Father Mbaka, a Charismatic Catholic priest of Enugu diocese in Eastern Nigeria who started the Adoration Ministry has been in the news in the last few years for many wrong reasons.
His political prophecies have created a lot of problems and confusion in the church and the Nigerian state and undermined the credibility and reputation of the Catholic Church. In this theological and pastoral commentary, Fr Stan Chu Ilo, shows the theological, pastoral, and canonical grounds for suspending the ministry of Fr Mbaka, while commending the local ordinary, Bishop Onaga for making the right call.
The episode also demonstrates that Fr Mbaka has violated core theological, canonical, and pastoral principles that the Catholic Church has offered to guide popular piety. Fr Mbaka is invited to take a break, to retool, rethink, and reflect with a spirit of humility on his vocation as a Catholic priest, and discern with his bishop how to carry out this vocation through any ministry or assignment that the Church will offer to him when the canonical process on the Adoration Ministry is completed.
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