The Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria, on Monday, has issued a statement supporting Pope Francis’s sanction meted out to the Ahiara Diocese, Imo State for rejecting Bishop Peter Okpalele posted to the area. The pope had warned the priests in Ahiara to accept Okpaleke, who was transferred to the diocese in 2012, or risk being suspended for disobedience.
Addressing the press at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, the laity council in a group’s statement, signed by its National President and Secretary-General, Messrs Chizoba Nnagboh and Anthony Idonin respectively, said, “On behalf of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria and indeed the teeming Catholic lay faithful in Nigeria, we wish to express our solidarity with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria on her position on the Ahiara imbroglio and to puritanically identify with the Holy Father, Pope Francis pronouncement on the issue. We call on the priests and lay faithful of Ahiara Diocese to religiously comply with the directive of the Holy Father, Pope Francis to accept Bishop Peter Okpaleke as their bishop.
“We are more stupefied by the fact that these utterances were coming from people who are well schooled in the teaching and doctrines of the Catholic Church. Is it not sad that priests of the Catholic Church could defy papal’s authority? We cannot profess to be catholic while our words and actions show the antithesis. The imbroglio in Ahiara Diocese, which is occasioned by the disobedience of some people in the diocese to obey the directive of the Holy Father to accept Bishop Peter Okpaleke as their bishop, has put us in a quagmire and shamed us before the world.
“The Mbaise people have brought the moral bar too low by their actions and so brought disgrace to everybody. The recent appointment, acceptance and peaceful installation of the Bishop of Ogoja who hails from Ikot Ekpene should be instructive enough to the Ahiara people. The teaching of the Catholic Church, richly documented in our myriad Catholic literature, is enough to sway any aggrieved members to the path of obedience of the Pope, the Vicar of Christ. Enough is enough!”
The post Catholic Laity of Nigeria reacts to crisis in Ahiara Diocese appeared first on Dawn-To-Dusk News.