AHIARA DIOCESE CRISIS: THE UNTOLD STORIES…15

Closed-Door Meetings

The other significant issues preceding the date of the inauguration happened behind closed doors, especially in the secret discussions between the old and the new bishop.These would not be known immediately.But as the years went by, some aspects of their secret discussions in the days leading to the installation and inauguration became a matter for group discussion among priests.

The first issue of discussion among the two bishops hinged on whether there was any asset to be shared between Owerri and the new diocese of Ahiara.It was learned that Bishop Unegbu dismissed any demand for asset sharing between the two dioceses.According to sources who knew a little about what transpired between the two bishops, during their secret discussions, Bishop Unegbu allegedly pointed to the territory of Mbaise land and her numerous Catholics as the asset allotted to the new diocese and her bishop.

However, the real issue that attracted the greatest heat in the days leading to the inauguration of Ahiara Diocese was the fate of Mbaise priests who were incardinated into Owerri Diocese.Long before the ordination of Bishop Chikwe in Rome, Owerri Diocese had decided in a blatant contravention of the Canon Law that all Mbaise priests incardinated into Owerri Diocese would have to return to their home Diocese of Ahiara. This was a kind of a bombshell nobody was expecting. All through December 1987, this unpublished decree of Bishop Unegbu would generate a lot of discussion and in fact confusion.The main topic of discussion at that period was what would happen to Mbaise priests who were incardinated into Owerri Diocese.It did not take long before the fears of everybody would be realized.Bishop Unegbu decreed that all Mbaise priests in Owerri Diocese would have to be bundled back to Mbaise land.

Bishop Unegbu’s strange decree concerning Mbaise priests incardinated into Owerri Diocese created lots of confusion.It meant that the new diocese with only eighteen [18] parishes would have to find accommodation and apostolate for the eighty [80] priests resident in Nigeria who would immediately return from Owerri Diocese to Mbaise land following the inauguration of Ahiara Diocese. The heat and bad blood generated by this policy was enormous. It eventually got into the hearing of the powers-that-be in Rome that Mbaise priests who were incardinated into Owerri Diocese were being driven away from their diocese of incardination into the new diocese.This did not go down well with the officials of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

When the new bishop returned to Owerri Diocese to prepare for this installation on January 31, 1988, he allegedly raised the issue of the fate of Mbaise priests incardinated into Owerri Diocese in his secret discussions with Bishop Unegbu. According to sources familiar with what transpired between the two bishops, Bishop Unegbu allegedly took umbrage at the fact that it had been reported to Rome that he was expelling Mbaise priests from their diocese of incardination.But he allegedly stuck to his gun that he would only accept a few priests from Mbaise to remain in Owerri Diocese after the installation. Even though Bishop Unegbu’s reformed decree was still a flagrant contravention of the Canon Law, Bishop Chikwe resigned himself to it and braced to accommodate as many Mbaise priests as possible that would be returning from Owerri Diocese after his installation and the inauguration of the diocese.

Shortly after the secret discussion between the two bishops, it was announced that any Mbaise priests of Owerri Diocese who wanted to continue serving as a priest of Owerri Diocese after the installation and inauguration would have to apply.Once again, this was a blatant contravention of the Canon Law.But whenever it came to treating matters relating to Mbaise priests the Canon Law was usually set aside.We would learn that about 32 [thirty two] Mbaise priests turned in their applications to remain and continue serving as priests of Owerri Diocese.

The sheer volume of the applications from Mbaise priests wanting to remain in Owerri Diocese prompted Bishop Unegbu to set up a special committee of senior priests of Owerri Diocese to vet those applications and make recommendations of those to be chosen to remain. After vetting the applications, the special committee recommended to Bishop Unegbu the names of ten [10] priests of Mbaise origin they wished should be allowed to remain in Owerri Diocese as a part of their Presbyterium.The remaining twenty two [22] priests who had applied to remain were left in a lurch without any explanation.Their incardination into Owerri Diocese was cancelled by the fiat of Bishop Unegbu.

This is how unjustly Mbaise priests and lay faithful have continued to be treated in Igbo Catholicism. It is a self-evident fact that Igbo Catholicism has been largely unfair to the people of Mbaise.It is this injustice, this persistent injustice that is at the root of the current bishopric crisis in Ahiara Diocese.There is a limit to the injustice a people could tolerate. Go and ask the people of Latin America!

To be continued ….