Why Catholic Women Attacked Priest In Enugu

By The9jaTREND

The Gospel of John painted a striking picture of Jesus Christ storming the temple courts over 2,000 years ago. With a whip in hand, He overturned tables, scattered the coins of money changers, and drove away those who turned His Father’s house into a market.

That biblical image of righteous anger resurfaced on the 8th of August, 2025, after a dramatic incident at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Idedu, Etiti Amokwe, in Udi Local Government, Enugu State. Only this time, there were no whips. Instead, bottles were smashed. And at the centre of it all was the parish priest, Rev. Father Godfrey Olieri.

The viral video of the priest’s outburst at the annual August Meeting of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) shocked many. While some Nigerians condemned the cleric, others insisted he acted just like Christ in the temple, consumed by zeal for the house of God.

However, details have emerged on why the priest, enraged with righteous anger, descended on CWO members that fateful day. St. Mary’s, Idedu, is not a stand-alone parish. It is an outstation under St. Paul’s Parish, Ibuzor Amokwe.

For years, this arrangement worked. But, recently, St. Mary’s began pushing for autonomy, even building a parish house with the approval of the Diocese. Then tension began to build up but it boiled over when the outstation boycotted the joint August Meeting of the mother parish and chose to hold its own.

A women’s leader who witnessed the incident but did not want to be named said they had known that things would one day come to a head: “This parish coordinates three other stations, which are, St. Mary’s, St. Paul’s and St. Mathias. We have been together since 2000. But later, St. Mary’s broke away, saying they want to stand alone.

“We begged them to remain united, but they refused to listen. Even when this Reverend Father came, he tried to unite us. He is a man of peace. For two months, he begged them to organise the August Meeting together as we have always done. Still, they went their own way. The priest only went to St. Mary’s that day to question why they ignored his appeals.”

Chairman of the Catholic Men’s Organisation (CMO) at St. Paul’s Parish, Chukwuemeka Nebo, said: “On Friday, after Mass, I got several calls that our priest was attacked at St. Mary’s. We rushed there and saw him being booed, with people shouting evil things.

“This is a priest who has been with us for three years. But St. Mary’s people have refused to attend meetings or contribute to the parish. They descended on him just because he pleaded for unity.” He alleged that St. Mary’s parishioners were bent on severing ties and undermining the authority of the parish priest.

For Caroline Onyia, a women’s leader in the parish, the whole incident is being misrepresented online. She insists the priest went there in peace but was instead humiliated: “There is no way we haven’t tried to bring them back into unity. The Reverend Father only wanted to resolve things. But the way they resisted, anything could have happened.

“He once suffered a spinal cord injury. If he had been pushed to the ground that day, I doubt he would have survived it. We even saw blood stains on his cassock.” Onyia explained that while the priest’s smashing of bottles looked bad, the provocation he endured should not be ignored.

Founder of Heroine Women Foundation, Onyinye Mama, said: “The priesthood and the church are places of order. The Catholic and Anglican traditions have orthodoxy that must be respected. The parish priest takes decisions until he is transferred. People should obey him. Instead, we saw women bringing their sons and husbands to threaten him, this is unheard of.

“Yes, smashing bottles was not expected. Priests should exercise self-control. But remember, even Jesus once chased people out of the synagogue. The deeper problem is that today’s church has lost reverence. It has become more worldly, focused on numbers and money, less on salvation. People no longer tremble at the word ‘priest’ the way they once did.”

Days after the incident, members of the CWO of St. Paul’s Parish staged a peaceful solidarity rally for their priest. Carrying placards, they sent a direct appeal to the Enugu Catholic Diocese. Some of the placards read: “CWO St. Paul’s Parish is solidly behind our parish priest,” “Enugu Diocese, please ask St. Mary’s Idedu outstation to allow for peace.”

The protesters insisted that the Idedu outstation’s continuous disobedience was tearing the parish apart and called for urgent intervention by higher church authorities.

The clash at St. Mary’s has left the parish divided. To some, the priest’s action was rash, unbecoming of a spiritual leader. To others, it was a desperate cry for unity in the face of rebellion.

As the controversy rages, one thing remains clear: a community once bound by faith is now split by mistrust. And while Jesus once used a whip to restore order in the temple, in Amokwe, the parish priest deployed broken bottles that left parishioners asking whether peace will ultimately triumph. (TheSun)