• Ihiala worshippers allege abandonment by church
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The misunderstanding between the bishop, Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, Most Rev. Jonas-Benson Okoye, the Ihiala Catholic Community and the Holy Ghost priests of St. Martin of Tours Parish, Ihiala, has continued unresolved.
The ugly development has deprived the faithful of spiritual benefits of confession, baptism, Holy Communion, wedding, anointing of the sick, and the likes for one year now, and still counting.
The diocese would not speak on the issue even as parishioners of St. Martin of Tours, Ihiala, recently marked one year of alleged abandonment of the parish faithful by the church authorities.
The parish presidents of the Catholic Men Organisation (CMO), Linus Nnubia; Catholic Women Organisation (CWO), Comfort Okolie; Catholic Boys Organisation (CBO), Izuchukwu Ikudike; and the Catholic Girls Organisation (CGO), Chimuanya Uba, on October 15, 2023, engaged the press.
Vice-chairman of the Parish Council, Ansus Ohaeri, spokesperson for Concerned People of Ihiala, Nonye Chukwu, and leader of Concerned People of Ihiala, Orjiewuru Udeorji, also signed the statement.
They said that worshipers in St. Martin of Tours, Ihiala, are presently like sheep without a shepherd: “Today marks the anniversary of the abandonment of St. Martin of Tours Parish, Ihiala, by His Lordship, Jonas Benson Okoye, the Catholic Bishop of Nnewi diocese. By this action, the bishop in the past 12 months, has deprived the lay faithful of their spiritual benefits in the church. The bishop and his diocesan priests have delisted St. Martin of Tours from Nnewi Catholic community and barred them from participating in diocesan activities; while the Catholic church hierarchy appeared to be insensitive to the matter that concerns the lay faithful – the pillar on which the church stands.
“To ensure that our faith as devout Catholics does not fade, and in order not to allow the faithful to scatter, we took the challenge as a test of our faith to celebrate Holy Mass every Sunday, undertake all the important church programmes like Corpus Christi, Holy Week and Easter activities, Advent, Christmas; burying the lay faithful etc.”
They recalled that in November, 2022, Bishop Jonas-Benson Okoye, on assumption of office as the bishop of Nnewi diocese, gave ultimatum to Holy Ghost priests to vacate St. Martin of Tours, Ihiala, which is the regional headquarters of the Holy Ghost priests, to enable him assign his diocesan priests to the parish.
The move by the bishop, according to them, met strong resistance from the parishioners, which allegedly made the bishop to remove the spiritual powers of the Holy Ghost priests to celebrate Holy Mass, dethroned St Martin from being the Southeast regional headquarters of the Holy Ghost priests, and further barred the parish from participating in diocesan activities.
They stated that St Martins Parish, Ihiala, was established on the said land in 1908, and that since then, it has been serving as evangelization centre from which the Holy Ghost priests have traversed the southeast preaching the gospel and establishing other mission centres.
For them, St. Martins has been patrimonial home of the Holy Ghost priest, hence any attempt to push them out of there will be constantly resisted.