By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Eight months after ordering priests in a Nigerian diocese to pledge their obedience to the pope and accept the bishop that now-retired Pope Benedict XVI had named for them, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the disputed bishop.
Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke, who since 2012 has been prevented from exercising his ministry as bishop of Ahiara because most of the priests in the diocese refused to accept him, said in a statement, “I am convinced in conscience that my remaining the bishop of Ahiara Diocese is no longer beneficial to the church.”
Bishop Okpaleke’s appointment was met by protests and petitions calling for the appointment of a bishop from among the local clergy. Ahiara is in Mbaise, a predominantly Catholic region of Imo state in southern Nigeria. Bishop Okpaleke is from Anambra state, which borders Imo to the north.
The Vatican announced Feb. 19 that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Bishop Okpaleke, who will turn 55 March 1. The pope named as apostolic administrator of the diocese Bishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Umuahia.
“Exercising the ministry in a diocese where priests who are supposed to be my immediate and closest collaborators, brothers, friends and sons are at war with one another, with the laity and with me as their chief shepherd would be disastrous and a threat to the salvation of souls – including my own soul,” Bishop Okpaleke wrote to members of the Nigerian bishops’ conference in a letter dated Feb. 14.
“I do not think that my apostolate in a diocese where some of the priests and lay faithful are ill disposed to have me in their midst would be effective,” the bishop wrote in a letter to the diocese also Feb. 14, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Pope Francis in June had given each priest of the diocese, both those resident in Ahiara and those working outside the diocese, 30 days to write him a letter promising obedience to him and accepting the duly-appointed bishop or face suspension.
According to a statement from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the pope “received 200 letters from individual priests of the Diocese of Ahiara in which they manifested to him obedience and fidelity.”
“Some priests, however, pointed out their psychological difficulty in collaborating with the bishop after years of conflict,” said the congregation’s statement.
Therefore, the statement continued, “taking into account their repentance, the Holy Father decided not to proceed with the canonical sanctions and instructed the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to respond to each of them. In this line, the congregation has urged every priest to reflect on the grave damage inflicted on the Church of Christ and expressed hope that in the future they will never again repeat such unreasonable actions opposing a bishop legitimately appointed by the supreme pontiff.”
