Catholic Bishop Expects More Vilifications, Attacks On Catholic Church

From Chuks Collins, Awka

The Catholic Bishop of Nnewi, His Lordship, Most Rev Hillary Odilichukwu Okeke has challenged the church to brace up for more vilification and attacks on its integrity. This was in response to the recent reported remarks he considered as un complimentary to the Catholic faith by Pastor Chris Okotie.

Bishop Okeke who spoke to journalists at his office yesterday during his 2013 Christmas message titled “Peace I give you!”, said that Okotie was only doing what some others had done in the past, and was expected to be done yet again in future by those he described as misguided.

According to him, “who is Okotie? The Catholic Church has been there more than 2000 years ago and a lot has been said, and more are expected to be said about the Church. All that notwithstanding, the Church continues to grow from strength to strength.

“We are doing God’s will and being vilified for that. We do things in memory of our Lord Jesus Christ as mandated and enunciated in the Holy Book. We are indeed happy…”, the cleric emphasized.

On the significance of Christmas, Bishop Okeke noted that Jesus Christ is the gift of God to mankind, “for which we celebrate his incarnation and birth into the world, not as a past event but as a current living experience for all who believe in him”.

Taking his point from some Bible passages-Mathew 10:34-36 and Luke 12: 52-53, the bishop pointed out that “the coming of Christ brought and will continue to bring conflicts between those who believe in Him and others who continue to give themselves up to the powers of the evil one. But to those and among those who believe in Him, peace will flow like a river(Isaiah 48:18)”, he stated.

On the recent governorship election in Anambra state, the cleric expressed joy on the peaceful disposition of the citizens, praying that the incoming administration would surpass the outgoing one in terms of achievements and delivery of democracy dividends to the people.

He also gave a word of encouragement to all Nigerians concerning the nation’s unity. He said that 2015 will come and pass and everything will be peaceful, irrespective of the negative expectations of some prophets of doom who have been threatening that except things go their own selfish ways Nigeria would disintegrate. Nigeria will not disintegrate. Nigeria has a great future and would remain united and peaceful, he emphasized.