Pope Francis delivers his blessing from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, June 11, 2017.
Pope Francis has laid down an ultimatum to defiant Nigerian priests: lose your job if you don't obey me and your bishop.
Francis
met June 8 at the Vatican with a delegation from the Ahiara diocese,
where priests have been refusing to accept the 2012 appointment by the
then pontiff, Benedict XVI, of the local bishop.
Vatican
newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, reporting the pope's unusually harsh
order, said Sunday that Francis was acting "for the good of the people
of God" by threatening to suspend the priests from the ministry if they
didn't pledge in a letter, by July 9, "total obedience" to Francis and
accept Bishop Peter Okpaleke's appointment.
Francis
told the visiting delegation he was "very sad" about the priests'
refusal to obey and ruled out tribal loyalties as explaining the
refusal.
Africa
has been one of the continents where the Catholic church is growing.
The faithful and clergy there often imbue their practices with local
culture in dynamic contrast to more traditional routines in Europe or
North America.
Francis' move to end disobedience to the Vatican aims at ensuring the growing church there will be loyal to the pontiff.
His remarks to the visiting delegation indicated how dangerous he viewed any rebellion against papal authority.
Those
priests opposing Okpaleke's taking up of his office "want to destroy
the church, which is not permitted," Francis said in his address to the
delegation.
Francis added: "the pope can't be indifferent" to the rebellion.
He
has often taken a conciliatory tone in resolving disputes, but in this
one he was entertaining no diplomacy. He demanded that each priest in
the diocese write to him asking forgiveness and "clearly manifest total
obedience to the pope."
They
must also accept the bishop chosen by Rome. If, within a month, each
priest doesn't do so, he will be "ispo facto suspended," such as from
the celebration of the sacraments, and "will lose his current office,"
Francis warned.
Francis
acknowledged that his move "seems very harsh." He added that he had
even considered the extraordinary remedy of suppressing the entire
diocese but didn't, so as not to hurt rank-and-file faithful.
He
said he thought the rebellious priests might have been manipulated from
outside the diocese or even abroad, but named no culprits.
In
2015, the diocese served around 520,000 Catholics, out of a local
population of about 675,000, and had 128 diocesan priests and seven
other priests. It wasn't immediately clear how many of the priests were
involved in the rebellion against the bishop's appointment.
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