Cardinal Says Nigerian Crisis Raises Big Issues, and Rome Must Act

Crux ^ | 1/11/18 | John Allen and Claire Giangravé

[marshmallow]

ROME - These days, Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja is deeply hesitant to be drawn into talking about the troubled Nigerian diocese of Ahiara, saying his role as Apostolic Administrator there ended a year ago when Pope Francis took the situation in his own hands, and not wanting to aggravate what’s already perhaps the most painful, and extraordinary, Catholic storyline in Africa.

Onaiyekan reluctantly agreed to discuss the situation with Crux on Jan. 9, mostly because he believes a core principle is at stake, which is that “the pope appoints bishops and nobody else.”

“We need to handle this seriously because it’s very important, and not only for Ahiara and Nigeria,” he said. “It raises the issue of how we appoint bishops for the whole Church.”

“If you decide to change it because of this case, then get ready” to live with the consequences, warned Onaiyekan, who turns 74 later this month.

Onaiyekan spoke to Crux on the sidelines of a Rome conference on ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s “World Religions and World Church” program Jan. 8-10.

To recap, the Diocese of Ahiara in southern Nigeria, with about 400,000 Catholics out of a total population of a half-million, has been in suspended animation since December 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI appointed Peter Ebere Okpaleke, 49 at the time and a member of the Ibo ethnic group that’s long been a bulwark of Nigerian Catholicism, as the new bishop.

[LadyDoc]

It is a subtle problem, where most of the bishops come from one ethnic group, and the priests from the second ethnic group are ignored/overlooked. The Pope/Vatican is pulling a “because I say so” at them, seen as a power play.

this has happened in the past, when Anglo Saxons refused Norman bishops, for example, but few cases in modern times.

I seem to remember a story told on EWTN where an American bishop was appointed 100 years ago to Cuba, and the locals refused to have him. The Vatican told him to stay home until they cleared up the problem, so 30 years later he was still waiting, and had to support himself by pumping gas.

[LadyDoc]

oh, by the way: Both groups are Ibo, but they are different clans and speak a slightly different dialect.

[ebb tide]

Flash-forward to June 2017, when Pope Francis took the essentially unprecedented step of demanding that all Ahiara priests write to him pledging loyalty within 30 days, and threatening suspension if they didn’t comply.

Dictator Pope