THE BEATIFICATION OF THE POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE NEW DAWN IN NIGERIA

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1 THE BEATIFICATION OF THE POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE NEW DAWN IN NIGERIA May 21, 2011 ABUJA - The beatification of Pope John Paul II has come and gone but not without great memories for those who physically attended the ceremonies at the Vatican; watched the event on the television, read reports on it in newspapers and magazines, and/or listened to the report and commentaries relayed through the radio, and internet services. The event was such of great magnitude that no one reporter can sufficiently report on what exactly took place at the venue of the ceremony. Thousands of reports must have certainly been generated already by different reporters, commentators and participants, all reporting from different perspectives as the occasion appealed to them. I, for instance, is reporting here from only one angle of my experience as a participant. You may want to know right away that my own report is anchored on the excitement I had in seeing overwhelming representations of many countries from all the continents of the world who besieged the Vatican Square and its environs on the day of the event. If the crowd were to be counted, one can be reporting millions of people who were completely determined to be witnesses of the beatification ceremony of the servant of God whom people regarded while still here on earth as a living saint and The Pope of the World. It seemed not many in the crowd bothered about standing on one spot for upto 12 hours before the ceremony began. Make-shifts toilets were provided at different points for those who wished to ease themselves. page 1 / 7

2 It may interest the reader to know that Nigeria was one of the countries that sent powerful delegations to the beatification ceremony. In other words, Nigeria was not left out in the country by country representation in spite of the occasional crises between Christians and Muslims in our dear Father-land. The President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who recently won the mandate of the majority of Nigerians (Christians and Muslims inclusive) in a most convincing manner to rule the country for a new term of four years, found it quite worthy for Nigeria to be represented at such one-in-a-life-time ceremony. The President despatched nine delegates headed by General Yakubu Gowon who is a Christian to lead the official Nigerian delegation to the ceremony. Other members of the delegation included: Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President; H.E. H.Odein, Ajumogobia, SAN, OFR, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs; Amb. (Dr.) Martin I. Uhomoibhi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Obed Wadzani, Nigeria s Ambassador to The Vatican; and Crown Prince Eheneden Erediauwa, Nigeria s Ambassador to Italy. Others were Mrs. E. Emuren, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines & Steel Development; Sir David Osunde, a Philanthropist; and Rev. Fr. Patrick Alumuku, Director, Catholic Media Services/Editor, Good Shepherd and Catholic Radio. There were also other Nigerian Group delegations that attended the ceremonies - one group of forty members, representing Nigerian Pilgrims who have been going on pilgrimage with Most Rev. Dr. John Onaiyekan, the Archbishop of Abuja, and another group of 115 members of the Catholic Community who attended the ceremony under the auspices of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. They were all beautiful dressed with great enthusiasm not only to capture the essence of the ceremony, but also to return home with multiple blessings. Pope John Paul II, who inspired the foundation of the Holy Family Society of Nigeria, also propelled the founder, Sir David E. Osunde, to organise yet another group to represent the pious society at his beatification ceremony. The Holy Family Society group of seventeen members was spiritually led by the Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev. Dr. Valerian Okeke, who is also the Chairman of Family and Human Life Committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria,(CBCN). page 2 / 7

3 Following his busy schedule at the Vatican, he appointed two other priests to represent him in all the activities in which the Holy Family Society participated at the Vatican, and during its five-day pilgrimage to Rome. As expected, many were attracted at the conclusion of the beatification ceremony to undertake a spiritual tour of St. Peter s Basilica where thousands of people filed through to venerate the body of Blessed Pope John Paul II. There were also thousands of others who conducted spiritual visits to many holy sites in and around Rome as well as meet with people of different nationalities worshipping regularly at the Vatican. The Nigerian delegations were not left out in any of these. We shall report on this shortly. Meanwhile, let us bring to the fore the qualities of the personage that propelled millions of people to be present at his beatification ceremony. In the official brochure published for the beatification ceremony, a concise story on the life and times of Pope John Paul II was given some eminence. What you will find below is an extract from the publication which, hopefully would make great impressions on you about the newly beatified Pope John Paul II. Fondly referred to as the Pope of the World, he was, by the Grace of God, beatified on Sunday, the 1st of May, Now, let me present a little peep into the life and times of Blessed Pope John Paul II as documented in the official brochure: KAROL JOZEF WOJTYLA, elected to the Papacy on October 16, 1978, was born in Wadowice (Poland) on May 18, He was the second of two children born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. His older brother, Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 followed by his father, an under official of the Armed Forces, who died in At the age of nine Karol made his First Holy Communion, followed at the age of eighteen by the sacrament of Confirmation. After having completed high school in Wadowice, he enrolled as a student at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow in page 3 / 7

4 Starting in 1942, after having felt the call to the priesthood, Karol began secretly to frequent courses at the clandestine Major Seminary in Cracow, directed by the Archbishop, Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha. At the same time, he was also one of the promoters of the clandestine Rhapsodic Theatre. After the war, Karol continued his studies at Cracow s Major Seminary which had been reopened, and then at the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, He was then sent to Rome by Cardinal Sapieha where he pursued a Doctorate in Theology (1948), with a thesis on the topic of faith in works of St. John of the Cross. During that time, in vacation periods, he exercised his pastoral ministry among Polish immigrants in France, Belgium and Holland. In 1948, he returned to Poland and was at first assistant priest in the parish of Niegowic, near Cracow, and then in the Church of Saint Florian in the same city. On July 4, 1958, he was nominated by Pope Pius XII as Auxillary Bishop of Cracow and Titular Bishop of Ombi. He was ordained Bishop on September 28, 1958 in the Cathedral of Wawel (Cracow) by Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak. On January 13, 1964, he was nominated as Archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who also later made him a Cardinal on June 26, He was elected to the Papacy on October 16, On October 22nd he began his ministry as Shepherd of the Universal Church. Among the primary documents which he wrote are: 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions and 45 Apostolic Letters. He also wrote numerous other works including five books: Crossing the Threshold of Hope (October 1994), Gift and Mystery: on the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priesthood (November page 4 / 7

5 1996), Roman Triptych: Meditations (March 2003), Rise, Let us be on our way! (May 2004), and Memory and Identity (February 2005). Pope John Paul II presided over 147 Beatifications, declaring 1,338 beatified and 51 Canonizations, proclaiming a total of 482 saints. He also officiated in nine Consistories thereby creating 231 (plus 1 in pectore ) Cardinals and presided at six plenary reunions of the College of Cardinals. On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was the victim of an attack in St. Peter s Square. Having been saved by the maternal hand of the Mother of God, and following a long recovery, he forgave his attacker. Grateful for the gift of new life, he intensified his pastoral work with heroic generosity. No other Pope had ever encountered as many people as John Paul II: the number of pilgrims at the Wednesday General Audiences alone (more than 1,160 audiences) came to over 17 million pilgrims, to say nothing of the special audiences and other religious services (the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone saw the arrival of 8 million pilgrims), and the other millions of faithful that he met during apostolic visits in Italy. With these intimidating qualities, and the high-esteem in which Pope John Paul II was held during his 27-year pontificate, will it surprise anyone that there was a tumultuous applause and long-standing ovation and choruses from different corners at St. Peter s Square when his beatification was officially proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI? Be that as it may, the ceremony was quite solemn. Everything was done to time. The Eucharistic celebration was unique. Practising Catholics who prepared themselves spiritually for the occasion, received Holy Communion as hundreds of priests were at hand to participate in the distribution of the Holy Eucharist. No one could doubt that the whole atmosphere was spiritually filled with God s presence. People who feared and speculated in the morning of that fateful day that there will be heavy down pour saw sunshine instead against all page 5 / 7

6 predictions. The sunshine was accompanied by cool breeze which got everyone in a comfortable position to pray fervently to God to use the beatification ceremony to rain his choicest blessings upon the world. At the corner where the Nigerian delegation stayed, we were all praying that the good Lord who has brought a new leadership on us in Nigeria should give the new leadership the enabling environment where President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will use his God s-given talent, wisdom and courage to change things in a positive direction for the sustenance of democracy, the good of the nation and the well-being of the people. We prayed that the new dawn in Nigeria will bring multiple blessings on all Nigerians and their friends wherever they are in the world. We did not stop there. General Gowon who led the Nigerian delegation ensured that we went to a nearby Church, within the Vatican, after the beatification ceremony, to meet with Nigerians in diaspora, to let them know that with their prayers, positive things were already happening in Nigeria. He used the opportunity to educate Nigerians in diaspora about the election processes which gave President Goodluck Jonathan the mandate to rule the country for a new term of four years. The Nigerian Chaplain in Italy, Rev. Fr. Robert Mgbeahurike congratulated everyone for the successes recorded in Nigeria especially during the elections and assured that with the good tidings coming from home, many Nigerians would be thinking of going back shortly to join hands with Nigerians who are ready to make the country one of the greatest nations of the world. From the foregoing, one can see immediately that the beatification of Pope John Paul II is already having a positive effect on Nigeria thanks to the wisdom of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in ensuring that there was an official representation at his beatification in Rome. It is hoped that this will speed up the Federal Government s decision to appoint shortly a Nigerian Ambassador solely for the Vatican so that he or she would harness the multiple benefits of staying close to the Vatican, especially with regard to shovelling a good part of the spiritual blessings there to the shores of Nigeria. This will really be the beginning of anchoring the new dawn in Nigeria on imperishable, undisturbable spiritual pillars. With this in place, Nigeria can move to greater heights spiritually, economically, socially and politically. Nigeria should not be afraid to make this great progressive leap into its future. page 6 / 7

7 Powered by TCPDF ( Sir David E. Osunde Founder, Holy Family Society page 7 / 7