{"id":49654,"date":"2018-02-19T17:40:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www1.romereports.com\/2018\/02\/19\/the-pope-gives-in-and-accepts-the-resignation-of-the-bishop-of-ahiara-rejected-for-ethnic-reasons\/"},"modified":"2023-07-18T08:47:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T06:47:36","slug":"the-pope-gives-in-and-accepts-the-resignation-of-the-bishop-of-ahiara-rejected-for-ethnic-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/2018\/02\/19\/the-pope-gives-in-and-accepts-the-resignation-of-the-bishop-of-ahiara-rejected-for-ethnic-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"The pope gives in and accepts resignation of bishop of Ahiara, rejected for \"ethnic reasons\""},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although the website of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of Nigeria still displays his name as bishop of Ahiara, Msgr. Peter Ebere Okpaleke has announced his resignation from the post.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Benedict XVI appointed Okpaleke as bishop of the southern Nigerian diocese in December 2012. However, due to backlash from both clergy and lay people because Okpaleke was from a minority ethnic group, he was never allowed to undertake his mission and was forced to reside in Awka, 60 miles north.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis invited the Nigerian bishop to the Vatican in June 2017 and called for letters of apology from all priests in the diocese. Most complied, though some refused.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Ash Wednesday of this year, as Okpaleke was still barred from the diocesan cathedral, the bishop published his resignation letter, an act he says he hopes will \u201cfacilitate re-evangelization of the faithful and the priests of the Ahiara diocese.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a press release published by the Vatican on Monday, Pope Francis accepted Okpaleke's resignation. While the statement says the Holy Father doesn't intend to appoint a new bishop for the time being, he has assigned an \u201cApostolic Administrator\u201d in the form of a bishop from a neighboring diocese, through whom the pope prays \u201cthe local Church will recover its vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 19, 2018. Msgr. Okpaleke had been barred from his diocese for more than five years due to ethnic reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JUjxVccz7SU","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bahiaraeng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bahiaraint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}