‘Help priests not to panic at old age’ – Fr. Mike Umoh

By PJ Usanga
The National Director of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Michael Nsikak Umoh, has advocated that policies and structures be put in place to support priests in their retirement, so that they do not need to panic at old age about their welfare and survival.
Fr. Umoh made the call in his homily at the 80th Birthday Mass of Very Rev. Msgr. Bernard Ayodele Okodua, held at the St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Surulere, Lagos, recently. He charged individuals and organisations in the Church, to support the Archdiocese in providing suitable facilities for priests so that they can reside within parish communities in their retirement.
The homilist commended the effort of the Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, for taking the lead so far towards the care and support for elderly priests, through the on-going building of a priests’ house within St. Agnes parish compound, Maryland.
“As part of the fruit of this effort, one must not fail to thank our Archbishop for his commitment and ingenuity evident in the on-going building of a priests house within (St.) Agnes parish compound, Maryland. ‘Ingenuity’ because, with a vibrant parish community, presence of the Marian Shrine, the hospital, schools and a convent, Maryland compound, in my humble opinion, is a naturally suitable place for priests at retirement.
“It is the African model, because we do not push our elders away from the family, instead we keep them with us, in appreciation of their work when they were young and we were feeble, and in order to keep tapping from their wealth of experience and wisdom, which is their prerogative from God.”
Emphasising on the importance of caring for priests at old age and retirement, the communication guru, referenced Pope Francis ‘Laudato Si’ Encyclical, which extensively spoke against the negative and insensitive attitude of people towards the environment and older persons.
“In his Encyclical about caring for creation, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis warned us against the throwaway consumerist culture that, he affirmed, is damaging our planet and also infecting the way we treat each other. He observed that for older people this is especially dangerous because our relationship to the aged has significantly and negatively changed over the last century or so and as we come more and more to value people by what they can produce in economic terms, we value less and less both their innate worthiness as children of God, but also we come not to see them as whole human beings, but rather broken down, useless parts which are no longer needed in the capitalist mill.”
Insisting that the Church must set a standard for others to emulate on how old people should be managed in the society, the preacher condemned the prevalent ugly scenario in Nigeria where many of the elderly people suffer and die of hunger and pains after retirement because of the corrupt nature of few individuals and the negligence of those in government, even as he maintained that “the true value of a society lies in the way the vulnerable are treated; the elderly and the retired ones inclusive.”
Concluding the homily, Fr. Umoh congratulated and thanked the Celebrant, Msgr. Okodua, for his dedicated services to the people of God and the Church, for his unwavering faith and commitment, and for being a source of inspiration to different people.