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Author Topic: Welcome the Bishop  (Read 1618 times)

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Offline poche

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Welcome the Bishop
« on: June 15, 2017, 02:18:15 AM »
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    • Pope Francis has issued an ultimatum to the priests of the Diocese of Ahiara, Nigeria, demanding that they write a letter accepting their bishop or face suspension.
    Founded in 1987 and located in the Mbaise region of Imo State in southern Nigeria, the diocese was governed by Bishop Victor Chikwe from its inception until his death in 2010.
    In December 2012, Pope Benedict appointed Father Peter Okpaleke, a priest of the Diocese of Awka in neighboring Anambra State, as the diocese’s new bishop. 400 priests, angered that a Mbaise priest was not appointed, protested the decision.
    Bishop Okpaleke was ordained at a seminary in a neighboring diocese in May 2013 amid heavy security. At the time of the ordination, youth locked the cathedral of Ahiara in protest, and some protesters placed a coffin with the new bishop’s name at diocesan headquarters.
    In July 2013, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, as the apostolic administrator.
    Addressing a delegation from the diocese on June 8 (the Holy See Press Office released the text two days later), the Pope said, “Whoever was opposed to Bishop Okpaleke taking possession of the diocese wants to destroy the Church.”
    “I know very well the events that have been dragging on for years, and I am thankful for the attitude of great patience of the bishop, indeed the holy patience demonstrated by him,” the Pope continued. “I listened and reflected much, even about the possibility of suppressing the diocese, but then I thought that the Church is a mother and cannot abandon her many children.”
    The Pope demanded:
    Quote
    I ask that every priest or ecclesiastic incardinated in the Diocese of Ahiara, whether he resides there or works elsewhere, even abroad, write a letter addressed to me in which he asks for forgiveness; all must write individually and personally. We all must share this common sorrow.
    In the letter, (1) one must clearly manifest total obedience to the Pope, and (2) whoever writes must be willing to accept the bishop whom the Pope sends and has appointed. (3) The letter must be sent within 30 days, from today to July 9th, 2017. Whoever does not do this will be ipso facto suspended a divinis and will lose his current office.

    http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=31812
    I wonder if he will have a similar message for the bishops if the VAtican ever has a reconciliation with the SSPX?
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #1 on: July 04, 2017, 05:35:44 AM »
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    • Lay Catholics in the troubled Ahiara diocese in Nigeria have said they will not accept the leadership of Bishop Peter Okpaleke, even if the priests of the diocese adhere to a papal demand for obedience.
    Early in June, Pope Francis issued a stern directive to priests of the Ahiara diocese, warning that if they did not accept the leadership of Bishop Okpaleke within 30 days, they would be suspended from ministry. Bishop Okplaleke, a priest of a neighboring diocese, was appointed by the Pontiff in December 2012. The Catholics of Ahiara, angered that the bishop was not a native of their own diocese and that he was a member of another tribal group, had refused to accept the appointment.
    Although the priests of Ahiara are apparently prepared to accept the Pope’s demand for obedience, lay Catholics have vowed to continue their resistance. A massive protest against Bishop Okpaleke was held at the diocesan cathedral on July 2.
    Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo, the state in which the diocese is located, visited the cathedral on July 2 and made an appeal for an end to the stalemate. The governor urged Catholics to accept the Pope’s appointment.

    http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=32010
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #2 on: July 26, 2017, 12:10:27 AM »
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    • After demanding that the priests of the Diocese of Ahiara, Nigeria, must write to him accepting their bishop’s authority, Pope Francis had begun responding personally to those priests who complied with his directive.
    The Ahiara diocese has been in disarray since December 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Peter Okpaleke to head the diocese. A large portion of the diocesan clergy and laity resisted the appointment, making it impossible for the new bishop to exercise his office. In July 2013, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, as the apostolic administrator.
    In early June of this year the Pope wrote to the clergy of Ahiara, saying that priests who did not accept the authority of Bishop Okpaleke within 30 days would be suspended from ministry. He ordered priests who had rejected the bishop’s authority to ask for forgiveness.
    Pope Francis is now responding to the priests who wrote to him, the Crux news site reports. However, the priests who have received the Pontiff’s letter have not divulged their contents—except to reveal that they have been addressed personally.

    http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=32185
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #3 on: July 30, 2017, 02:21:20 AM »
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    • I would suggest that the people of this diocese take a lesson form their fellow Catholics in south Africa. When the Pope appointed bishops of colour to minister to teh people tehre were no protests or demonstrations for the 'racist' white people of that area.    
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #4 on: July 30, 2017, 02:22:11 AM »
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    • Also I would suggest that they take a lesson from Pope Pius XI when he wrote;

    8. Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community - however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things - whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.

    http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/docuмents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge.html
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #5 on: August 21, 2017, 11:50:28 PM »
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    • Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos has issued a plea to the priests of the troubled Ahiara diocese to accept the authority of Bishop Peter Okpaleke.
    Bishop Okpaleke, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2012, has not been accepted by most of the priests and people of the diocese, who had hoped for a local prelate to be named as bishop. In June, Pope Francis wrote to the the clergy of Ahiara, saying that priests who did not accept the authority of Bishop Okpaleke within 30 days would be suspended from ministry. He ordered priests who had rejected the bishop’s authority to ask for forgiveness.
    “We are particularly unhappy that the name of Nigeria is ringing in different parts of the world as people who are disloyal to the authority of the Pope,” said Archbishop Kaigama, the president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference. “But it is our fervent prayer that the people of Ahiara will see reason and come back to the Church that is founded on the obedience to the authority of God.”

    https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=32415
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    Offline poche

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    Re: Welcome the Bishop
    « Reply #6 on: August 26, 2017, 04:58:18 AM »
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    • Catholic bishops in the ecclesiastical province of Owerri, in Nigeria, have joined in an exhortation to the people of the Ahiara diocese to “unconditionally obey the Pope, the Vicar of Christ,” and accept the leadership of Bishop Peter Okpaleke.
    Priests and lay Catholics in Ahiara have refused to recognize Bishop Okpaleke, causing a crisis in the diocese. In June, Pope Francis wrote to the clergy of Ahiara, saying that priests who did not accept the bishop’s authority within 30 days would be suspended from ministry.
    The Owerri bishops thanked the Pope for his intervention, and urged the faithful to comply. They said:
    Quote
    We, bishops in the Owerri ecclesiastical province, have known and felt the scandal and pain of disunity which has attended the crisis in Ahiara diocese. Many have been deeply wounded, and many others have felt bitter. We the bishops and pastors of our province passionately plead for conversion, forgiveness and reconciliation.
    Speaking more generally the bishops said that Nigeria is troubled by divisions, and that to repair ties within the nation, all Nigerians should “eschew all forms of hate-speech capable of inflaming passions.”

    https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=32468
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