AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …3 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Preface: Eve of Ahiara Diocese crisis ... [iii]

The Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Archbishop Augustine Kasujja, would visit Ahiara Diocese on March 31, 2012, at the instance of the great couple from Mbaise, Professor Celestine Onyemobi Elihe and Professor [Mrs.] Viola Adaku Onwuliri, Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri and his wife. Though the occasion was very grand and the entire diocese went agog as a result of it, it yielded nothing concrete on the hopes and anxieties of the bereaved diocese regarding the long-awaited announcement of their new bishop.

Unfortunately, the Nuncio hardly recognized or appreciated the fact that the entire diocese was watching every movement of his lips, to see whether such could bring an end to their long stress and anxiety over the fact that they were still without a bishop for nearly two years since their former bishop passed away. Archbishop Kasujja would conclude his visit to the diocese without any information as to how far the search for the new bishop of the diocese had gone, or how far it would still go before reaching a resolution. In fact, his visit would leave the entire diocese much more confused than ever before.

Because the visit of the Nuncio failed to produce any announcement of the new bishop for Ahiara Diocese, the people looked forward to the three landmark events that were coming in quick successions that year in Owerri Province as the possible dates one of which must produce a new bishop for the diocese. These dates were all related to the centenary celebration of the Coming of the Catholic Church in Owerri Province. The first was the kickoff of the celebration of the centenary on July 16, 2012. Many in Ahiara Diocese surmised and were betting that the gathering of the entire province to celebrate the great event of the coming of the Catholic Church to the heartland Igbo area in 1912 might be the most auspicious date to announce the new bishop of the diocese.

The second event would be the local celebration of the same centenary in Ahiara Diocese in late August and early September of 2012. Not a few people believed that if there was no announcement on July 16, 2012, there would surely be one on the day Ahiara Diocese would be celebrating the centenary locally in their diocese. A good number of Ahiara diocesan faithful had believed that the Holy Father might want to use the occasion of the local celebration of the centenary to surprise the people of Ahiara Diocese with an announcement of their new bishop.

And should the expected announcement fail to materialize, the people believed that the Grand finale of the Provincial Centenary between November 4 -10 2012 would most certainly do it for Ahiara Diocese. There was a rare unanimity that the announcement of the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese would never go beyond the grand finale of the provincial celebration of centenary in early November of 2012. All eyes were therefore turned towards these dates as the entire diocese waited anxiously for the announcement of her new bishop.

Unfortunately for the already heartbroken dioces,e another tragedy would strike in the diocese in early June of 2012. Professor Celestine Onyemobi Elihe Onwuliri, the legendary Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and one of the lay pillars of Mbaise Catholicism, died in a tragic plane crash on June 3, 2012. Suddenly the Onwuliri family that had worked very hard to ensure that the bereaved diocese took off properly with a new bishop was thrown into deep mourning as a result of the tragic loss. This monumental loss of one of the most illustrious sons of the diocese which happened almost two years after the loss of Bishop Victor Adibe Chikwe brought the traumatic memory of tragedy back to the consciousness of Mbaise people. Ordinary folks could not but entertain the question: what Mbaise people had done to deserve such a double tragedy in a quick succession?

The first two centenary dates would sprint past quickly without any announcement of a bishop for the people of Mbaise land. Many people began to wonder what was happening in Rome that was preventing the Holy Father from naming a new bishop for Ahiara Diocese. The anxiety of the people began to approach a fever pitch. Every Catholic and even non-Catholics in Mbaise land began to be restless about the situation. Not a few people began to suspect that there was something happening in Rome regarding the bishopric of Ahiara Diocese that might not augur well for the future of the diocese.

Meanwhile prayer for the appointment of the new bishop continued to pour forth in all the Churches in Ahiara Diocese. As the announcement became delayed, it made many people intensify both their public and private prayers for the appointment of the new bishop of the diocese. In each session of the Prayer of the Faithful during Masses in the diocese, people would pour out their stressful anxiety of living without a bishop for that length of time. They pleaded with God to quickly answer their prayers in that regard.

As the month of November 2012 gradually approached, which would bring about the celebration of the Grand Finale of the Centenary in Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, the people of Ahiara Diocese became much more anxious. Not a few believed that their salvation was close at hand. Nearly everybody believed that one way or the other the issue of the new bishop for Ahiara Diocese would be resolved during the Grand Finale of the Centenary celebration. As a result, many were anxiously happy that the nightmare of living without a bishop for more than two years would be over after the grand finale celebration. Many would see the celebration of the centenary grand finale as the last hope for Ahiara Diocese. As a result, everybody looked forward to the centenary event that was slated to gather together the entire Catholic faithful in the six dioceses of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province at the arena of Assumpta Cathedral Owerri for one full week packed with centenary-marking activities.

Moreover, the representative of the Holy Father who was billed to grace the occasion was no other person than Fernando Cardinal Filoni, the powerful Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of People; a body that is usually charged with the appointments of bishops in Mission Countries which Nigeria is a member. The conviction of many in both Ahiara Diocese and beyond was that there was no way Cardinal Filoni who is the final bus stop in the processes that appoint new bishops for mission countries would come to the grand finale of the occasion empty-handed. The calculus was that Cardinal Filoni was bound to come to the occasion with some good and cheery news in recognition of the marvellous accomplishment of the Catholic Church in the Province within the last 100 years. So nearly everybody was betting that the good news the Prefect was most likely to bring to the people of the Province in general and Ahiara Diocese in particular was the announcement of their new bishop.

Finally, Cardinal Filoni arrived in Nigeria amid pomp and pageantry to represent the Holy Father on the centenary occasion. The level of excitement was unbelievable and the decibel level of joyful noise for the centenary grand finale reached unprecedented heights. As the Cardinal bestrode the entire diocese, everybody, in both the diocese and the province, was watching every one of his footsteps. Not a few wanted to know what the Cardinal was up to as he traversed from one celebration to another. Somehow everybody appeared to take it for granted that the main work the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples had come to perform at that Centenary Grand Finale was to announce the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese and then draw the curtain for the Owerri Provincial Centenary of 2012.

But it would not be long before some people began to suspect that there was some abnormal things going on between the Nigerian bishops attending the Centenary Grand Finale and Cardinal Filoni. People who were observing the facial expressions of the Cardinal, and there were many who were doing just that, tended to reach a quick conclusion that he was not quite happy with his participation at the occasion. He appeared irritable many a time. Any little thing ticked him off. The triumphal joy he had come celebrate with the people of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province could not be found in his face. Many thought that something was wrong with him; that he was not being happy with whatever was disturbing him. But a few others excused him with the claim that his face represented that of typical Europeans who are not quite expressive on their faces. Such people argued that the Cardinal’s face was that of a stoic philosopher who would not give anything away through facial expressions.

Meanwhile, the long wait for the announcement during the centenary grand finale continued. Ahiara Diocesan faithful who had filled the arena of the celebration with the hope of hearing first the name of their new bishop pronounced by the Cardinal Prefect from the Vatican Dicastry of Propaganda Fide would continue to keep vigil for the announcement until the last day of the celebration which was November 10, 2012. Immediately Cardinal Filoni declared the celebration of the Centenary of the Coming of the Catholic Church in Owerri Province closed on that November 10, anger and frustration descended on the people of Ahiara Diocese.

Many would express their frustration over the delay in announcing a new bishop for Ahiara Diocese in many different ways. Some thought that the delay was a high-stakes and very dangerous game being played at the Vatican for whatever reason that would not ultimately be beneficial to the Catholic Church in Nigeria and to Ahiara Diocese in particular. A few among the elite of Ahiara Diocese began to conjure up the horrendous scenario of having to fight for the soul of the diocese all over again. Many murmured that if Rome got the appointment of a bishop for Ahiara Diocese wrong there would be a replay of the 1970s and 80s epic battles to reclaim and preserve the unique soul of the Catholic Church in Ahiara Diocese. A few others who were not a part of the pro-Mbaise Diocese battles of the 1970s and 1980s intensified their prayers that the delay may not result in incidents that would bring down the highflying Catholic Church in Mbaise land.

As the disappointment of the people of Ahiara Diocese over the non-announcement of their new bishop during that centenary reached a crescendo, rumors and speculations took over the centre stage in the diocese. There were rumors about how the bishops of Nigeria were literally fighting with the Cardinal about the bishopric candidate that would best suit the people of Ahiara Diocese. According to this strand of the many rumors, it was this disagreement that made Cardinal Filoni unhappy all through the celebration. According to this rumor, the Cardinal came with a certain name in mind which many among the Nigerian bishops vehemently opposed. As a result, the Cardinal and the Nigerian bishops could not reach any agreement before the former would close the centenary celebration on November 10, 2012 and rush back to Rome on the same day.

A situation of grave uncertainty would hang very low in Ahiara Diocese throughout the remainder of November 2012. Nobody knew what to expect from the Holy Father at the Vatican. Prayers were intensified throughout the diocese. All sodalities and religious organizations were encouraged to intensify their prayers for a new bishop to be appointed in Ahiara Diocese. The situation was absolutely surreal. People did not know who to ask why there had been no bishop named for the diocese.

Lay people in parishes asked their parish priests about when to expect their new bishop, and the parish priests in turn would ask the administrator who usually feigned ignorance of whatever was happening in Rome with regard to the appointment of the bishop of the diocese. However, the administrator would encourage everybody to pray harder for the resolution of the problem. Information regarding the appointment of the new bishop of Ahiara Diocese was completely lacking to the frustration of everybody in Ahiara Diocese and beyond.

At the end of November 2012, the priests of Ahiara Diocese ordained in 1987 traveled to Enugu Diocese to join their counterparts for the celebration of the Silver Jubilee of their priestly ordination hosted by their classmate, Bishop Callistus Onaga, the Bishop of Enugu Diocese. The programme of the Silver Jubilee celebration indicated that it would start with a two-day retreat to be moderated by a retired bishop who was one their rectors in the major seminary. About ten minutes before the final retreat on November 30, the retreat moderator raised his voice and began unleashing some critical comments against the Pope. The retreat moderator was one of the most loyal bishops in Nigeria. But on that final day of the retreat for the Bigard 1987 priests his gloves were off and he began unleashing and railing on the Holy Father for what he described as poor administration and management of the affairs of the Catholic Church.

Everybody listening to this Bishop Emeritus was shocked as his comments were out of character. He was not somebody who would criticize any church authority publicly. He was thought to be loyal and deferential to a fault. He showed absolute loyalty to all the popes he had met in his priestly ministry from John XXIII to Benedict XVI. But that day was different. He was railing and showing visible anger. He could not hold back anything. He was damn angry. The bishop emeritus kept going and going with nobody making any meaning out of what he was railing about against the Pope. He would suddenly stop and close his conference note book. Then he looked at the people in the audience who had been enduring all his railing for a while and said: “My brothers, pray for the people of Ahiara Diocese.”

Many were shocked by the comments of this bishop on November 30, 2012. But for those of us from Ahiara Diocese, it was a bad omen. It meant that something terrible was about to happen to our beloved diocese. But whatever it was we did not know then. It would take another seven days for what the bishop emeritus was lamenting about to appear fully visible in Ahiara Diocese. And since that day, the diocese has been embroiled in a big bishopric crisis.

To be continued ....