36th CLSN Presidential Address delivered by Rev. Fr. Edwin Omorogbe
MAIN THEME: “PIOUS ASSOCIATIONS TENDING TOWARDS INSTITUTIONS OF CONSECRATED LIFE IN THE CHURCH IN NIGERIA”
Introduction: On behalf of the Executive of the Canon Law Society of Nigeria, I welcome all of you to this Year’s Annual National Convention in Benin. We specially thank His Grace, Most Rev Dr Augustine Obiora Akubeze for accepting to host us this year. We are grateful for your support and love for the association. We are grateful for your interest and participation in the life of the association. Last year you gave the lead paper that has now been published in the Proceeding. We remember your previous contributions and encouragement that you have given us. We remember how you challenged us to examine ways to help provide healthy consultations for authorities in the Church. Upon your request, a Convention was devoted to that topic, and the fruits of the deliberations are available in our Proceedings to help those involved in the art of consultation before making decision.
In the spirit of gratitude, I would like to also welcome and thank His Eminence Peter Ebere Cardinal Okpaleke, and His Lordship, Most Rev Dr Jonas Benson Okoye for all your participation and support. Your interest and contribution to CLSN has moved the association forward to new height.
The CLSN is grateful to the LOC led by Rev. Fr. Joseph Ediae and his team for the planning and preparation for this Convention. We know that a lot goes into the preparation. It requires financial resources, commitment of your time, outreach to benefactors for funding, and every other form of logistic involved. The current economic challenge in the country makes it even more difficult to host a convention of this magnitude.
I warmly welcome all the CLSN members who have come from various parts of the country to participate in this Convention. Your active participation makes the Convention truly a National one, because it brings to bear our diverse perspectives on the law and its application.
The Research Committee who works behind the scene to ensure we have themes that are relevant to the Nigerian context. To these our scholars we say thank you for all that you do today. We continue to count on you for new insights that will challenge us intellectually and produce practical positive results in our various places of work. I want to encourage members to please drop suggestion to them for consideration. I am talking of Rev. Fr. Stephen Akpan, Director of publication, Rev. Sr. Prof. Mary Gerald Nwangwu, Fr. Michael Banjo, Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony B.C. Chiegboka, and others.
CLSN Specialization Project: One of the aims of the present Exco is identify the area of specialization of CLSN members. We designed a form for members to fill out and with that we can get the needed information. From this project so far, we can report the following:
Total 126
This data base will help us to be more familiar with our canonists and if there is need to request a special work on a particular canonical matter, it would be helpful to seek out willing persons with expertise in the area.
The Provincial Seminar: This year is the first year we had our professional seminar at the provincial level. The provinces were charged to organize it. The decision we made at the last Annual Convention held in Onitsha was that each province will coordinate the professional seminar annually and rotate it among the dioceses in the province. The goal was to create a forum where provincial canonists can know each other more, and to help ensure that more people participate in the one-day professional seminar. In addition to the fact that such a plan will reduce the cost of travelling for a day seminar and the security challenges for some folks to leave their diocese for a single day seminar. The report we had received so far, show that there was good attendance and robust interaction among the canonists who participated at their provincial professional seminar. We encourage provinces that did not organise one for their territory to do so next year.
National Secretariat of Canon Law Society of Nigeria: We are happy to report that significant progress has been made in the building. Our benefactor, Sir Chief Dr. Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion has been very generous to us by sponsoring the entire building which has cost millions of naira for now. Let us continue to show our appreciation for his charity towards us by praying for him and his family. On your behalf, I have assured him that we are praying for him.
Management of the Headquarter of CLSN: There will be a need to set up a board to be responsible for the management of the facility. This board will advise on how to maximize the usage of the facility.
The Canon Law Society of Nigeria Renewal with Corporate Affairs Commission: We have activated our registration with CAC. We were inactive for many years, and there were several backlogs of unpaid annual fee. After activating the account, we have paid the annual fee to date.
Invitation to Canonists to Participate in CLSN: We would like to appeal to everyone to help encourage our brothers and sisters who are canonists but do not participate in CLSN activities to be involved and contribute to the growth of the society. Provincial Seminars and National Convention offers us the opportunity to meet other canonists, and to improve on our canonical knowledge.
Hosting of CLSN Annual Convention: The annual convention of CLSN is often rotated from diocese to diocese in the Church in Nigeria. The host diocese often takes care of many things that financially now is more challenging. We have reviewed the matter and sought ways to make it easier for dioceses to host annual convention. One of the ways we can reduce the burden of hosting is to approach willing dioceses to help host. We also need to broaden the base of willing dioceses by increasing our support to the host diocese. A review of the annual fee of members has become necessary. When we look at what other parallel bodies or association (CATHAN, Liturgy) like CLSN in Nigeria are paying for annual due we thought we should at least match was is trending. During our General Meeting we need to decide in this regard.
CLSN Website: We are still in the process of getting a functional website for the Society. The goal is to be able to put information that can provide helpful information to people as relate to canonical help. When this is eventually done, we may discuss the possibility of uploading the Professional Seminars presented at the provinces on the website so that may may have access to it.
CLSN Proceedings: The quality of articles published has improved significantly, and we thank our research team. There is need for blind peer review of articles before publication. This will improve the academic quality of the Proceedings. We also need to explore ways of incorporating the CLSN Proceedings into Google scholar to open it up for scholarly citations and make the works of the resource persons known to the international academic community.
Theme of CLSN: This year’s theme is focused on canonical examination of ways to guide pious associations tending towards religious institution in Nigeria. This has become relevant because of the surge in the number of locally founded religious institutions. Ordinarily, the number of religious institutions springing up should be considered a sign of vitality in the Church in Nigeria. But the challenges that has come with this surge is that there are so many without clarity as regard their spiritual patrimony. The stability of some of the institutions are questionable. The recruitment and formation of members has been something of concern. The discernment process and assistance from the founders or foundress has not been so good in some of these institutions. The goal of this Convention is to help provide some form of template to assist Diocesan Bishops in their process of discernment on whether to found, accept pious association tending towards religious institute. If the canonical process of founding and developing pious association into a religious institute are observed there will significantly be guarantee of sustainability of the institution, and the charism or gift of the institution will be more adequately visible in the Church.
Conclusion: Once again, I thank all who have made it possible for us to have this year’s convention. I thank the Cardinal who is in our midst, I thank the host Archbishop and other bishops present, I thank all the members for your support and I invite all of us to participate actively. I congratulate the Awardees of CLSN this year. The award you have been given is a recognition of your contribution to the growth of the gospel and by so doing a contributor to the development of canon law in Nigeria. CLSN will only be as vibrant as the Church is, because CLSN is part of the Church. Let us continue to pray for one another and specifically for the growth of the Church in Nigeria and more importantly for the growth of CLSN.
On behalf of all of us, I declare CLSN 2024 National Convention in Benin City opened.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Edwin Omorogbe
