Monrovia, 21 October, 2019 / 11:56 pm (ACI Africa).
The activities of a breakaway group from the Catholic Church of Liberia including wooing the Catholic faithful into joining the grouping have provoked the Catholic Bishops in the West African nation to set the records right, clarifying to the wider public that the group is not part of the Universal Catholic Church that is under the leadership of Pope Francis.
“The attention of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Liberia (CABICOL) has been drawn to the existence of the Independent Catholic Church of Liberia, under the leadership of bishop Joseph Nimley Donyen,” The Bishops in Liberia have announced in a statement availed to ACI Africa dated Friday, October 18.
“The Catholic Bishops’ conference of Liberia (CABICOL) makes it very clear to all Catholics and the general public that the “Independent Catholic Church of Liberia” is not a branch of the Catholic Church of Liberia, neither are they in communion with the Universal Church seated in the Vatican with Pope Francis as its head,” the Bishops state.
The Prelates have disclosed the identity of the leader of the new grouping saying, “The founder of the independent Catholic Church, bishop Donyen, was once an ordained Roman Catholic Priest for the Diocese of Cape Palmas in the year 1991.”
The Church leaders have continued, “In the year 1996, he (Donyen) was suspended, stripped of all privileges and rights as a Catholic priest due to acts incompatible with clerical state (cf. Canons 290-293).”
