On 10 July, the seminarians in a house of formation in the Ahiara diocese woke as usual; but their morning prayer was anything but routine. The atmosphere was like a graveyard. The deadline given by Pope Francis for all the priests of the diocese to pledge obedience to him and apologise for their rejection of the appointment of Peter Okpalaeke as their bishop had passed the previous day.

The 40 or so seminarians had one prayer intention that morning: that the situation in the diocese be resolved quickly, so that they could finally be ordained, five years after some of them had completed their formation. Exactly two weeks after the 30-day papal ultimatum to all Ahiara Catholic priests to apologise and accept Peter Okpalaeke as their bishop, the 529-member Ahiara Diocese Worldwide Laity Council has written another letter to Pope Francis, praying for justice and protection from a “rapacious predator.” The latest letter dated Sunday, July 23, 2017, was signed by 529 members of a global network of Catholics with roots and or relationships traceable to the Ahiara Presbyterium, of Nigeria, constituted to promote the social and pastoral health of members and the Diocese, using all resources available to them globally. Entitled: “We pray to you for justice, for a Bishop Incardinated in our Presbyterium—We Have Been Taken Advantage of, as Orphans,” the letter openly accused Emeritus Francis Cardinal Arinze of being behind the oppression of “orphan diocese,” and passionately pleaded with the Catholic Pontiff to deliver them from miscarriage of justice. According to the signatories, “it is against this background, that we collectively raise our clenched fists in prayer to you, to give us justice, to protect your ‘orphan diocese’ from the rapacious predator who, like a proverbial king of the world, would stump at an ant to deny it microscopic crumbs.