EPISCOPAL ORDINATION OF BISHOP ELECT MALACHY JOHN GOLTOK FIRST AFRICAN BISHOP OF BAUCHI, NORTHERN NIGERIA THURSDAY 19TH MAY 2011 CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O BRIEN INTRODUCTION: It is indeed a very great privilege for me to be here with you as the Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh in your own Diocese of Bauchi Northern Nigeria for the Episcopal Ordination of one of your own sons as your Bishop Malachy John Goltok. 1 / 8
For almost 50 years now there has been a bond of love and friendship between our two Dioceses forged by two great Bishops, both now dead, Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray of St Andrews and Edinburgh and Bishop John Reddington of Jos. Those links so strongly forged have continued down to our own time, with priests, religious and laity being involved in them and, of course, financial help given from Edinburgh to Bauchi. I myself volunteered for missionary work in Bauchi shortly after my own ordination as a priest in 1965. However at that time between 1966 and 1971 I was working as a priest in a parish in Fife Scotland while also chaplain and teacher at one of our Catholic secondary schools. Consequently our Archbishop, Archbishop Gordon Joseph Gray, asked me to defer my request and it was not until my own appointment as Archbishop in succession to Cardinal Gray that I was enabled to pay my first visit to Bauchi following on my ordination as a Bishop in 1985. It was then a later privilege for me to welcome back to Edinburgh your Bishop of Bauchi, Bishop John Moore SMA, and then in turn to visit him in Bauchi in the course of which visit we had the privilege of opening the second church in Bauchi Town that dedicated to Our Lady of Loretto funded by one of our parishes in the Archdiocese, Our Lady of Loretto and St Michael, Musselburgh. HISTORY OF LINKS BETWEEN ARCHDIOCESE OF ST ANDREWS OF EDINBURGH AND DIOCESE OF BAUCHI: One can trace the history of the links between Edinburgh and Bauchi back to the late Pope Pius XII and his wonderful document Fidei Donum of 1957 when the Pope appealed to those dioceses which had a sufficient number of priests to allow then to fulfil their vocation in mission territories. He stated then: A diocese should not be deaf to the appeal of the distant missions. God will not let himself be outdone in generosity. 2 / 8
As a result of that appeal my predecessor Archbishop Gray invited young priests of the Archdiocese to volunteer for temporary service on the missions. In turn he stated: If we are generous in sharing our priests with others in greater need, the Holy Spirit will always provide enough vocations for our own Archdiocese. Archbishop Gray himself went to Nigeria in 1962 to visit priests then serving in Southern Nigeria. He met Cardinal Montini of Milan (soon to become Pope Paul VI) with Archbishop Pignedoli, the Apostolic Delegate to West Africa who shared their concerns for the vast areas of Nigeria where people had still to hear the Gospel message. Just one year later in 1963 Archbishop Gray met Bishop John Reddington SMA, then Bishop of Jos at the Second Vatican Council. They discussed the needs of the Diocese of Jos which included the Province of Bauchi an area larger than Scotland with very great potential but unable to be developed through lack of priests and resources. It was then in January 1964 that Archbishop Gray, after due consultation with the Chapter and Priests of the Archdiocese and with the encouragement of Pope Paul VI that Archbishop Gray adopted the Province of Bauchi promising to staff and finance this area of the Diocese of Jos. Cardinal Pignedoli stated in 1964: The example of Edinburgh, regardless of its grave apostolic problems, has manifested its vision and grave concern for the missionary world. 3 / 8
Consequently, after the adoption of Bauchi by St Andrews and Edinburgh, Father John McAllister and Father Daniel Simpson left Calabar in the south of the country to set out for Jos to begin their wonderful missionary apostolate, with the Province of Bauchi then being made up of three parishes, Bauchi and Gombe Towns and Biliri. The were joined shortly afterwards by Father Tony McNally and Father John Gibbons. Father Gibbons later tragically died in a road accident and was buried in the grounds of St John s Church, Bauchi the church later to become the Cathedral. I myself visited there a few years ago to pray at Father John s grave and also to dedicate a memorial stone in memory of his close friend and fellow missionary, Monsignor Simpson, following the death of the latter in Edinburgh. After Nigeria achieved independence in 1960 there were many unfortunate political overtones and military coups leading to much disruption in the normal life of the country. However missionary work continued and it was in 1967 that Father McCann, Father Agnew and Father Clark went to Bauchi to be joined one year later by Father Leo Glancy. Bishop Reddington retired as Bishop and then the new Bishop of Jos was a priest of Nigeria, Gabriel Gonsum Ganaka in 1975. It was in October 1983 that Bishop Ganaka came to Edinburgh to celebrate a great Mass of Thanksgiving for the 25 years of archdiocesan missionary service since 1957 in Nigeria. It was then that Bishop Ganaka thanked Cardinal Gray for adopting Bauchi in its infancy and took over the full responsibility for the financing and staffing of the Church in Bauchi in the confident hope he stated: That we will continue to live as brothers and sisters in Christ helping one another. Father Simpson and Father McCann remained on in Jos Diocese serving Bauchi under Bishop Ganaka. There was great development in the diocese with initially the area of Kafanchan becoming a diocese in 1995 while Bauchi was established as an apostolic vicariate in 1996 and becoming a diocese on 11th March 2004 with the first Bishop being Bishop John Moore a SMA Father. 4 / 8
Various other diocesan priests spent varying lengths of time in Bauchi including in addition to those already named Father John Callaghan, Father James McKinnon, Father Sandy Mitchell and Father Aidan Cannon, as well as a priest on loan from the Diocese of Dunkeld, Father Andrew Rooney. In addition Bishop James Monaghan and Bishop Kevin Rafferty, successive Auxiliary Bishops of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, visited Bauchi and returned inspired to encourage priests and people to maintain their interest in the Diocese of Bauchi. Funding for the whole project and the support of the mission in Bauchi was undertaken by one of the Edinburgh priests, who had worked in Calabar, namely Monsignor Daniel Foley. He really made the name Bauchi a name that was on the lips of everyone in the Archdiocese particularly concentrating in parishes and schools on the necessity of Friday pence/penance for Bauchi! He was later appointed National Director of Missio Scotland. For many years the Ursuline Sisters of Jesus, the first Order of nuns to come to Scotland in 1834 after the Reformation, came to Gambar in 1973 to look after the new clinic there and continued their apostolate down through the years. Sister Mary McCluskey, universally known as Mary Gambar, was extremely well known in the mission territory and with other Sisters is still active in parish apostolate in Scotland. Sadly, Bishop John Moore died in his native Ireland of ill health and the diocese was vacant until the appointment of Malachy John Goltok as its second bishop being the first native Bishop of Bauchi. 5 / 8
APPOINTMENT OF BISHOP MALACHY JOHN GOLTOK: Father Malachy John was born on 12th July 1965 in Bauchi. Malachy John s father John was the mission cook in St John s Bauchi for over 20 years dying only last year, with his mother now living in Pankshin. Malachy is the second eldest of a family of ten; and after primary school in Wunti, Bauchi from 1972 until 1978 he went on to secondary school at the minor seminary of St John Vianney in Barkin Ladi in Jos from 1978 to 1984. Following on these studies he began his seminary studies for the Priesthood at the major seminary of St Augustine in Jos between 1984 and 1990 being ordained priest on 3rd November 1990 for the Archdiocese of Jos. Initially serving as assistant priest in the Parish of St Stephen Jagindi he was appointed Parish Priest of St James Gombe from 1996 until 2004; and then Director of the Centre of Spiritual Formation in Kuru, Jos between 2004 and 2011. From 2004 to 2011 he was Parish Priest of St Finbarrs and Treasurer of the Archdiocese of Jos before being appointed by Pope Benedict XV1 as the first Nigerian Bishop of the Diocese of Bauchi in February 2011. Father (later Monsignor) Danny Simpson was moved to St John s Church Bauchi following on the tragic death of Father John Gibbons the first volunteer Parish Priest of Bauchi who died after a car accident on 11th January 1966. Father Simpson remained in Bauchi until he retired in 1995 looking after Malachy and the family with a fatherly care. When Monsignor Simpson retired to Edinburgh in 1995 because of his ill health Father Malachy was one of those who would come to visit him every year bringing him up-to-date news of the growth of the Church in Bauchi. I know that as Bursar of the Archdiocese of Jos Father Malachy John has been an invaluable help to Bishop Kaigama who I am sure will now look forward to having Bishop Malachy John Goltok as a colleague and Member of the Bishops Conference of Nigeria. I am also aware of 6 / 8
course that the Priests of Bauchi Diocese regard Malachy John as a brother who knows them well and for whom they have the highest regard and respect. CONCLUSION: I have given above something of the history of the wonderful links between the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh and the Diocese of Bauchi. These links would not have been forged without the grace and blessing of Almighty God and the outstanding leadership and service shown by bishops, priests, religious sisters and the lay faithful of the countries of Scotland and Nigeria and in particular the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh and the Archdiocese of Jos with the Diocese of Bauchi. Those who have forged and strengthened these links were indeed people of faith listening to that initial call of Jesus to his followers to go and teach all nations and baptise them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Those links forged in 1964 have continued for almost 50 years now and please God will continue in to the future. Both countries, both Dioceses, have benefitted and it is surely by way of appreciation that there are at present five priests from Africa working and studying in the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. It is also a mark of the ongoing love and friendship between our two countries and our two Dioceses that I have been invited to be here with you today. It gives me great joy being at this wonderful ordination of the first African Bishop of Bauchi to realise I am in a long line of 7 / 8
wonderful people forging and strengthening those links which have been of so much benefit both to Africa and to Scotland. May God indeed bless all of those involved and continuing and strengthening the links at the present time especially Bishop Malachy John Goltok the first African Bishop of Bauchi. May God indeed bless and reward him for his own generosity at this time in undertaking this Office at the request of Pope Benedict XVI; may God indeed bless all his family and friends, especially Monsignor Danny Simpson, in whose memory I dedicated a plaque beside the grave of the late Father John Gibbons on my most recent visit to Bauchi; and may we all benefit in the thought that we are continuing that apostolic work of Jesus Christ himself in handing on the good news of the Gospel to all those who desire to hear it. 8 / 8