There is need to trust in God even in hopelessness—-Onyeulo, President, St Jude Thaddeus
Saturday, May 10th was the annual pilgrimage of St Jude Society which took place at the Marian Shrine, St Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos State. It was hosted by the Lagos Archdiocese and has the theme, ‘Trust in God even in Hopelessness’. In this interview Romanus Ikechukwu Onyeulo, the Provincial President, Lagos Ecclesiastical Provincial Council of St Jude’s Society gives insight into the society. Excerpt:
Your name
My name is Romanus Ikechukwu Onyeulo, the Provincial President, Lagos Ecclesiastical Provincial Council of St Jude’s Society
I heard you talk about the theme, trust in God even in the face of hopelessness?
What brought about the theme, you know the church celebrates the jubilee of hope, and in our country a lot of people are looking forward for hope, but sometimes the economic situation of the country is looking hopeless for so many people. People are facing so much difficulty, but the church has given us a patron saint who is a patron saint of difficult and desperate cases, St Jude Thaddeus, it also calls to mind for us to pray, because we always believe that where there is prayer, there is hope. Then there is need to trust in God even in the face of hopelessness; that is how the theme came about; then there is need to trust in God even in hopelessness. We have a God who has always been there to answer is us, no matter the challenges, he has done it before and he keeps doing it.
With God all things are possible. Whatever situation we find ourselves in the world today, we would always trust in God, so that is why we gathered here today, as one big family, the Lagos Province: The Lagos Archdiocese, Abeokuta Diocese, and Ijebuode Diocese, to come to pray in the Marian Shrine, St Agnes, Maryland, Lagos. We all know that mother Mary is there, she has always been there, the mother we always call on, and she is always there to answer. So that is why we are here to seek for intersession for ourselves, our families and our society, for our world and even for the church. The Catholic Church now has a new Pope, this is the time to seek the face of God for the church to continue to have proper guidance, and continue to move forward.
Talking about the new Pope, how do you; the Late Pope Francis was known for his humility, what are you expecting from the new Pope and aligning it with the role of St Jude Thaddeus?
Yes we expect a whole lot, though from what I can see from him, since he is a member of Order of St Augustine, he is also similar to Pope Francis who was a congregational Priest before becoming a Pope. So the Order understands what poverty is, the congregational Priests, they take that vow; they always have that humility to come down to the people to reach out to the people. Look at the newly elected Pope, what he has done in Beirut, leading to his nationalization as a citizen of Beru despite being an American by birthday and citizenship, so a whole lot is expected, we also expect that he will pick from there because they share a lot of similarities in terms of humility, their way of life. Then coming down to us, St Jude Society, we know he was an Apostle, the cousin of Jesus Christ, and looking into it, we believe, with the intercession of our patron saint, we know that the Pope will do something brighter for the church and for us as members of the church.
Now is it all about coming to pray, is it a yearly affair, now what are the projects or programmes you mapped out for the year, that is one, and two what do you do to help one another?
One of the capital projects of St Jude, you know St Jude has aims and objectives, so one of the capital projects of St Jude is one, to see to the training of priests, and we do that annually, so whatever we get from our dioceses, we also get that support, the scripture tells us he who gives a cup of water to the priest will actually get a reward. And now we are training seminarians those who want to become priests; that we do annually.
Then in terms of other things we do is spiritual and corporal work of mercy, we see to the welfare needs of our members and minister to their many challenges. Even last year we had to organize what is called empowerment programme during the time of our feast, St Jude, to see how we can empower one or two of our members who were facing challenges and difficulty. These are apostles who live the life of sharing, what they have in common so that we grow together in faith in love and spirituality; these are things we carry out annually.
So apart from this pilgrimage, other programmes have been lined up. In August this year we have an empowerment program and then other activities have been lined up for their spiritual progress, as well as leadership, because we know the challenges of this country is leadership, so we have leadership seminars, and all this is to help mold the members so that they become spiritually active and physically active too in terms of what to do. Their welfare needs are also taken care of. So we work as one big family and as a society.
You said your leadership oversees Lagos, Ijebuode and Abeokuta, is this annual pilgrimage held only in Lagos? Two, when is your term coming to an end; you have done tremendously well for the society. Now what are your remaining plans for the society and how are you grooming a successor?
I will start by answer your question about the province, the province is actually a council that covers Lagos Archdiocese, Ijebuode and Abeokuta; these are the three dioceses that make up the province. By the grace of God, I was elected president, that was in December 2021, then we started to see how we could revive the society, my slogan was revive, rebuild and reposition. We are here to reposition the society to be the Hallmark, a place where the people would come across the globe and that is what we are doing. Our annual pilgrimage is rotated among the three dioceses, last year we were at Ijebuode Diocese, we were at the city of Immaculate, Ijebuode, for the pilgrimage, May 11, precisely. The year before that, we were at St Jude Thaddeus Shrine at Wasi in Abeokuta; that is where we went, so this year, it is Lagos, so next year we are going back to Abeokuta. That is how we build our members. The essence of rotation of the pilgrimage is for people to feel a deep sense of belonging within the group. So that is how we have been doing it together to build up our members and to see that our society continues to spread, because we are in evangelization group, we keep spreading like the apostles, we keep spreading.
You talked about tenure, yes the church says it is four years tenure, so we have done the best we can, lifting them up, projecting the image of the society, we are stronger locally and nationally. Because if you are in national council you are also the one handling most of the activities in trying to reposition the society, I have been privileged, not just the Provincial President, but also I have been privileged to be the national president of the prayer Group nationally, I am also privileged to be the national chairman of the uniform, I have been privileged to head those committee.
Yes tenure, whatever has beginning must have an end; I am counting down to December to elect a new president. So we are grooming others, just as I said, the best way to lead people is to show them, show them by example, so with example they know where to lead from, because what has affected the country is that people don’t know where to lead from, because they don’t know. We have people coming from different dioceses so whoever God has chosen in the long run, fine, we have already created new programmes, like the pilgrimage, the annual publishers celebration we started that last year, it is the best of its kind since the existence of the society, we just want to make it biannually, the next one will be in Abeokuta. So all these programs are there; they have seen it, they have been the drivers of it, I have only been the chief servant, so whoever the lord chooses, we will be there to support to make sure the society grows stronger and stronger.
I am sure when the time comes, you will not go away but you will simply step aside and continue helping the new leadership
Yes I will always be there. I have been privileged because my journey didn’t start today, because I was Secretary of the parish, I became the parish president, became the deanery president and then by the grace of God today I am the provincial president. So I have been part and parcel of the society. I will continue to make sure that the society continues to wax stronger.
How much support do you get from the archdiocese?
We get a whole lot of support from them, without them we will not be here. The province is just a council, the Diocese controls the members, so it is that beautiful collaboration we had, the synergy we created that has made it possible to achieve the successes we have achieved, because we can’t host a program in the council, it has to be in a place, just like here, the diocesan president is here, to see to all arrangements, who would go to Abeokuta, even many of them from different dioceses, even the past presidents too, even those that started the society in the 80s are here, because it is the same collaboration, the idea of you being a leader is to see how you collaborate and build others. Leadership is about influence, influencing people towards a positive direction. And one thing is that we already have set goals, this is the direction we are heading for, so they have been helping me, without them, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we have achieved this far.
As we round off, your advice to your members and your advice to incoming president
My advice to members is for them to remain steadfast in the faith, to continue to work for the growth of the society, to support whoever is the leader, because without them, it is one of us that will become Leader, it does not mean the position is there it is just tenured, four years another person comes, like that, so the idea is let us continue to grow, let us continue to evangelize, the promise we make every day we recite the prayer of St Jude, is Oh St Jude if you grant our intentions; we would always reach out to others and tell them about the society, about you. My advice is for them to remain steadfast to that promise, going about spreading the good news about our patron saint. The world is filled with difficulties, now God has given us someone who can actually attend to them, why not tell people about it?
Can you make a recap of today’s programme just for the record?
It is our annual pilgrimage, it is the month of May, May is always dedicated to our mother Mary, so as one big family we come together to honor our Mary every year, a day, just like a day with Mary, and this one is a provincial pilgrimage, involving the different dioceses that make up the Lagos Ecclesiastical Province.
The theme of the program today is trust in God even in hopelessness, so regardless of the situation we find ourselves there is a need to keep trusting in God God has never failed and he will never fail.
