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Ven, Mar

After years of meticulous planning and hard work, the Holy Innocent Catholic Church, renamed Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church, was officially dedicated and blessed on 16 May 2021. It was a joyful occasion for the Paulines, Diocese of Enugu and for the parishioners of the Queen of the Apostles Catholic Church. Rev. Antony O. Gbuji, the then Bishop of Enugu Diocese, entrusted on 22 October. 2008 the Holy Innocent’s Parish at Nchatancha Nike Enugu and its property in perpetuity to the Society of Saint Paul. Since then the pioneering Parish priest and his successors laboured hard to realize a Pauline parish.

The solemn ceremony began at 10.30 am with a Mass presided over by His Lordship Most Rev Callistus V Onaga, the bishop of Enugu. Present also on the occasion were His Lordship Anthony Gbuji, Bishop emeritus of Enugu, and a host of Priests and Religious Sisters. During this ceremony 150 children received the Sacrament of Confirmation. At the beginning of the homily, the bishop announced that the Holy Innocents Catholic Church would be known henceforth as Queen of the Apostles’ Catholic Church. He stressed in his homily the need to maintain the sanctity of the Church, not to turn it into a place of recreation, but respect it as the dwelling place of God and sacred a space for Worship. He commended the efforts and sacrifices of the Pauline Fathers and encouraged them to open Mass centres in those places from where people cannot reach the parish. After the Mass, the bishop blessed the perpetual adoration Chapel and installed the Blessed Sacrament. He also blessed the grotto beside the church.

The people who gathered for the occasion were welcomed by Rev Fr Peter Perunnilathil, Superior and Parish Priest of the Queen of the Apostles’ Church. The ceremony was witnessed by Paulines from our various communities. Rev Fr Jikson Varkey, ssp, the Regional Vicar gave the vote of thanks and the entire ceremony came to a fitting finale with solemn agape hosted jointly by the parishioners and the Paulines.

Dove Siamo