The Catholic Church on Monday clarified the recent transfer of Father
Ejike Mbaka, saying the controversial priest was merely being sent to
where he would be more useful to the church.
In its first reaction since the controversy over the transfer broke,
the church church said the posting was not meant to be punitive.
The
Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Reverend
Father Ralph Madu said transfer of priests within the catholic church is
a “normal church procedure.”
“Mbaka’s own is not an exception,” Mr. Madu said. “The Bishop has the
right to post any priest wherever he feels his service would be more
useful to the church.”
Public criticisms had greeted the Enugu Diocese’s recent decision to
transfer Mr. Mbaka out of Christ the King Parish, GRA, where he had
served for over a decade and had established a popular prayer ministry,
the Adoration Prayer Ministry.
Mr. Mbaka is to resume immediately at his new post at the Our Lady Parish, Emene.
The priest, who is as fiery as he is controversial, had described his
re-posting by the church as a “calculated move” to make him suffer.
“I know we are going to suffer within now and few months to come,”
the priest said. I am going to suffer and suffer; I know that. I’m going
to suffer because I have no place to put my head. I am going to suffer
because I have no place to keep the Adoration Ministry’s assets. I know
I’m going to suffer.”
On Sunday, the South-East zone of the All Progressives Congress
alleged that Bishop Callistus Onaga was manipulated by external forces
into effecting Mr. Mbaka’s transfer.
“As a party, we have watched with concern and trepidation the
criticism, the attack, assault and unpleasant comments hurled against
Fr. Mbaka since he providentially prophesied that President Buhari would
win the 2015 elections,” the APC said in a statement by Osita
Okechukwu, Spokesperson of its South-East caucus.
“Even the church did not spare him; he was called unprintable names, yet his prophecy came true.”
In the run-up to last year’s presidential election, Mr. Mbaka had
told a gathering of thousands of catholic faithfuls at his Adoration
Prayer Ground ministry to vote out then president, Goodluck Jonathan.
The priest, renowned for his blunt sermons, has a huge followership
in South East Nigeria, where thousands of Catholics throng to his
prayer ground for healing and miracles.
But following his recent transfer to a new parish, speculations were
rife that his being moved to another parish was punishment for his
unalloyed support of a Muslim candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari,
over his Christian predecessor, Mr. Jonathan.
But Mr. Madu told PREMIUM TIMES that “such frivolities have nothing to do with the posting.”
“His posting should have been a privilege, not a punishment – which the Bishop can do because he has the power.
“If he (Mbaka) says it’s a punishment, then it’s open for further
investigation. Posting is a regular thing, a priest can be transferred
after two, three, four, or more years, it depends on the discretion of
the Bishop.
“That ministry (Adoration Ministry) is his private ministry, it does
not belong to the church. Overseeing a parish is a full time job.
Overseeing a ministry is a bigger task. If the church decides to take
him somewhere where he’ll have more time to carry out his ministry, how
is it punitive? That should not be the language.”
Mr. Madu said Mr. Mbaka had done things that were unacceptable to the church in the past but received no punishments for them.
“He is supposed to be a missionary,” Mr. Madu said. “What if the
Bishop had closed down the ministry, which is within his power to do?
Sometimes, transfers can be for the good of the priest as something can
be going wrong which he might not be aware of. The Bishop is free to
move any priest at any time, it is his prerogative.”
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