Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a diocesan bishop in Nigeria who has been at the centre of a long-running dispute in which local priests refused to accept his oversight. In its daily press bulletin, the Holy See said Pope Francis had accepted the “renunciation” or resignation of the Bishop of Ahiara in Nigeria, Peter Ebere Okpaleke.
Bishop of Umuahia, Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, has been appointed Apostolic Admi- nistrator. Bishop Okpaleke was appointed in 2012 by the Pope Benedict. He has struggled to function as bishop since because the majority of priests have refused to work with him because he is not a local man. He even had to be installed outside his cathedral because protestors blocked him from entering.
Ahiara is in Mbaise, a region of Imo State in southern Nigeria. Bishop Okpaleke is from Anambra State, which borders Imo to the north. Mbaise has more than 400,000 Catholics and one protest petition against the appointment described it as “mind-boggling” that no priest from Mbaise had been made a bishop. Last summer, Pope Francis delivered an ultimatum, giving the priests of the diocese 30 days to write a letter promising obedience to him and accepting the bishop appointed to
their diocese in 2012. Priests who refused to write as instructed faced being suspended. Dozens of priests obeyed, but not enough to restore unity to the diocese. This was the Pope’s second attempt to order the priests to accept the bishop. In a letter dated June 29 2014, Francis warned them to end their “grave act of disobedience.”
Agenzia Fides reported that Pope Francis received letters from a number of individual priests promising obedience and fidelity. Some priests, however, pointed out their psychological difficulty in collaborating with the Bishop after years of conflict. Taking into account their repentance, Pope Francis decided not to proceed with the canonical sanctions and instructed the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples to respond to each of them.
