Catholic Women Organization [C.W.O.]: Strength And Glory Of Mbaise Catholicism

The mighty force of the Catholic Women Organization [CWO] is an indispensable catalyst that makes every positive thing happen in Mbaise Catholicism and perhaps throughout Nigeria. It is doubtful whether there could have been a vibrant Catholicism among the Mbaise people without the Catholic women as a moving force.

The Catholic women are the force behind everything good. They provide the dynamism, the unity of purpose, the loyalty and the material resources the Catholic Church needs in order to grow to maturity in Mbaise land. There is not any greater force in Mbaise Catholicism than that of the mothers. Without them nothing moves. And without their support nothing gets accomplished.

Since the late 1930s and early 1940s when the Holy Rosary Sisters of Mother Coleman era started bringing Mbaise women together for a pious organization that was dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, under the name "Christian Mothers Association", the Catholic Mothers in Mbaise have been such a force to reckon with in moving the Catholic Church forward. As a pious organization dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mbaise Catholic women of old under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Rosary Sisters made their own the novena of the first Saturday devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of our Lady of Fatima.

With this perfect integration of the spiritual and the social life, the mothers of Mbaise Catholicism transformed themselves into a sort of an inner engine for the forward dynamism of the Catholic Church in Mbaise land and elsewhere. They organized themselves into a great task force to accomplish all sorts of work for the progress of their station, parish and diocesan churches. From their own initiative they assumed the role of feeding their local priests through monthly provision of foodstuff and cash to augment whatever may be lacking before the month runs out.

During church development fundraising, Mbaise Catholic women are a force to reckon with. Their collective contributions go a long way to help execute major projects at different levels of the Church. They make a major contribution in the training of future priests and religious men and women. They usually take the lead in accomplishing the charitable works of the Church in their respective places. They are the leaders in the church's corporal works of mercy. They are a very dynamic wing of Mbaise Catholicism.

The contribution of the Catholic Women is invaluable in Mbaise Catholicism. They had gotten accustomed to doing all these long before they would become a norm throughout the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria. In the early days of the missionaries, Mbaise Catholic women were miles ahead of their contemporaries from the other parts of Igbo land. They were a major force in the inspiration that led to the establishment of the Catholic Women Organization [CWO] by the late Archbishop Charles Heerey in the old Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province. It was only when Archbishop Heerey upgraded the Christian Mothers Association that was a staple in Mbaise land that its name got changed to Catholic Women Organization [CWO].

However even though its name got changed especially when it became a provincial and national concern, its First Saturday Devotion and its other duties and apostolates have remained exactly the way they were when they were initiated in Mbaise land in the 1940s.

Many of the traditions that are taken for granted in the Nigerian Catholic Church of today as far as the Catholic women are concerned began with the Christian Mothers Association of Mbaise Catholicism. For instance, the program of bringing a new born child to the church is largely traceable to the ministry of Msgr Peter Onyewuchi - a native of Orlu, at St Brigid's Church Nnarambia Ahiara. However, the ultimate origin of that wonderful apostolate appeared to have been the Christian Mothers Association program that was inspired by the Holy Rosary Sisters of Ogbor Nguru.

Mother Coleman and her group of Holy Rosary Sisters were the inventors of many traditional movements and practices among the old and young women that are taken for granted in the Nigerian Catholic Church of today. For instance, along with Frs. Anthony Stieglar and David Panacky of Sacred Heart Church Nguru, the Holy Rosary Sisters are said to have begun the pious organisation for young girls that is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is called Mary League Girls Association.

This was how powerful and influential Mbaise Catholicism was to the Catholic Church in Nigeria in the old days when the fair-minded and objective Irish missionaries were in charge.

It is regrettable that after all these major contributions to the Nigerian Catholic Church, Mbaise Catholicism is being relegated, downgraded, rubbished, discriminated against and treated as a pariah in the comity of later Catholic communities that have contributed very little to the growth of the Catholic Church in Igbo land and throughout Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

This is one reason why crisis broke out in Mbaise land following the 2012 bishopric appointment. Mbaise Catholics think rightly or wrongly that they have contributed so much to the growth of the Catholic Church in Nigeria and gained very little from it as they are constantly mistreated and discriminated against at different levels of the Church in Nigeria.