He Who Puts His Hand To The Plough…
Is it getting harder for Catholic Priests to not look back?
As soon as you read the byline, I imagine one of two scenarios went through your head;
- You’re a devout Catholic and you’re thinking, “God forbid! What sort of clownery is contained within this story?”
- You’re non-Catholic thinking, “It’s about time…”
Or maybe you’re a part of a third, less extreme group, wondering why I would suggest such a thing, and you’re genuinely curious to see what I’m getting at. I certainly do hope I’m able to pass this message across in the most inquisitive manner possible. Let us begin;
Source of Concern
I’ll start by pointing out the state of events that drew me to think about this article. Initially, I was going to go with the title, “Let this cup pass me by… Are Priests getting tired of their vows?” But then, I realised I would have to do a whole section on educating people about the priestly vows, how they came to be, and perhaps what popular people (relevant to my point) may have broken their vows.
Rather than ply that road, I made myself the puss in priestly boots; imagining what life must be for these men, hardened by 10+ years of education and charged to go out into a world, having nothing that belonged to them; ultimately, not even belonging to themselves.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Alia
I first came upon the idea of this article a few months ago when — like any other day — I was scrolling through the blue bird app and happened to stumble into a tweet mentioning a catholic priest in a certain diocese vying for a political position in his state.
I thought to myself; “Ugh, Twitter trolls again…”
Sadly (or fortunately, depending on who you ask) for me, I have an undying curiosity that simply will not remain silent in the face of unanswered questions. I abandoned my work for that day and decided to go gossip-hunting.
Now, I do not claim to be an expert at detecting the original account out of many parody Twitter accounts (especially when that original lacks the famous blue tick), but I did search through tweets and happened to find a certain @frhyacinthalia; a Twitter account who became a tweep in January 2022. Lucky enough, there were less than 10 tweets, so the earliest of those was barely a scroll away;
Wow; Revered Father Doctor Hyacinth Alia… an ordinated Priest of the “Holy Roman Catholic Church,” looking to become the next Governor of Benue State; that too, under the infamous All Progressives Congress (APC) political party. A Priest in every sense of the word; he even posted photos of himself officiating the Holy mass a few times.
Of course, the biggest question for me would be how a Catholic priest who may have sworn perpetual poverty managed to raise 50 million naira (NGN 50M) to purchase the APC Express of Interest form.
Nevertheless, the Catholic Diocese of Gboko, Benue state, suspended Fr. Hyacinth, for breaking the priestly code of conduct regarding non-involvement in partisan politics.
The story between him winning the APC gubernatorial ticket for Benue state and the party looking to cancel the primaries as of today, is of no consequence to this article. Therefore, I now move to the second big candidate for this article;
Very Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka
No stranger to religious and political controversy, Fr. Mbaka (as he is more popularly known) is by far, the more popular of the two priests I chose to focus on today. He grew to fame in the early 2000s with his Adoration Ministries in Enugu State, Nigeria (abbreviated as AMEN). Of course, the different adoration albums he released with his band helped a lot.
Christians in South-Eastern Nigeria held him in high regard for so long; with a good number of them believing him to be the most anointed priest of his time, as far as they could tell. Catholics and non-Catholics swarmed to his Adoration ground for prayers and blessings, and to purchase blessed items.
I once attended a crusade myself, where Fr. Mbaka ministered on the last day. As the event ended and Fr. Mbaka’s car was leaving, people crowded it and would simply not let him go. People took off their clothes to wipe his windshield and lay on the car’s hood in what became a low-speed parade. This is just how much he had been idolised.
It doesn’t seem so far-fetched to assume that being a man, some of this started to get to Fr. Mbaka’s head. In 2015, he fell out with a lot of his followers for his prophecy that President Muhammadu Buhari — who was then, only an aspirant — was sent by God to save Nigeria. Fast-forward a few years, and a lot of Nigerians would argue that such a revelation was definitely of flesh and blood.
In 2018, Fr. Mbaka had a political fallout again, after he asked President Buhari to not contest during the 2019 elections, owing to another revelation. The ruling party hit back with a statement that they were not bound by his prophecies.
In 2021, once again, he had a fallout with the Presidency, leading to a hurl of words back and forth and an eventual threat to blackmail him. This led to the now-infamous clergyman’s 30-day suspension by the Catholic Diocese of Enugu, by the authority of His Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Callistus Valentine Onaga.
Now, barely a year after, the man of God is caught in his own web again. This time, for making statements which could be considered derogatory to Presidential candidate and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, going further to imply he would never become President.
Following this act, the Catholic diocese of Enugu released a statement dissociating itself from such statements. The letter below — similar to the one issued to Fr. Hyacinth (see above) — states that the act is in clear violation of some priestly code of conduct with prevents them from engaging in partisan politics; a fact which Fr. Mbaka simply had to have known.
Only a day later, the Catholic Diocese of Enugu released a second statement; this time, banning Catholics from attending Adoration ministries. See below
What Now?
Yes, the question. Why did I think it fit to write this? I don’t know, maybe I’m tired of seeing Priests turn on their vows big time. I mean, there are little things that happen on the spur of the moment, and you can’t help but look past them as mistakes that we as humans are prone to.
However, running for an electoral seat seems to be a rather long process; and public too. He had to have been warned along the way, by parishioners and colleagues.
Publicly picking a side in the name of God — that too, during the liturgy — may have been a momentary lapse the first time, but I once heard the saying; “One is an accident, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern.”
Make no mistake; this is only in politics, and it contains only the two most recent POPULAR scandals. I chose to not expand the scope of my article to contain other forms of scandal. The reason for this article is to ask the question; Are modern catholic priests now looking back as well?
“He who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God…” ~Luke 9:62
Why go ahead to make vows when you’re unsure of your discipline? Why continue stubbornly on a path to breaking your religious vow after being reprimanded?
I giggled at this point because I just realised, we could make the same argument against people who show utter disregard for their marriage vows. Heh! Your face didn’t happen to squeeze a little bit, did it? I don’t think we’re ready for that conversation.
Catholics will tell you to pray for the Priests — they are human, after all.
Some people might use more occurrences like this to discredit the institution of Priesthood.
Me? I just wonder what questions we aren’t asking? Perhaps it’s true that history has nothing new for us — it only rinses and repeats in a different format. For if in 2022, centuries after the church’s dark ages, Priests who should show the body of Christ the way, are themselves still breaking their vows; trying to enjoy benefits outside of the vocation, then maybe George R. R. Martin was right after all.
“Words are Wind.”
