ANAMBRA, MAY 8, 2020 (CISA)-Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke, the Emeritus Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Ahiara has been installed as the first Bishop of the newly erected Catholic Diocese of Ekwulobia in Nigeria.
The installation ceremony was held April 29 at St Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral, Ekwulobia, presided over by Archbishop Valerian Okeke of Onitsha.
According to a report by Vatican News, Bishop Okpaleke pledged that in his pastoral ministry, he would strive to emphasise evangelization at the local level and invited the faithful to a “personal and intimate relationship with Jesus.”
He was first appointed Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Ahiara by Pope Benedict XVI on December 7, 2012 and ordained Bishop on May 21, 2013. He served Ahiara until February 2018.
On March 5, 2020, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Okpaleke to the newly created Catholic Diocese of Ekwulobia which is now a suffragan diocese of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Onitsha.
Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke was born March 1, 1963 in Amesi in Anambra State, Nigeria. He joined the Bigard Memorial Major Seminary in Ikot-Ekpene and Enugu where he studied philosophy and theology from 1983 to 1992. He was ordained a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Awka on August 22, 1990.
He has previously served in a variety of pastoral and administrative positions, including university chaplain, parish priest, diocesan finance administrator, diocesan chancellor, and secretary and member of diocesan boards. He also studied canon law in Rome at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
