MBAISE: Land of Reverend Fathers and Sisters

Communities where every family desires its own to be a Catholic priest or nun

Every family in Mbaise, no matter how small, has either a Reverend Father or Sister – or both. Well, that could have been exaggerated. But even if it was, the truth is not far from it. The Mbaise territory, in Imo State, as some other people have also described, is the biblical tribe of Levi. The enclave is made up of three local government areas.

It is believed to have the largest concentration of catholic priests and Reverend Sisters in any one human community in Africa. It is also referred to as the Ireland of Africa, apparently because priests from the enclave traverse the world – not only Nigeria and Africa – serving as missionaries, a paradigm to the Irish Fathers who brought Catholicism to the people at the dawn of the Twentieth Century.

According to local narrative, it started when one Mr. Njoku Akpata of Umuopara, Nguru invited the Holy Ghost Fathers who were just settling down at Mount Carmel Parish Emekuku, to come over to his village to help evangelise his people. Thus, in 1914, Fr. Daniel Walsh paid a visit to Umuopara, Nguru. This groundbreaking visit would play a decisive role in the evangelisation of not only the Nguru sub-clan but also the whole of Mbaise area.
However, with the ordination of the first Mbaise priest, Monsignor Ignatius Okoroanyanwu in the late 1940’s, the floodgate to the priestly vocation was opened as young men and women desirous of partaking in the evangelisation mission, flock to seminaries and convents already established in the then Owerri zone as there was no major seminary in Mbaise territory. Today the priestly vocation has become more of an enterprise as the Ahiara Mbaise Catholic Diocese has produced more priests and Reverend Sisters of different religious orders than any one single community in the whole of Africa.
 Saturday Sun gathered that before the out break of the Nigerian civil war, Mbaise people, who were known for their love for education and enterprise, had already produced about 89 priests. One of the immediate benefits of this is that, these indigenous priests effectively took over the 10 parishes that the Catholics Irish Fathers abandoned, as a result of the war. The parishes had an estimated 170,000 laity.
According to very Reverend Austine Bernadine Ekechukwu, the phenomenal growth of Catholicism and its consciousness in Mbaise communities is a result of the people’s love for the new-found religion and by extension their belief in and conviction of its object of worship – God. He said when the Irish Holy Ghost fathers introduced the faith to the people about 98-years-ago, they gladly welcomed and embraced it wholeheartedly. And since then, they have remained zealous and protective of it.
Today, it is believed that Mbaise, also peopled by catechists and other aficionados of the church, has over 400 ordained priests serving the church in different missions all the world.
“The Mbaise land is the proverbial seed that fell on good and fertile soil which not only germinated but blossomed, and today, because of the people’s love for education and knowledge, Mbaise men and women have been propelled into the priestly vocation and today I am proud to say that we have over 400 priests who trace their linage back to Mbaise,” Ekechukwu enthused.  “We have Reverend Sisters of different vocations in the service of the church in various missions both within Africa, Europe and America,” he added.
Today, according to Father David Asonye, the Ahiara Diocese has the highest concentration of Catholics in Nigeria if not the African continent and “naturally, we also have the highest number of priests and the Religious any where in Africa, who have the passion to continue with the evangelization mission of the mother church all over the world just like the Irish fathers”. And it is interesting that “the Diocese is still urging parents to graciously release their sons and daughters for the service of God and humanity,” the reverend gentleman said.
And what really does love have to do with it? Father Ben Ogu has the answer: “Mbaise people love the Catholic Church and to sustain that love they gave up their sons to serve the church like Hannah did in the bible by giving up his first son Samuel to serve God all the days of his life”. And the love is manifest in the “hard virtue” in the choice. For, according to Fr. Ogu, “being a priest of the Catholic Church is a hard virtue and an honour to serve in the Lord’s vineyard. So, it is not for material gain; it is a huge sacrifice and most parents are aware that once their sons become priests of the church, they no longer belong to them but to the church.”
The consciousness is deep-rooted and pervasive. Every member of the communities is ingrained in it. Such is the joy of a member of family who opts to be a priest of Sister.  And perhaps, the hold is more than that of joy. It has with it, pride – pride that a family member is in the priesthood. All of that is, in spite of the most crucial demand of the calling: celibacy.
Relatives told Saturday Sun that it is always a source of pride and happiness for their own to choose to dedicate his or life life to the service of God. They say the issue of celibacy does not and is not a hindrance for anybody who really wants to serve God, as it is one of the sacrifices that one has to make. According to Adindu Ihesie, younger brother to Reverend Father Damian Ihesie, every member of the family and indeed the whole community, was overwhelmed with joy when his elder brother was ordained a priest in 1991, making him the first Catholic priest in the community of Isiala Egbelu Uvuru Aboh Mbaise. He said they were particularly joyous because, out of all the people who had gone to the seminary with him, he was the only one who was ordained a priest.
Asked if the family was not worried that their son would be a celibate all his life, Ihesie said: “It is not compulsory for every body to marry and even when my parents were alive, they gave their full support because, as devoted Catholics, they knew that the priesthood is a special calling from God; more so because, not everyone has the grace. So we were not worried about him not marrying. After all, our Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, did not marry”.
Victor Chilaka, the immediate elder brother of Father Magnus told Saturday Sun that when his younger brother completed his secondary education and he told the family that he was going to be a priest, “we said if it is the will of God, there is nothing the family can do but to support him. The entire community was very happy when he was finally ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in 1997.” Chilaka added that his own son, now in the junior seminary, is praying to become a priest some day and he is absolutely in agreement with the young man.
“The family is glad to have a priest and if any other one in the family also indicates interest to be a priest or reverend sister, the family will wholeheartedly support the person. Right now my own son is in the junior seminary and our prayer is that one day he will also be ordained a priest, if it is the will of God,” Chilaka said, adding: “We may not have reaped any material gain, but the spiritual blessings are not quantifiable in monetary terms”.
Similarly, Chief Matthew Chilaka the uncle of Father Magnus told Saturday Sun that the priestly ordination of his brother’s son has remained a source of pride to the entire family because according to him to produce a priest of a catholic church is not an easy task. “Since 1997 when father Magnus was ordained priest, there has been no problem and he has remained true to his calling and we are proud of that. We are ready to support anybody from the family who wishes to either be a priest or a reverend sister because we will like to produce more servants in the vineyard of God”.
It is the same for the family of Father Uchenna Nwanosike, who said that, for anybody to become a priest is the will of God.  According to Mr. Eugene Nwanosike the uncle to Father Uchenna, his brother’s son had the calling and so the family supported him because no body can change what God has destined for another. “The priestly ordination of our son is destined by God and we are happy and proud, not minding the fact that as a priest of the church, he would be a celibate, which is a sacrifice to God. So, the family is not worried about that because serving God is more than being married.” And as a priest of the Catholic Church, Father Uchenna’s major concern is the spirituality of the flock entrusted in his care and not about earthly things.  “So we have remained grateful to the Almighty God to have found him worthy to serve Him and that is our pride,” concluded Eugene Nwanosike.
And Ezinne Philomena Nwanosike said “the entire family was happy when father Uchenna told us of his desire to become a priest. We prayed and committed him to God’s hands, that may His will be done and when our brother was finally ordained in 2007, the joy of the family knew no bounds because it is not as easy as people think”.
The lady summed the sentiment and the collective yearning of the Mbaise community thus: “Nothing could be more fulfilling than having a reverend Father or Sister in your family. There is no blessing like it. We will support as many as will want to go that way.”