Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo Xiv), when he was a priest in Maraba, Nasarawa Stste, Nigeria. Photo credit. Victor Bola Damitan
Gerald Onuoha was recently elected as Pope Leo XIV over the Roman Catholic Church. He worked in Peru and his adopted country, the United States. He is also not a stranger to Nigeria.
According to Victor Bola Damita, this is a small world, he was once a priest at St. John Catholic Church, Mararaba, Nasarawa State Archdiocese of Lafia, Nigeria. “God is the only one who knows tomorrow.
That’s his holiness, the new Pope Leo Xiv in the photograph above”
Also, Jude Nwamanam, said the New pontiff had visited Jos Plateau state severally and facilitated the establishment of APURIMAC, a no profit organisation of the order of Saint Augustine in three different locations on the Plateau
- St Monica’s Rantya,
- Mangu and
- Tunkus in Mikang Local government area
Nwamanam added that Leo also facilitated the establishment of St Augustine Secondary School, New Kuru, which gave birth to St Augustine’s Du in Jos South LGA. “He has been in Jos for conferences, meetings and Chapters of the OSA. He is indeed part of the Jos Archdiocese and Plateau, having traversed the length and breath of the state and Nigeria, especially where Augustinian formations are domicile.”
Rose Moses, a journalist, revealed that in 2016, the new Pope, Leo XIV (then Bishop Robert Prevost) visited her local community, Obowo Local Government Area in Imo State.
Specifically, he was in Avutu in Obowo for the burial of the late Rev. Fr. Captain Gerald Onuoha, a priest from the Okigwe Diocese, who worked with him in Peru. The visit was noted as a significant moment of cross-cultural solidarity and priestly commitment.
We hope to receive him again, this time as the leader of world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on a different mission. Our prayer for him in his new assignment is that may the Lord “preserve him, give him a long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and not hand him over to the power of his enemies. May your hand be upon your holy servant, and upon your son, whom you have anointed. Amen”