastors close to them as their shephards.
-Culled from the Guardian
Fr
Ekechukwu catecgorically told the Vatican that the catholic church in Mbaise
will be destroyed if Okpaleke is forced on the people as his regime will be characterized by high level fraud, tyrany and immorality since the
priests that are clamouring for him are all questionable and have lost the
confidence and trust of the people of the area.
He
also said that Okpaleke will run an administration of vendetta and impunity
adding that the people will not take such chances insisting that the people are
willing to forfeit the papal solicitude, which he said Arinze and his coconspirators promised will
be showered on the people only if Okpaleke is accepted.
Others
who spoke wondered what kind of papal solicitude that can justify and follow
the enthronement of injustice, humiliation, intimidation, marginalisation and
immorality in the diocese and expressed their disappointment that such a
misdeed was even done to Mbaise which is a major catholic block in not only
Nigeria but Africa at large and therefore warned the church leadership to be
careful in their decisions so as not to destroy Roman Catholicism in the Mbaise
and lose the over two million catholic faithful in area.
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They
appealed to the Vatican to avoid being lured into a terrible scandal by the
Arinze-led group by forcing Okpaleke on them even for a second insisting that
justice delayed is justice denied.
They
also wondered if the church leadership still recognises the principles of
‘salus animarum supremalex’, which means the salvation of souls is the supreme law of the church and appealed
to the Vatican to avoid making such a destroying mistake.
Analysts believe that the Vatican having studied the situation and facts
on ground will oblige Ndi
Mbaise with an indigenous bishop, as is being done in other dioceses in
agreement with the Pope’s emphasis on locals for bishopric appointments.
By Ugo Great
-Culled from the Guardian
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