CATHOLIC CHURCH CLEANSED AFTER KIDNAPPERS' INVASION

Michael's Catholic Church, Umuezi in Obingwa Local Government area would remain evergreen in their memories. It was a day the Catholics gathered to agitate against kidnapping.

The reparation and sanctification service, the Catholics said, became imperative due to the incident of October 10, 2010.

'At the peak of kidnapping saga in Abia State precisely on the early morning of Sunday, October 10, 2010, Nigerian soldiers stormed Umuezi community in pursuit of kidnappers camping in the area.

'Unfortunately, this camp was located in the neighbourhood of the St. Michael's Catholic Church, Umuezi. As soldiers were going after two of the supposed kidnappers, the boys ran into the church for refuge. The soldiers pursued them into the church and in their operation, invaded the tabernacle and desecrated the Blessed Eucharist therein,' the Catholic Diocese of Aba said in a statement.

Consequent upon this, the church was immediately closed and the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Bonaventure Akwarandu, who was earlier arrested by soldiers and later released, was recalled by the Catholic Bishop of Aba Diocese, Most Rev. Vincent Ezeonyia, while the church remained closed until November 14.

It was alleged that the base of one of the second in commands of dreaded kidnap kingpin, Osisikankwu, was located just behind the church's parsonage and the kidnappers having sacked the entire Umuezi community, turned part of St. Michael's church and the adjourning primary school into their camp. It was in the bid to dislodge the kidnappers, that soldiers stormed the church and allegedly shot one of the hoodlums.

The Catholics saw this action as enough to close the church, for according to Ezeonyia, the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist), which in Catholicism is the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and regarded as a sacred specie and held in great awe, was desecrated by the soldiers' invasion which he said was a sacrilege.

At the service which drew over 12 Catholic archbishops and bishops from Onitsha, Calabar and Owerri Ecclesiastical provinces comprising Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Cross River states, Ezeonyia said the reparation service became necessary due to the fact that the Blessed Sacrament in the church was desecrated by the soldiers' invasion, stressing that it was a sacrilege for anyone to desecrate the sacred species:

'The ugly incident of October 10, 2010, is an injury to the entire Christian community which the church building symbolizes and represents. It is a grave dishonour to the Eucharistic species as a result the church of Umuezi became no longer licit for divine worship and that was why it was locked up ever since.

'For the church to become suitable again for acts of worship, the harm done has to be repaired through a penitential rite in accord with the teachings of the church after which the church building can be used for the celebration of the sacraments.'

Rev. Fr. Kelechi Anyanwu, the Liturgy director 11 of the Catholic Diocese of Aba, said: 'The church building is Sacramental, it is a holy object and when a holy object witnesses a sacrilegious act in it, it becomes desecrated, losing an object of its holiness. For the fact that soldiers shot a kidnapper inside the altar which is the center of holiness of the church, means desecration of the Blessed Sacrament and the essence of holding the reparation was to beg God that we are sorry for what happened last year and for him to make the place holy again for worship.'

Duru Ihemeje, a Catholic reverend father opined: 'The Blessed Sacrament is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, that was why when they came and destroyed the tabernacle where the Blessed Sacrament was preserved, it was believed that they desecrated the body and blood of Christ.

'It is the presence of this body and blood of Christ in any Catholic church that makes the presence of a priest very important in that parish. It is very difficult for a priest to leave the parish when the Blessed Sacrament is there and that could inform why when the kidnappers sacked all the villagers, the priest remained in his parsonage.'

Chief Greg Esotu, Supreme Auditor, Knight of St. Lumumba, expressed happiness that the gates of the church had again been opened after over one year of closure as a result of kidnap activities in the area.

He advised the youths to always believe and trust in God instead of taking to criminal activities which he said was why the God's holy place of worship was desecrated and eventually closed.

This was not the first time the Catholic Church at Umuezi established in 1913 would be forced to close and later re-opened. According to Chief E.C Mejeh, before 1913 when the church came to Umuezi, the people were said to be great worshippers of a deity, Uju, the goddess of plenty.

It happened that one Enock Epelle from present day Rivers State, who brought Christianity to the area through the Niger Delta Personage (NDP) Anglican Church which later metamorphosed into St. Michael's Catholic Church, Umuezi, together with many of his young adherents, destroyed the community's juju and idols in 1916.

Daily Sun gathered that after the mass juju destruction, later in that year, there was unprecedented influenza that killed many people which forced many Christians from Umuezi to desert the Church when the juju worshippers claimed their god was angry and had come back for vengeance. The Church was evidently shut.

This incident coupled with the fall of the Catholic school in Umuezi in 1929, seriously affected the Church's growth for 70 years until it attained the parish status in 1998 with the Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Aba formally inaugurating it as a full fledged parish in 2001.

As a way of full circle atonement for sanctification of the desecrated church, a total renovation of the Church involving the rebuilding of the altar, re-roofing and re-painting of the entire church building preceded the pilgrimage of reparation.

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