AHIARA DIOCESE IN CROSSHAIRS: THE REAL STORIES …39 [EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK IN PRINT]

Chapter 15: Catastrophe Averted! [ii]

While preparations to prevent any invasion were in top gear, crisis was building elsewhere. Around Friday, May 10, a few days before they would depart for their weeklong retreat in Abuja, the bishops of the province held an emergency meeting in Villa Assumpta, Owerri, with the administrator of Ahiara Diocese, Msgr. Theo Nwalo. In that meeting they agreed to go ahead with the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke in Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral Ahiara on the scheduled date in spite of the protestation and rejection of the event by the priests and laity of Ahiara Diocese. At the conclusion of their meeting, the bishops sent Msgr. Nwalo to announce their decision to the priests and laity of the diocese.

On Monday, May 13, the administrator, Msgr. Nwalo called an emergency meeting of Ahiara Diocesan Presbyterium. During that meeting he announced that they, meaning the bishops of the province and he, the administrator of Ahiara Diocese, had agreed that the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke would go ahead in Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral Ahiara as scheduled.

At the instance of the announcement there was a deafening uproar among the priests present. Most of the priests in the audience were distraught and started shouting that the administrator had sold out. Some threatened to walk out on the administrator and the other priests. There would be such tension and anger among the priests that I began to think that the unthinkable might happen, that is, Ahiara Diocesan priests breaking out into a free-for-all fight. The whole situation was degenerating into a chaos.

However, when a little calm was re-established the administrator was asked to clarify what the announcement meant. He repeated that the bishops of the province and he himself had come to an agreement that in spite of the objection of the priests and laity of Ahiara diocese, the ordination would have to go ahead as planned. The administrator was asked whether he agreed with the decision of the provincial bishops. He said that he was a part of the decision-making group.

As a result of his statement that he was a part of the decision to go ahead with the ordination of the bishop-elect, Msgr. Nwalo would be vigorously challenged on where he got the authority to enter into such an agreement on behalf of the diocese. He was reminded that as an administrator of the diocese and not her bishop, his duty was limited to getting bits and pieces of information from the bishops and passing them on to the diocese. He was told that he was not authorized by canon law to make any decision on behalf of the diocese without the prior knowledge, agreement and authority of the College of Consultors.

The administrator would be criticized for thinking that he had any independent authority outside what he enjoyed as a member of the College of Consultors. The priests would become so distressed with the administrator’s admission of complicity with the provincial bishops to go ahead with the ordination. For his capitulation to the bishops of the province on the issue of the ordination, the administrator was being called all sorts of names. He was accused of having sold out to the bishops and the Okpalaeke group.

From the priests present at the meeting the information would get to the youths manning the gates of the cathedral. They were told that the administrator had sold out and cut a private deal with the bishops to stage the ordination at the cathedral in spite of the resistance. When Ahiara Diocesan youths learned of what had happened, they vowed never to take any further orders from the priests and the administrator. They seized the Cathedral gates completely refusing or restricting access into the Cathedral compound. The whole situation transformed from just being tense to being utterly anarchic and dangerous. The youths amassed their weapons for a big fight. They would completely block the gate of the cathedral to the extent that they no longer allowed Ahiara Diocesan priests to hold their meetings in the cathedral compound. The priests were directed to relocate their venue for any future meetings to St Brigid’s Church, Nnarambia.

Having lost trust in the administrator as a result of the secret meeting in which he apparently caved in to the demands of the provincial bishops, the priests decided to strike out on their own so as to chart strategies of forestalling the ordination on May 21. First, the Caucus considered many options on how to provide a permanent blockade to the cathedral gate before the day of the ordination. It was agreed that some trailer loads of big and hard stones be ordered and tipped in front of the gate to permanently block off easy access to the Cathedral compound. Second, the issue of forming a human shield was re-emphasized. All the priests of the diocese were asked to sensitize their parishioners very well so that on May 21 they would troop out en masse to form a human shield at the gates of the cathedral.

As the diocese remained tensed and uncertain, the Nigerian bishops were huddled in their retreat in Abuja. Some priests of the diocese were put on standby in case Cardinal Onaiyekan might require them to fly into Abuja to begin the dialogue with the bishops that he had promised to organize. All eyes would be on Abuja as the bishops deliberated on what to do in Ahiara in a matter of a week’s time. Back home some of us who were completely averse to any form of conflict on the bishopric crisis were hoping and praying that the bishops better come out with a way out from the potentially catastrophic situation.

Around Tuesday evening of May 14, the chancellor sent out a message requiring every priest to be present at St Brigid’s Church hall the next day for there were visitors coming from Abuja to address them. Later on it would be made clear that rather than have some priests travel to Abuja to make the case for Ahiara Diocese that the CBCN had chosen to send some of their leaders to come and meet with the Presbyterium of the diocese. There was some guarded excitement that the visit of the leaders of CBCN might provide the needed breakthrough that would dissipate the dangerous cloud.

By 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 15, the whole priests of Ahiara Diocese had all gathered in the hall of St Brigid’s Church, Nnarambia, Ahiara. Then the long wait for the arrival of the bishops would begin.

However, as the CBCN officials were being awaited, a big drama was taking place around Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral. The youths of Ahiara Diocese, having fortified the entire compound of the Cathedral and the diocesan secretariat, restricted completely access to the place. On learning that the CBCN leaders were on their way from Abuja to visit the place, the youths doubled all their fortification of the place and started to chant war songs. The whole cathedral compound was turned into a war zone.

To make sure that they communicated a strong message to the visitors who were on their way, the youths on their own brought in a mock casket and put it in front of the Cathedral gate. They inscribed on it, “RIP,” perhaps to communicate a strong message that the confrontation that would ensue if the bishops chose to come to Ahiara Diocese on May 21 for the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke would be deadly. And with the coffin lying in front of Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral, the whole atmosphere changed completely. Nobody was under any illusion that the crisis had entered into a very dangerous phase.

When information was brought to the priests at St Brigid’s that the youths had blocked the Cathedral gate with a casket, there was agitation all over the place. Many insisted that the youths had gone too far and must be prevailed upon to remove it, while an equally good number of priests believed that the situation was a result of the youths of the diocese having lost confidence in both the priests and the administrator had decided to go wild and take no orders from anybody. For this school of thought, it might be necessary to let the casket stay put at the cathedral gate so that the CBCN bishops would see for themselves what Ahiara Diocese had turned into with the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as her bishop-elect.

The presence of the casket at the Cathedral gate would generate lots of argument among the priests gathered at St Brigid’s Church compound. At issue was whether to allow the casket symbolism there for the visiting bishops to see or to remove it and save the diocese any further embarrassment. Opinion was sharply divided. After lots of argument, the chairman of the indigenous priests association, Fr Austin Ben Ekechukwu and Fr Celestine Anyanwu decided on prevailing on the youths to remove the casket from the cathedral gate. Before they would get there from St Brigid’s Church, some newsmen had already taken numerous pictures of the casket lying at the gate of Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral. However the duo would succeed in convincing the youths to remove the casket from the gate of the Cathedral.

Meanwhile, the bishops arriving from Abuja were still being awaited at St Brigid’s. Some information would reach the priests at St Brigid’s that the visitors had already arrived at the Imo Airport but were on their way to Villa Assumpta, Owerri, to confer with Archbishop Obinna. As it would turn out, they not only visited with Archbishop Obinna, they also paid a courtesy call on the governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha. They were said to have done other businesses concerning the victims of Oguta flood disasters.

Eventually, they were on their way to Ahiara Diocese alongside their host, Archbishop Obinna. But as they approached the Fire Service Station Owerri, Archbishop Obinna made a call to Msgr. Nwalo to find out what the situation was like. He was told that the situation around the Cathedral was very tense as some rioting youths had placed a casket in front of the Cathedral gate. Immediately Archbishop Obinna heard of the disorderly conduct of the youths and the fact that they had introduced a casket at the gate to the cathedral, he allegedly disembarked from the vehicle conveying the visitors and himself to Ahiara Diocese. He was said to have told the Abuja visitors that he would not continue the journey to Ahiara Diocese as the youths might take out their anger on him.

Meanwhile, the four visitors from Abuja, namely, the CBCN president, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop Adewole Martins of Lagos and Archbishop Joseph Ekuwem of Calabar would continue their journey to Ahiara Diocese with lots of anxiety. They did not know how they were going to be received. Unfortunately, on arriving at the gate to the cathedral, they faced the same restrictions the youths of Ahiara Diocese had put in place there. They were sight-searched by the youths and the vehicles conveying them peeped into without due courtesies and respect.

But the four visitors would not see any casket as it had been removed from the place after some pleading by the leaders of Ahiara Diocesan Priests’ Caucus. Nonetheless, the Abuja visitors would be very uncomfortable with the way the youths of Ahiara Diocese treated them at the gate of Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral that they would later on protest to the priests when they addressed them. Archbishop Kaigama would complain quite bitterly how the youths manning the gates to the cathedral had treated them at the gate as if they were pagans trespassing into the Cathedral compound.

After a brief discussion with the administrator, the four visitors from Abuja were brought to St Brigid’s Church where Ahiara Diocesan priests were waiting to hear from them. Speaking on their behalf, the president of CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama of Jos took exception to the way they had been treated at the Cathedral gate by the youths of Ahiara Diocese. He said that they had been disrespected by the youths. But he also expressed relief that they had not seen any caskets at the gate as had been alleged and publicized. Also, he was grateful to the priests for being in “good order” as they waited for the group to arrive.

In his opening remarks, the president of the CBCN said he had only two points to make after which they would quickly head back to Abuja to continue with their retreat. He said that their flying in all the way from Abuja and their breaking their retreat to visit Ahiara Diocese at that point in time showed how seriously the bishops of Nigeria were looking at the situation in the diocese. According to him, what was happening in the diocese was giving all the bishops of Nigeria sleepless nights.

Archbishop Kaigama noted that they had come to make two points before Ahiara Diocesan Presbyterium. First, he said that he wanted to make it abundantly clear to the priests and laity of Ahiara Diocese that it was not the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria that had imposed the bishop-elect, Msgr. Okpalaeke on the diocese. He noted quite strongly that contrary to the erroneous information being circulated all over the place, the CBCN does not impose any bishop on any diocese and had not done so in the case of Ahiara Diocese.

Second, Archbishop Kaigama told Ahiara Diocesan Presbyterium that the first time he heard the name, “Peter Ebere Okpalaeke” in all of his life both as a priest and as a bishop was on December 7, 2012, when the bishop elect was announced as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese. He said that prior to that day he had not heard of the name before. Archbishop Kaigama would repeat this claim a number of times before the end of the short session.

After making his promised two points, Archbishop Kaigama sat down and no other member of the visiting bishops spoke again. The diocese invited Msgr. Okoro to give the vote of thanks after which the meeting broke up. Thereafter, the bishops were driven back to Owerri from where they would catch their flight back to Abuja.

But Archbishop Kaigama’s declaration before Ahiara Diocesan Presbyterium gathered at St Brigid’s Church hall on May 15, 2013, would cause such a ruckus among the priests. For the first time since the beginning of the crisis, the priests would hear from the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria that he himself had not been consulted in the process that produced Msgr. Okpalaeke as the bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese. The canonical process for selecting bishops makes it very clear and even mandatory that the president of the national Episcopal conference and the metropolitan of the particular metropolitan see must be consulted in the selection of a bishop in his region and territory.

And with Archbishop Kaigama coming out openly to declare that he had not been consulted, the conclusion became quite easy for the priests of Ahiara Diocese that the canonical process that produced Msgr. Okpalaeke had been warped, compromised and therefore was flawed through and through. However, Archbishop Kaigama’s confession came on the heels of the numerous other confessions made by his counterpart of Owerri Province, Most Rev AJV Obinna that he had not been consulted either, or that his views on the selection had been completely ignored. Also, there was a lot of rumour that Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev Valerian Okeke had complained privately that his advice to the apostolic Nuncio on the filling of the Episcopal See of Ahiara Diocese had been completely ignored.

As these facts sank in with the priests of Ahiara Diocese, it incensed them more and more. It was noted that the absence of consultation with the relevant authorities in the process that produced a bishop for Ahiara Diocese completely vitiated the process and perhaps delegitimized the bishop-elect. According to this line of reasoning, since the checks and balances put in place by the canon law to ensure a fair appointment of credible candidates for the bishopric were abandoned in the case of Ahiara Diocese, it meant that due process was abandoned and injustice inflicted on the people of Ahiara Diocese. In other words, the process that produced Okpalaeke as bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese was mortally flawed and irredeemable, at least from the point of view of Ahiara Diocesan priests and laity.

The reasoning was that since Msgr. Okpalaeke came by way of a flawed and compromised canonical process, his candidacy could not be considered legitimate. A flawed process, the argument insisted, could never have produced a legitimate bishop for the diocese of Ahiara. That was the conclusion many priests would draw from the visit of the representatives of the CBCN. Many priests started to beat their chests saying to themselves, “So, this is what happened to us in Ahiara Diocese?” “These people chose to give us a bishop through an illegitimate process?”

Not a few priests began to wax spiritual and claiming that it had been through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the fight against the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as their bishop had begun. The truth, according to them, was that Msgr. Okpalaeke had been a product of a compromised process, a process that neglected to touch bases with those the Canon Law mandated to be consulted before the announcement of a new bishop would be made.

When the four bishops on a visit to Ahiara Diocese returned to their retreat house in Abuja, there began a marathon meeting among the bishops in Abuja on the crisis in Ahiara Diocese that would last well into the wee hours of Thursday morning. As people who participated in the meeting would report, the crisis in Ahiara Diocese would become such a contentious issue among the bishops of Nigeria that at times during the meeting tempters flared up.

While many bishops especially the younger ones demanded that they fight their way into Ahiara Diocese to get Msgr. Okpalaeke ordained bishop of the diocese, the elderly ones especially, and those who had visited Ahiara Diocese on that day, cautioned their colleagues to appreciate the fact that the situation in the diocese was volatile and dangerous. This group would be of the opinion that the ordination be postponed for some time to allow frayed nerves to calm down.

According to some people who had knowledge of what transpired among the Nigerian bishops that night, the CBCN bishops would divide into two unequal factions. While majority had wanted the ordination suspended, about two senior ones insisted on the ordination going ahead. Francis Cardinal Arinze, the retreat coordinator and preacher, allegedly advised that the ordination be allowed to go on as planned. He advised the metropolitan of Owerri Province, Archibishop AJV Obinna to discharge his responsibility by ensuring that the bishop-elect got ordained and installed as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese.

On his own part, allegedly Archbishop Obinna was strongly on the side of having the ordination go ahead. According to the people he confided in, he allegedly shared with his colleagues in Abuja his conversation with Pope Francis during his recent visit to the Holy See. According to report, while Archbishop Obinna was in Rome he had had a breakfast discussion with His Holiness, Pope Francis, on the Ahiara crisis. According to those with some knowledge of what happened, the archbishop related to the bishops that the Holy Father had advised him personally to ensure that the bishop-elect was ordained as quickly as possible. After his ordination, the Holy Father was quoted as saying that an effort should be made to reconcile him with Ahiara Diocese. But where that one did not work, the new bishop might be given a new assignment either in Nigeria or somewhere else, the pope was said to have declared.

With the request and assurance from Archbishop Obinna, the Nigerian bishops would decide to hold the ordination. But the problem was where to hold the ordination since Ahiara Diocese was so dangerous that no sane person could afford to confront the war-poised Mbaise youths standing perpetual sentry around Maria Mater Ecclesiae Cathedral. A suggestion to use the cathedral of one of the proximate dioceses in the province was roundly turned down by all. Even Assumpta Cathedral of the Owerri Archdiocese, the headquarters of the province was taken off the table in the search for a Church to host the ordination. The official reason given for the unavailability of Assumpta Cathedral was that the whole facility was undergoing a massive renovation. The roof was torn down resulting in old woods and debris scattering all over the place.

However, the main reason for ruling out any Church in Owerri Archdiocese as a possible venue for hosting the ordination was that the Owerri Archdiocesan priests had been threatening a war should there be any attempt to use Assumpta Cathedral or any other Church in the archdiocese as the venue for the ordination of the rejected bishop. Owerri Archdiocesan priests like most of their counterparts from the four other dioceses of the province had been in sympathy with Ahiara Diocese since the crisis broke out.

Up to 95% of the priests in Owerri Province gave unequivocal support to the rejection of the appointment of Msgr. Okpalaeke as the bishop of Ahiara Diocese and the resistance embarked upon by Ahiara Diocesan priests. There was a consensus among priests and bishops of Owerri Province that by appointing Msgr. Okpalaeke as the bishop-elect of Ahiara Diocese, Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province that had earlier provided bishops for Aba and Okigwe Dioceses was unjustly overreaching and must therefore be resisted. So, when there was a suggestion that the ordination might be held in one of the neighbouring dioceses in Owerri Province, the priests of the diocese warned of dire consequences should such attempts be made.

There was always a long-standing threat that the ordination would be greeted with protests and disruptions should there be any attempt to hold it in any other diocese outside Ahiara Diocese. Even before the bishops of Owerri Province left for their retreat in Abuja they had been amply warned that they should not cave in to the demands to host the ordination of a rejected bishop in their different dioceses. That would be why during the night of the marathon meeting of the CBCN in Abuja, any diocese that was suggested to host the Episcopal ordination immediately turned it down for fear of inciting her priests against their bishops.

Not knowing what else to do so as to carry out their decision to go ahead with the ordination in spite of the protests, the bishops of CBCN made one of the greatest decisions of their bishopric by choosing to hold the Episcopal ordination in the chapel of the provincial seminary, Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo, Owerri, on the scheduled date of Tuesday, May 21, 2013. This was a landmark decision, a time-bomb defusing decision that would both save innocent lives and preserve the reputation of the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

At the middle of the night on that Thursday, May 16, 2013, Bishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji made a frantic phone call to the Rector of Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo, Very Rev. Jude Uzochukwu Njoku, informing him that his seminary chapel had been chosen to host the ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke on Tuesday May 21, 2013. Bishop Ugorji urged Fr Njoku to start immediately to prepare for the Episcopal ordination of Msgr. Okpalaeke on the scheduled date of Tuesday, May 21. And from Seat of Wisdom Seminary staff words started to circulate throughout Owerri province early that morning of Friday, May 17, that the bishops of Nigeria had found a compromise position that would avert catastrophe in the Ahiara crisis by transferring the ordination to Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Ulakwo Owerri.

Back home in Ahiara Diocese, the whole place was agog with smiles that a catastrophe of immense magnitude had been averted. Both priests and laity could no longer contain themselves in happiness that they had avoided a deadly bullet aimed at them by forcing the transfer of the venue of the ordination that could have wrecked both innocent lives and the great Catholicism of the Mbaise people. People began to congratulate themselves for making sure that such a tragedy did not occur in their own lifetimes.

On my part, I felt on top of the world. I was extremely happy that history had spared the Nigerian Church and me its harsh judgment over the untimely deaths of innocent people during the ordination of a rejected bishop-elect in Ahiara Diocese. I felt the bishops had lifted a heavy burden that weighed heavily on my conscience. I was very grateful to them for rising to the occasion and taking a great decision that helped avert a needless tragedy that was looming heavily on all of us in the diocese. I said to myself that history will applaud Nigerian Catholic Bishops for their wise decision that averted this grave danger to the Nigerian Church.