His Holiness, Pope Francis, has approved the voluntary retirement of His Grace, Anthony J.V. Obinna, as Archbishop of Owerri Archdiocese.
Pope Francis appointed the Bishop of Umuahia Diocese, His Lordship, Lucius Ugorji, as Archbishop of Owerri Archdiocese and the Head of Owerri Metropolitan See.
The Papal Nuncio broke the news at the ongoing First 2022 Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) Plenary at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja.
Details of other ecclesiastical postings will be made known as the full content of His Holiness letter is known.
Archbishop Obinna confirmed the development.
“This is correct to the dot. Blessings,” he told our correspondent.
Born June 26, 1946, Archbishop Obinna was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church on April 9, 1972.
It was after he graduated from the Bigard Memorial Seminary and the Pontifical Urban University Rome, with a First Class Honours degree in Divinity (B.D.).
In 1975, he earned the Licentiate degree in Moral Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, earning at the same time a diploma in Counselling Psychology.
In 1976, he was employed to teach at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education Owerri, in the Department of Religious Studies.
He worked at the same time as Catholic Chaplain to the College Community.
From 1979 to 1984, he was on study leave at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. where he earned a Master’s degree in Religious Studies (M.A.) and a Ph.D in Religious Studies and Education.
Archbishop Obinna returned to Nigeria in 1984 and continued to teach at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, rising to the rank of Principal Lecturer and Head of the Department of Religious Studies.
Concurrently in 1984/85 he taught Fundamental Theology at the Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu.
While on Sabbatical leave in 1993 in the United States of America, he was appointed bishop of Owerri to succeed his revered predecessor, the late Bishop Mark O. Unegbu.
He was ordained Bishop on September 4, 1993. On March 31, 1994, he was appointed Archbishop and Metropolitan, Owerri Ecclesiastical Province.
Under Archbishop Obinna, the parishes in Owerri Archdiocese grew from 50 to 93, thereby increasing the pastoral challenges before him.
