Frozen. That was how I sat glued to the screen, watching what first appeared like a mere rumor slowly become a painful reality.
On May 13, 2026, the Cathedral Church of St. Theresa’s, Abakaliki, overflowed with grief as the Apostolic Administrator, Most Rev Ernest Obodo, welcomed thousands of mourners led by the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Most Rev. Michael Francis Crotty, who gathered alongside two Cardinals, eight Archbishops, forty-two Bishops, hundreds of clergy and religious, leaders of sister Christian denominations, government officials, and thousands of faithful from Ebonyi and beyond, to bid farewell to late Most Rev. Peter Nworie Chukwu who died at the age of 61.
“Ka osi sọ Chukwu” (as it pleased God). That was one of the songs that resonated from the choir at the burial mass. Yet the heart still trembles before such words.
In only four years and seven months of episcopacy, Bishop Peter Chukwu wrote a gospel not merely with ink, but with compassion. Archbishop Lucius Ugorji captured him rightly in his homily: “Late Bishop Peter Chukwu was compassionate for the poor.”
I remember accompanying him in January 2025 to Villa Maria in Umezeokoha. Before we departed, he quietly packed foodstuffs into the car and told us he wished to visit an old woman who had once been active in the Church during his seminary apostolic work. We searched through the village until we found her humble compound. The family stood stunned that a Bishop would seek them out. The old woman prayed over him with tears and trembling hands. Truly, if prayers alone could prolong life, Bishop Peter would still be with us today, because that woman wished him a long life and good health from her pious heart.
Yes, that was Bishop’s heart, a shepherd who understood the burdens of his flock because he walked among them. He loved the poor naturally, without performance. He carried people in his soul.
And though Bishop Peter may have left before us, he is not lost.
There is something deeply symbolic that he now rests inside the Cathedral Church from where he once ruled and pastured his flock. He sleeps close to the altar upon which the Holy Eucharist is offered daily; the altar where sacrifices for the living and the dead rise continually to heaven. Even in death, he remains spiritually close to the mystery he celebrated faithfully throughout his priesthood and episcopacy.
As his body was being lowered to rest, the atmosphere bore the sorrowful silence of Calvary; the camera man (God forgive him) went blank and I felt like interrupting my gaze to remind him to focus his camera. The blank live-streaming that mistakenly and coincidentally followed, felt like that fading evening after Christ had died and was being taken down from the Cross and laid inside the tomb, that is when disciples walked away with broken hopes, heavy hearts, and unanswered questions.
And indeed, many walked away from the Cathedral today with eyes dimmed by tears. Yes, they were not alone, not even those from afar could resist the brokenness.
But Bishop Peter is not there to sleep forever. No. He will rise with the Christ whom he served faithfully at the altar. Death does not conclude the story of those who lived for God. The tomb is not his destination; resurrection is.
Today too, we priests are confronted with the same message we preach to grieving families: that God remains sovereign, that death is not the end, and that those who die in Christ are alive in Him.
With this tribute, a chapter closes. Yet his legacies continue speaking- in the institutions Bishop Peter built, in the inspirations he left behind, in the lives he touched quietly, and in the compassionate memory now engraved upon the Diocese of Abakaliki forever.
And as the Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, urged during his condolences, may we all become another Bishop Peter.
May we not walk away like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who departed in sorrow because Christ had died. For like them, we too shall recognize him again whenever we gather around the altar, each time we break the Body of Christ and drink His Precious Blood at the Holy Mass offered for the living and the dead.
Yes. There, in that sacred mystery, memories do not die. There, shepherds never truly leave their flock. There, Bishop Peter will still speak softly to us: Ihe ụnụ bụ ka m bụ na mbụ. Ihe m bụ ụgbụa, ka ụnụ nile na-abụ, mgbe oge ga-eru (what you are, I was. What I am now, you will become when the time comes)
And perhaps, in the quiet ringing of the sanctuary bell, in the incense rising toward heaven, in the fading echoes of “Holy, Holy, Holy,” we shall remember once more that gentle shepherd who loved the poor, carried his people in his heart, and has now gone ahead of us into the eternal light of Christ.
Adieu, our Lord Bishop!
Sleep near the altar you loved!!
Rest until the resurrection morning!!!
©Fr Felix Uche Akam: 13.05.2026
