The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, has said Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka violated his oath by dabbling into partisan politics.
Kaigama stated this while reacting to the face-off between the Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Speaking to the press at a conference on the 2021 World Communications Day celebration, Kaigama reminded Mbaka of the Canon Law 285, which prohibits the clergy from engaging in anything that is strange and unbecoming to the Catholic clerical state.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that Presidency had claimed last week following Mbaka’s call for Buhari’s resignation or impeachment over insecurity that the cleric was aggrieved because Buhari refused to grant him contracts.
Mbaka, who later admitted that he led three men to Buhari for contracts, stated that the men were security experts, adding that he told them to Aso Rock to help proffer solution to the insecurity challenges in the country.
The Abuja Archbishop said Mbaka, being a catholic priest took an oath during his ordination which reads: “I promise obedience and respect to you my local ordinary and your successors”.
Kaigama noted that the oath Mbaka publicly took, like other priests, remains valid till he dies.
The bishop insisted Mbaka must abide by what the Catholic church teaches and stands for.
Citing the Canon Law 285, Kaigama said priests are “prohibited from embarking on anything alien to our clerical status and what the Catholic church teaches us, we are not allowed to dabble into politics.
“It doesn’t mean we can’t be prophetic in condemning criminality and corruption, we can do that, that is a prophetic mission.
“Partisan politics is not part of our calling. If a clergy embarks on such unbecoming and foreign conduct, the church has a solution and the church knows what to do.”