By Our Correspondent
In their quest for God’s intervention for quick and peaceful resolution of the impasse between the Catholic Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, His Lordship Most Reverend Jonas Benson Okoye and some parishioners of St Martin of Tours Parish, Ihiala over the removal of five Holy Ghost priests in the parish, the parishioners ended a three-day fasting and prayer yesterday.
Recall that the bishop withdrew the Faculty of the Holy Ghost Fathers in charge of the parish which they had managed for over 100 years following a feud between them and authorities of the Diocese.
For the three days, the parishioners congregated and prayed in a procession round the church.
While thanking those who stood by them during what he termed the trying period, the Crown Prince of Ihiala, Orjiewulu Udeorji said: “Since the crisis began, as true Christian’s, we have been very subtle in our approaches to register our disenchantment on the unpopular order of Our Lord Bishop.
“First, we wrote and sent a delegation to the bishop to show our displeasure on his order. We received no reply even after we followed up seven days later with a reminder.
“We also embarked on a Rosary procession starting with CWO members of the parish and later by the CMO of the parish.
“The climax was the declaration of the three days fasting and prayer by the entire parishioners and Ihiala people which has just ended.
“In this matter, we are also showing our total rejection of the inhuman treatment being metted out to The Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters and their Convent within Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Complex.
“By their vows, they are dying in silence. As practising Christian’s, we cannot keep silent when things are going wrong in our parish. We cannot sit down while our church in mission is being divided.
That’s why we chose prayer as our master key. We are not fighting our bishop as a person, but we are only resisting actions we consider not healthy for the continued growth of the church in our town.”
