A priest from the diocese of Ahiara in Nigeria has disclosed the contents of a letter he wrote to Pope Francis, and the Pope’s reply, following the threat made four months ago by Pope Francis that the cleric, along with more than 100 other diocesan priests, would be suspended if they did not accept their new bishop.
In 2012 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke to the southern Nigerian diocese. Priests boycotted the appointment claiming it was part of a conspiracy to oppress the people of Ahiara, especially its dominant Mbaise linguistic group. On 8 June Pope Francis gave the priests a 30-day deadline to apologise to him in writing, and accept the bishop or be suspended.
Fr Ben Ogu from Ahiara shared his letter of apology, and the one he received back from the Vatican, with the US Catholic website, Crux.
“In my letter, supposedly written personally to the Pope, I expressed all my honest feelings of disgust about the imposed bishop and my inability to accept, cooperate and work with him in my Christian conscience,” he told Crux.
However, Fr Ogu complained, his letter was taken as support for Bishop Okpaleke, and he was now being “forced” to accept him.
Fr Ogu said he received a reply from Cardinal Fernando Filoni on behalf of the Pope thanking him for “reaffirming” his “undoubted total loyalty and obedience”.
It is not yet known whether Bishop Okpaleke will be able to visit the diocese, or whether any priests will be suspended.
Meanwhile Nigeria’s Catholic Bishops have condemned as “shameful” calls for Nigeria's break up. According to the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, a lack of social justice is responsible for current ethnic tensions. “This is not the way out” he told a plenary gathering of around 55 bishops on 10 September. “The way out is to correct the level of injustice that has been done to minority ethnic nationalities in the country”. The agitation has been led by several pro-Biafra groups who feel Nigeria’s southeastern region, that fought a bitter secessionist war in 1967-70, has been politically marginalised.
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