“I will never forget my first audience with him after my appointment,” the Local Ordinary of Nsukka Diocese recalls and goes on to recount his encounters with the Late Pontiff, who was laid to rest at the Papal Basilica of Mary Major on April 26.
“As he shook my hands warmly with both of his, he recalled that I was engaged at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, just on the hill close to the Vatican and, looking me straight in the eyes, told me in Italian: "Non ti spaventare," meaning, “Don't be afraid.”
The 68-year-old Catholic leader attributes his courage in his Episcopal ministry to these words of the late Pope Francis.
“Sometimes people think that the Bishop is risking too much,” he says, as he goes to reveal the source of courage in his Episcopal Ministry: “the man who appointed me, who spoke in the name of Christ, told me not to be afraid and I'm not afraid of anything.”
He continues, “My Priests know that I already asked them to prepare my resting place at the crypt of the Cathedral.”
In the video recording, Bishop Onah also recalls that in his subsequent encounters with the late Pope Francis, he was given a listening ear and that the late Pontiff was always ready to offer his spiritual solidarity with the people of God in Nsukka Diocese.
“Every other time I met him, I put my mouth right into his ear and whispered something to him and each time it was an assurance of prayer, a request for his prayer and blessing for the Priests, Religious and lay faithful of Nsukka Diocese and he always promised to do that,” the Local Ordinary of the Nigerian Catholic Diocese says.
He goes on to recall his last audience with the Late Pope Francis in June 2024 during which, Bishop Onah recalls, after delivering his usual message, he passed his mother’s greetings to the Holy Father, who in return gifted her with a “special rosary”.
“He asked me, ‘How old is your mother?’ I told him about 90. He had given me one rosary for myself; then he called for a special rosary, gave it to me, and said, ‘That is for your mother.’ Those were the last words Pope Francis spoke to me personally,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishop recounts in the video recording.
Bishop Onah goes on to cautions against the tendency to focus on others’ shortcomings, saying, “If you look at the life of your brother or your sister, closely, you will find something to thank God for and to imitate. Stop looking only at the things he's not doing well.”
