From The Pillar:
A Nigerian diocese announced on Friday that four deacons were ordained earlier this month under false pretenses, after a priest claiming to be their religious superior presented false documentation authorizing their ordination.
The Diocese of Lokoja, in northern Nigeria, said in a July 19th statement that it was “deceived” and “misled” — and that it discovered a ruse when one of the men was recognized after the ordination, by people who had seen him already presenting himself as a priest and simulating the Holy Eucharist.
The Lokoja diocese said that since it has discovered the fraud, it is “now seeking appropriate canonical means to address this unfortunate matter.”
So what might that mean? What’s the status of those deacons? What happens next?
Read on for some answers. Among other things, it appears the religious order involved is not legit. As The Pillar concludes:
Canon law stipulates that a man ordained with false dimissorial letters is ipso facto suspended from exercising his orders. And, following that norm, the Diocese of Lokoja has been clear that the four men will not be permitted to exercise diaconal ministry.
Further, if any of them were pretending to be priests, when they were not, that would compound the illicitness of their ordinations, and prevent them from exercising ministry — although given the totality of circumstances, the illicit nature of the ordinations seems already pretty well-established.
It seems most likely that the diocese will write to the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, and petition for the men to be laicized — and likely that the Vatican will grant that petition quickly, given the circumstances.
Pray for all concerned. What a sad mess.
