A Nigerian bishop whom Pope
Francis had fiercely defended has resigned after a five-year, sometimes
violent, standoff with rebel priests and faithful who rejected him as an ethnic
outsider, the Vatican said on Monday.
A Vatican statement said the pope
had accepted the resignation of Peter Ebere Okpaleke as bishop of the diocese
of Ahiara.
The vatican said the position had
been declared vacant and that a papal administrator would run it for the time
being.
Many priests and faithful had
refused to swear allegiance to Okpaleke because he is not from Mbaise, a
heavily Catholic area in southwestern Nigeria made up of an amalgam of
indigenous clans connected by intermarriage.
Okpaleke was appointed bishop by
then-pope Benedict in 2012, but the protests prevented him from ever taking
over the diocese.
His installation ceremony took
place in another area of Nigeria because the doors of the Ahiara cathedral were
locked so the bishop could not enter.
The situation came to a head in
June 2017 when Francis demanded that all priests in the diocese write him a
letter within 30 days pledging their obedience to and accepting Okpaleke as
their bishop because he was appointed by a pope.
Those who did not write such a
letter would face suspension from the priesthood, the pope told them at the
time. Francis also demanded that the rebellious priests write a letter of
apology to Okpaleke.
Fides, the Vatican’s missionary
news agency, on Monday published excerpts from Okpaleke’s resignation letter,
saying he had not been able to take possession of diocese or even live within
its territory because of continuing “violent reaction and resistance”.
Fides said some 200 priests had
written to the pope promising their obedience.
Many had also told the pontiff
that they had “psychological difficulty in collaborating with the bishop after
years of conflict”.
The agency, which is controlled
by the Vatican, said the rebellious priests should “reflect on the grave damage
inflicted on the Church” through their “unreasonable actions opposing a bishop
legitimately appointed by the Supreme Pontiff”.
In his resignation letter,
Okpaleke said remaining bishop in the diocese would not be beneficial to the
Church.
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ReplyDeleteNigerianeye,please, the region is southeast, not southwest.. Thank me later
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