Bini Want Indigenous Replacement for Disgraced Priest, Agwu Benn Agwu, Next, June 1, 2010

Bini Want Indigenous Replacement for Disgraced Priest

By Agwu Benn Agwu
Next
June 1, 2010

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5575234-146/bini_want_indigenous_replacement_for_disgraced.csp

The Pope has accepted the resignation

The resignation of the Catholic Archbishop of Benin Diocese, Richard Burke on Monday, following an alleged sex abuse of a minor, has jolted the clergy and laity in the denomination into renewing their agitation for his being replaced with an indigenous priest.

Emmanuel Emovon, a professor and devout Catholic who is championing the agitation, said the Bini will certainly make a fresh presentation to the Catholic Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican City, Rome, on the matter.

He explained that the Bini now have well-qualified priests who can be bishops, even as he named the Vicar General of the Diocese, James-Mary Okunbor, and the incumbent parish priest of St. Maria Gorretti Catholic Church, Upper Sokponba in Benin City, among others. “This time around, God will answer our prayers as He answers and always hearkens to the prayers and neediness of the oppressed,” he said.

When the former catholic Bishop of Benin Diocese, Patrick Ekpu, retired owing to old age some two years ago, the Bini people clamoured for a Bini priest to replace him. It was said then that there was no qualified Bini priest and the Pope did not want any ethnic crisis in Nigeria. As such, he transferred Mr. Burke, the Irish Bishop, from Warri Diocese in Delta State to Benin, as Archbishop.

However, Mr. Burke has been out of Nigeria for more than one year now, with the church saying he was sick. This was the official reason until this weekend when it became known that the former Arch-Bishop was facing interrogation over a sex abuse scandal in Ireland. He has resigned his appointment.

But Mr. Burke’s absence in the country has delayed a lot of things in the church, as over 10 deacons who would have been ordained priests could not be ordained, as only the Arch-Bishop could ordain a priest.