Umenzekwe calls for Pope of Nigerian/African extraction, says it is long overdue …Eulogises the late Pope for his humility
Hon Chief Modestus Umenzekwe, Onwa Achina, a staunch catholic, has called on Cardinals to elect a Pope of Nigerian/African extraction.
Chief Umenzekwe maintained that the election of an African into headship of the Catholic worldwide is long overdue.
Umenzekwe who made the advocacy while speaking to journalists in Lagos, called for the support of all Catholic faithful in Africa and the world for this clarion call.
“First of all I have to eulogise the late Pope for his simplicity, humility, for his candour, for his peace loving and his charismatic nature, for executing his assignment as the head of the church.
“When I looked at the picture of his room and the bed he was sleeping on, that bed cannot contain two persons. The size of the room is very small, and that has thought us a lot of lessons to eschew flamboyancy and a lot of frivolities that are neither here no there.
“Again I pray to God to give him eternal rest, he was peace loving and I believe God will give him peace in heaven. We lost Christ personified in him, but there is nothing we can do, since Christ died every other mortal will go that way. So there is no problem, we give God all the glory and all the honour,”
Reflecting on the position of the Pope and how it has eluded Africans, he said. “You see, at times, I sit down and reflect on a lot of things. When you go through the Holy book the Bible, most of the nations which their names are mentioned there, are African nations. If I am not mistaking, Ethiopia is the first African name mentioned there, when you go through Genesis, Egypt is in Africa and a lot of them which suggests that God as the Alfa and Omega, as the supreme being, created Africa in a special way and if I say from my own perspective that God started work in Africa, I am not mistaking, but I don’t know what happened along the line, the whole issue went to the western world, for which we are not even contesting, because God is everywhere, he is ubiquitous in nature, he selects whoever he wants to bless, whoever he wants to make a king.
He said the time has come for the Conclave of Cardinals to look the direction of Africa for the next Pope. “Then coming to Pope, it would not be out of order, for an African person and Nigeria for that matter, to be selected as the next Pope.
“I saw Arinze, I was very small, when I met Arinze, a man that is endowed with a lot of religious knowledge, I don’t know of any person or any Pope that can stand Arinze in church doctrine and spirituality, but for whatever reason, I want to say he missed being a Pope, just like Jay Jay Okocha missed being World Footballer of the Year. So for whatever reason, I think we have about four Nigerians as Cardinals there and super Cardinals for that matter, I am not talking of other African countries, but age is taking a toll on them because the work of a Pope is so enormous, so it will not be out of order if the next Pope comes from Africa, and from Nigeria.”
He said Peter Cardinal Okpalaeke has all that it takes to become a Pope. “And as God will have it, we have a very vibrant, intelligent, yellow skinned, handsome Cardinal from Nigeria, in the person of Peter Cardinal Ebele Okpalaeke, the Bishop of Ekwulobia Diocese, he is endowed with knowledge, and simplicity, and I know in the college of Cardinals or whatever they call it, he occupies a dazzling intellectual ability that may not be matched with any other. So it will not be out of order if he is selected to be the next Pope.
“If you are talking of white skin he has white skin, if you are talking of handsomeness, he is there, if you are talking about intelligence, he is there, if you are talking about academics, he is a brain. Then church doctrines are at his fingertips.
“Look at when he was appointed Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, they chased him away, locked up the place, he didn’t make noise about it. I had opportunity of visiting him to ask him, why are you not talking? Do you know what he told me? I can never discuss my spiritual life on the pages of newspaper and he maintained it, until God elevated him and made him Cardinal, a first class Cardinal for that matter, and those who rejected him are now going to him to seek refuge, the rejected stone is now the pillar of the house.
“I believe if things go the normal way, a black man, an African, a Nigerian, and Okpalaeke for that matter, should be the next Pope. And may God help us to achieve that.”
He called on all and sundry to support his advocacy; “We request for the support of other Nigerians, nay, Africans for this clarion call to make a Nigerian the next Cardinal, it is significant, it is germane, we are not there just to make up the number, an African should be the next Pope.”
