Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - To mark the 25 anniversary of Pope John Paul II first visit to the country in February 1982, the Archdiocese of Onitsha oragnised a Symposium at the Bishop Shanahan Hall, Holy Trinity Compound.
According to a report sent to Fides by the national office of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Nigeria, the first paper was given by Bishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Umuahia on the theme “The Challenges of Family Apostolate in our Time”. The Bishop said the family is challenged by deep and swift changes resulting from urbanisation, the opinion-shaping media and technological advancement which has brought excessive prosperity to a few and extreme poverty to many others. And he said Church is called to make ever greater effort to support the family giving priority to family pastoral care.
The second paper “Hope of a better Nigeria: 25 years after Pope John Paul II’s Addresses to the Young People of Nigeria” was given by Fr. Anthony Akinwale who recalled that the Pope’s message to young people was one of joy and hope and encouragement to be missionaries, aware of their potential and ready to shoulder their responsibilities to build a new Nigeria.
The National Director of the PMS Mgr Hypolite Adigwe underlined John Paul II’s call to youth to answer God’s call to mission. In his paper “The Pontifical Mission Societies and Youth Apostolate”, the national director presented various activities of mission animation, Mission Clubs in Seminaries and Formation Houses, and Young Missionary Movement of Nigeria YOMM officially inaugurated in Holy Trinity Cathedral Onitsha in August 2006.
As part of activities marking the 25th anniversary of John Paul II’s visit, Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, presided an open air Mass at Holy Trinity Centenary in Onitsha, on Sunday 18 February in the presence of over 10,000 Catholics. In his homily Cardinal Dias remembered the missionaries who gave their lives to plant the Gospel in this part of the world. The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples noted that John Paul II was a man of undaunted courage, a man of broad vision, embracing all peoples, and his untiring desire to announce the Gospel led him to travel around the globe for an estimated mileage equal to a journey to the moon and back!
Referring to the celebration of the anniversary, the Cardinal said a Jubilee it is a time to look at the past with gratitude, the present with joy and the future with hope. The Cardinal recalled that the Church in Igboland was founded in a spirit of ecumenism bearing in mind that the acquisition of the Cathedral grounds was facilitated for the early missionaries by an Anglican missionary, Bishop Ajayi Crowther. The Cardinal encouraged Catholics to be ecumenical. He also recalled that the Church tasted the cross when missionaries were expelled after the Nigerian Civil war in 1970, but the people, full of vitality, were able to hold fort to make the Church grow and mature.
Cardinal Dias closed by recalling that shortly before he died Pope John Paul II anchored the Catholic Church strongly to Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary with the declaration of the Year of the Rosary and then the Year of the Eucharist. Cardinal Dias shared with those present something a protestant pastor once said to him: “In common we have the Word of God, but the Catholics have something more, they have the God of the Word in Flesh and Blood in the Holy Eucharist”. The Prefect urged Catholics to cherish and make use of these two treasures the Eucharist and the Rosary Prayer”. Before leaving the Cardinal consecrated a beautiful new church dedicated to Saints John and Paul to commemorate John Paul II first visit to Nigeria. The church stands at the podium where the Pope celebrated Mass during that first visit to Onitsha. ( L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/2/2007 righe 49 parole 631)
