‘I was never suspended, I resigned’
From Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki
The Catholic Priest of Abakaliki Diocese, Christopher Okorie, who recently renounced his priestly vow and married former Miss Onyekachi Obasi, has denied being suspended by the church. He said he left on his own.
Former Revd Fr. Okorie who now prefers to be addressed as Dr. Onyekachi Okorie, in his timeline on Facebook denied that he was suspended by the church for various actions which included his disrespect to the oath of chastity, celibacy, obedience and poverty.
He said he resigned and denounced his priesthood, hence, his marriage on Wednesday.
Okorie, who posted photograph of himself cuddling his wife in apparent advertisement of a locally filtered honey wrote on his timeline: “After dripping for two nights through a fine filtration process, the product (referring to his honey) is now ready.”
He wrote further: “In front of every successful man is a strong woman of substance (referring to his wife).”
He had made his decision to leave the services of the Catholic Church as a priest known to various relevant authorities including his local Ordinary, Most Rev Dr. Michael Okoro and the Vatican, citing lack of adequate and conducive environment to continue his ministry as a priest before exiting from priesthood.
He, however, denied he was ordained in 2005 and promised to get back to our reporter as he said he was busy as at the time of this report.
As at yesterday, the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki has not made any official statement regarding the incident, as all efforts to get the Secretary to the Bishop of Abakaliki Diocese, Revd. Fr. Emmanuel Obuna proved abortive.
Fr. Obuna who also doubles as the Vocational Director of the Diocese could not speak on the incident but priests who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed the incessant exit of priests from the Diocese on what they termed highhandedness of the Diocesan authority.
The exit of Christopher Okorie was coming barely few months after another priest, Rev. Benjamin Agbo threatened to leave the church and form his own church known as Reformed Catholic Church (RCC).
Daily Sun reported that former Okorie, on Wednesday, at the marriage registry of the Ebonyi State High Court, Abakaliki wedded former Miss Ogonna Obasi from Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.