AHIARA DIOCESE: WHEREIN LIES YOUR FAITH

THE BISHOP ELECT SAGA

AHIARA DIOCESE: WHEREIN LIES YOUR FAITH.

By - James Obiora Umenyi

My heart bleeds for the obvious flippancy and irreverence to the sacred things of life manifested with inglorious and reckless impunity in this calculated and well orchestrated campaign of calumny in an attemp by people or persons driven by ego, selfishness and rebelion to choose to give the dog a bad name inorder to kill it. As I write this, very many protests, insinuations, assumptions, accusations and counter accusations has been generated already and many more assumptions are on the way coming, since the episcopal appointment of Msgr Dr Peter Ebere Okpaleke as the Bishop-Elect of the Catholic Diocese of Ahiara by Pope Benedict XVI on the 7th day of December 2012. The most prominent among the whole allegations is that there is a gang up by Anambra or Awka Diocese to colonise Ahiara Diocese and indeed Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, other questions includes: why is a priest from mbaise not appointed for the Bishopric seat of Ahiara Diocese? What made Msgr Okpaleke a better candidate than priests from Mbaise. Insinuations also have it that Rtrd Cardinal Arinze used his position to influence the appointment of Msgr Okpaleke. That the ambassador of the Holy See to Nigeria, Papal Pro-nuncio is now a puppet of the gang up team. That Cardinal Onayekan and Arcbishop Obinna of Abuja & Owerri Arcdiocese respectively are also part of the gang up in the colonisation plan by Anambra and Awka Diocese. That indeed the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is also behind the colonisation plan. These insinuations are quite pathetic, unnecessary and Untrue. It is also regretable that a lot of people have been drawn into this unnecessary protest, those who do not know how episcopal appointments are made are now misled into believing that there is a foul play in the emergence of Msgr Okpaleke as the Bishop Elect. To the extent that traditional rulers and business men from mbaise now give ultimatums to the Church. My advice on the whole saga is for every party agrieved to tread with caution. The origin of this protest need to be traced before a few selfishish and rebelious individuals drag the whole Ahiara faithfuls into a sacrilegeous venture, who started the protest, if that is established, was their a connection between the bishop elect and that particular priest probably in their seminary days, there could be a posibilty of personal vendetta, since many of the mbaise priests may have passed through the same Bigard Ikot Ekpene and Enugu with Msgr Okpaleke, their may be acrued bitterness, hatred or unfounded fears of the person of Msgr Peter Ebere Okpaleke by his mbaise classmates. I believe no dust would have been raised if the Pope had appointed an Irish priest whom they know nothing about to be the Bishop of Ahiara Diocese. Having said that, I want to quickly remind the key players in this protest whether they are priests, religeous or laity to examine their conscience thoroughly and find out their real and true motive for embarking on this so much condemned protest. The scripture said in 1 Corinthians 10:12 - "he who thinks he is standing firm shoud be careful, lest he fall". Many of the priests involved in this protest need to review where their faith lies, sometimes one can be so vast in knowledge that he justifies almost everything he does without taking into cognisance the subtle manner the devil can use to crawl into their thoughts and eventually their actions. This type of protest if not for selfish reasons ought to be directed to the appropriate quaters and be ready to obidiently accept the decision thereafter. Ahiara Diocese is not the first in the series of Dioceses with a bishop from another diocese. As for the choice of Msgr Okpaleke for Ahiara Diocese, those protesting should remember that there is a spiritual dimension and reality in all of this, As humans we do not see how God sees, no one takes the honor upon himself if not annointed by God. As preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ought to work by faith not by sight, what is required in a Bishop of any Diocese is not an indigene or for privatisation of the church, but a good shephard in the manner of the master Jesus who is ready to lay down his life for his sheep, whether they are his worldly kinsmen or not. Let those priests from mbaise who protest today remember that tomorrow they may be appointed bishops for another diocese as the church may deem necessary, are they now saying that they will not accept to work elsewhere? This protest is wrong, pathetic, rebellious and unnecesary and those who are preparing for a confrontation on the day of ordination should better save their breath, its uncalled for, the agitations is already noted and registered in the mind of the church, the new bishop is not going to be there forever.. and the agitation will not be achieved by confrontation but by proper dialogue and meaningful deliberations. The faithfuls in Ahiara need not be dragged into a non-existing but wrongly assumed church politics. It will impact negatively on their faith and good works. All that is required of those agrieved is to be patient, continue in prayers and wait for God to take over the affairs of the 'church in the diocese of Ahiara irrespective of the instrument He uses to do that.
Wisdom is said to consist in knowing no where to stop, those who think they know it all should remember the words of king solomon when he refered to all the toils in this earthly life as Vanity and like chasing the wind.
I will also advice the faithfuls in Ahiara not to follow the multitude to do what is wrong. This incidents in Ahiara can be liked to the incidents in the bible. If we remember the case of Pharoah of Egypt, many joined the Israelites in their exit from Egypt not necessary because they are ready to serve the God of the Israelites, but because they were captivated by the mighty hand their God used to free them from Pharoah, some of the people in the multitude that left Egypt with the Israelites were actually the people who defiled their camps with all manner of dirty, evil, idolatery and rebellious activities, thereby bringing the wrath of God upon the Israelites in the wilderness to the extent that very many of them died in the widerness without reaching the promised land. There is no doubt that those that champion this protest are just doing that for their own selfish reason and not for the interest of the Catholoic Church in Ahiara Diocese. The catholics in Ahiara need to rise up and defend their faith which is going through an unwarranted crisis due to the machinations of these "Achans" in Ahiara diocese. The Catholic Church is known by almost everyone to be a Universal Church and can never be dominated by any group of people. The cry of a gang up is a pure and calculated lie to generate support from the unsuspecting faithfuls of Ahiara Diocese and their well wishers. Many people are no doubt in this "protest" with little or no knowledge of how episcopal appointments are made and they all go out to the extreme in their methods of protests, forgeting that the church is more like a univesal family, which can disagree to agree. Moreso it is bothering more on faith and obedience than territorial politics. There is nothing like a righteous disobidience. Let everyone come together and plan how to support the new bishop to move Ahiara Diocese positively forward. While we all pray for a better days fo the priests and faithfuls of Ahiara.. Peace! To All..