Location: St.Dominic Catholic Church Yaba, Lagos. Nigeria.
Year: 2020.
Date: April, Friday the 13th [5th Sunday in ordinary time][Catholic liturgical calendar]
Time: 8:48am.
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Chapter One•
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis!
the canorous and strident voices of the choristers beneath the clerestory clothed in their green ceremonious vestments shook the prodigious edifice to its very foundations.
Their ecclesiastical habiliments were prettified by ornamental silvery girdles, and they swayed in harmonious synchronization, while they cantillated the popular Lamb of God prayer in Latin- the official language of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Lamb of God prayer had been introduced into the Roman Rite Mass by Pope Sergius I, who had reigned from 687 to 701, and as ever since been one of the most powerful prayers of the Catholic Church universally.
The unusual blitheness and ebullience of the choir was adequately complimented by the vivacious eccentricity in which the board of Lectors,the Altar servers,and the church wardens had discharged their duties during the course of the Mass.
It was indeed a jubilant and joyous Sunday for every citizen of the country. A son of the soil- Cardinal Aderotimi Okoye had just been declared three days ago by the conclave as the new Holy See of Rome, and the successor of Jorge Mario Bergoglio- Pope Francis.
Pope Emeritus Francis had tendered his resignation letter on the 18th of March 2020 during a meeting with the Vatican Cardinals. The official release of his resignation letter via the media had thrown the entire Catholic faithful aback, and had come as a shocking spine-chiller to the World in general.
The first paragraph of his letter still oscillates obstreperously in the Eidetic memories of many Catholics and non-Catholics worldwide.
"After having repeatedly examined my conscience
before God, I have come to the certainty that my
strengths due to an advanced age are no longer
suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine
ministry. It is with great honour that I tender my resignation............."
Although Pope Emeritus Francis had claimed his untimely resignation was because of his deteriorating health, some people posited however, that he was merely seeking for cover cowardly from the recent Vatican murders and the engulfing religious wars.
The declaration of the next Pope and Vicar of Rome was the most talked about topic on social media, television ,radio etcetera.
It also eclipsed the Martin Trayvon incident of 2012,and went ahead to be the most tweeted event of the century.
The forbearing Cardinals spent three seemly unending weeks in the Conclave before the long awaited announcement of the successor of St.Peter.
The entire World was thrown into a tsunami of unquantifiable delectation and bliss, when the legendary white smoke was seen emerging from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel- white smoke in the Vatican city signifies that a new Pope had been selected by the Conclave.
The world was also left bewildered and consternated when the new Pope was said to be from Africa, a Nigerian...The first black Pope in the Church's history.
Cardinal Aderotimi Okoye reminisced deeply as he sat sedately on the elaborately adorned 4ft tall Cathedra positioned in front of the giant gold crucifix on the altar, and in line with the portable credence table.
He had been a young, promising and rhapsodic seminarian in St.Dominic Catholic Church 53 years ago. He had taught catechism every Sunday evening, socialised freely with the CYON[Catholic Youth Organisation], and had even played street soccer colloquially known as Monkey Post with some of the Church's workers on the tarred streets of Akoka, Yaba.
He has returned to his roots- not as a neophyte inexperienced seminarian, but as a mellowed Cardinal newly appointed by the almighty Conclave to be the Episcopal Barque of St.Peter.
This would be his last Eucharistic celebration in the country before his departure to the Vatican. And what better place would be in celebrating his last supper on Nigerian soil than with the Parish, and people of God who had helped profoundly in making him the man that he is today.
Tears of Joy dripped brazenly from his eyes while the voice of the Church's announcer resonated through the ever-listening pinnas of the sanguine congregation.
It was finally time for Cardinal Aderotimi Okoye to make his farewell and valedictory speech. The entire church bursted into a volcanic eruption of deafening round of applauses. The type that could deafen a deaf man!.
He was accompanied to the lectern on the other side of the altar by two acolytes. They processed choreographically, and bowed in unison at the colossal crucifix that hung at the centre of the Altar.
Cardinal Aderotimi Okoye mounted the rostrum and began his speech in earnest-
'In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy'.....
He hadn't finished making the sign of the cross when two cracking sounds quaked the Church building. The Cardinal's skull was left in shambles as a metal bullet found its way into his bonce. ✘...
Authors: Aromolaran michael, ODUMOSU omotoyosi