Precious Blood of Jesus Adoration Ministry (PBJAM) operating from Ibagwa Nike in Enugu State in Southeastern Nigeria is not a Catholic entity, the Catholic Diocese of Enugu has stated.
In a statement shared with ACI Africa Thursday, February 15, the Chancellor of Enugu Diocese says, “Our attention has been drawn to a trending video of simulated Roman Catholic episcopal ordination and liturgical worship celebrated in Ibagwa Nike by a religious group that purported to be a ‘Roman Catholic Church’”.
“The Catholic Diocese of Enugu, led by Bishop Callistus Onaga, hereby dissociates herself completely from the activities of the simulated ‘Roman Catholic church’ and warns all her faithful to beware of them, their activities and movements,” Fr. Wilfred Chidi Agubuchie says.
He cautions the people of God in the Catholic Diocese of Enugu against being “lured by their claims, promises, simulations and religious enticements.”
In the one-page statement dated February 12, Fr. Agubuchie recounts how the group operates. He says, “From its signpost and the invitation cards shared by its adherents, the group claims to be an Old Roman Catholic Church (ORCC), a Roman Catholic Society of Pope Leo XIII, a Roman Catholic Church of England and Wales and a Catholic Diocese of Niger Delta.”
“Its signpost also bears the name Precious Blood of Jesus Adoration Ministry (PBJAM),” the Nigerian Catholic Priest further recounts.
He continues, “The group performs some religious activities that imitate those of the Latin Catholic Church such as Sunday ‘masses’, ‘exposition of their host with monstrance’, ‘Wednesday adoration’, ‘gethsemane night’, ‘divine mercy prayers’, ‘chapel of perpetual ‘adoration’, vestments with Roman Catholic outlook, ‘catholic crucifix’ and a facility that they called Pope John Paul II charity foundation.”
“They are led by a bishop who does not participate in the Apostolic Succession,” the Chancellor of Enugu Diocese says.
He goes on to clarify that “the said self-acclaimed Roman catholic group at Ibagwa Nike is not in communion with the Universal Catholic Church led by the Holy Father, Pope Francis with its Universal See and government in Vatican City, Rome.”
Fr. Agubuchie explains that to be “fully in the communion with the Universal Catholic Church on earth, a Christian MUST be joined with Christ in the Church's visible structure by the bonds of the profession of faith, the celebration of the sacraments and by ecclesiastical governance.”
“The pseudo catholic church based at Ibagwa Nike does not in reality share in any of these three bonds and, thus, is NOT in communion with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church under the Pope, Successor of St. Peter,” the Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Enugu says in the February 12 statement.