From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
The Bishop of Nnewi diocese, Anambra State, Jonas Benson Okoye, has asked five Spiritan priests of St Martin of Tours to step aside over an alleged act of insubordination.
The affected priests were said to have been having issues with Bishop Okoye in connection with their residency in the parish.
It was gathered that the Bishop, for the reasons of creating a new parish, had told the Spiritan priests to vacate the parsonage of the church for administrative convenience.
Based on the claims that the organization the Spiritan priests belong to has been the occupants of the parish in question for more than a century, they were said to have turned down the Bishop’s instruction to make way for a new set of priests to come in to take over the church administration there.
Following the deadlock, Director of Communications and currently the episcopal Vicar of Ozubulu region, Very Rev Fr Hygenus Aghaulor disclosed that the Bishop had to withdraw the priests’ authorities to perform church rituals known as canonical faculty in Catholic doctrine.
Fr Aghaulor, however, described it as a normal development for priests to be deployed and redeployed in the Catholic Church as it suits the Bishop.
He insisted that it was not condoned in the Catholic Church for a priest to disobey the order of the Bishop. He said that the matter had been reported to the Superior General whose duty it is, according to him, to supervise the Spiritan priests.
“The Bishop has withdrawn the faculty of five Holy Ghost Priests. Withdrawal of the faculty signified that the priests will not be able to perform duties within the Diocese, and even when they do, such functions would be considered illicit.
“If they baptize someone, conduct a wedding, the wedding and baptism will not hold. They cannot even celebrate mass because their faculty has been withdrawn by the Bishop. The priests were not sacked, as insinuated but they were just re-deployed. In Canon Law, which the church operates, the Bishop has the powers to redeploy priests, and that was what he did, ” Fr Aghaulor explained.
He disclosed that the Spiritans had been making it difficult for the Bishop to create a new parish in Ihiala. He also disclosed that the Nnewi Catholic Diocese currently had 413 priests which he said had made it imperative for new parishes to be created.
“The Bishop created a new parish and deployed some of our priests there and transferred the Spiritans to the juniorate but they refused to leave, trying to frustrate the genuine efforts of the Bishop.
“The Spiritans claim that Archbishop Heerey gave the parish to them in 1967. That was under 1917 Code but Canon 6 of 1983 Code abrogated 1917 Code unless such matters are renewed in 1983 Code but there is no evidence that such happened. Thirdly, 1983 Code abolished making a moral person now juridic person a pastor. Now to be appointed a pastor, the person must be a physical person and be in priesthood, ” he further explained.
Fr Aghaulor said that the 1983 Code gave the discretion and right of free conferral on diocesan Bishops and those equivalent to them in law in line with cannons 368 and 381, in the spiritual task of appointing pastors.
“Thus, the Diocesan Bishop can freely appoint and freely fire. He can freely create and freely suppress parishes without recourse to existing customs, grants and centennial or immemorial bequests and grants.
“That religious are made pastors is a grant, privilege and at the discretion of the Bishop because of the dearth of secular clergy and for missionary co-operation and therefore should not be a matter for claims.
”Even where they are given a parish, a written agreement must stipulate the particular personnel and confirmation of the proper pastor by the Diocese’s Bishop. Religious institutes do not appoint pastors but only present to the Bishop and are subject to the ratification and confirmation of the Diocesan Bishop.
“Bishop Jonas Benson Okoye is the successor of Archbishop Heerey and so has the power to interpret or alter the perpetuity clause in such a convention because the salvation of souls is the supreme law.
“That portion of the people of God in the parochial jurisdiction of St. Martin Ihiala is a bona fide part of Nnewi Diocese under the pastoral care of Bishop Jonas Benson Okoye and so he possesses immediate, full and proper power of order and jurisdiction over it (can. 129) without prejudice to any extant laws or conventions,” he concluded.