Awka Bishop justifies need for ban on extravagant burials
Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor has explained that since he started the campaign against extravagant spending at burials, nobody has oppose his idea.
Rather, he noted, people had been sending their appreciation to him for breaking what he described as a pagan yoke imposed on Christians which had made some people engaged in all forms of criminal acts just to keep up with the trend.
It would be recalled that the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese recently directed priests in the diocese to refrain from engaging in expensive burials in order to curb the trend of extravagant burials currently ravaging society.
While chatting with Daily Times in Awka on Thursday, the bishop expressed happiness that the directive had not been challenged.
According to him, ”All I am getting is commendation upon commendation. No form of opposition at all.
“Why is it necessary to go and borrow to conduct burial ceremonies? The only aspect of burial that the dead benefited from was the prayer said by the faithful on their behalf during the Eucharistic celebration.
‘Instead of spending millions on an event that loses its relevance immediately after it had occurred, sincere Christians should rather embark on carrying out more humanitarian activities in memory of their deceased loved one’, he said.
The Catholic prelate decried what he identified as the pagan practice of ostentatious burial ceremonies that left the bereaved more burdened after burying their dead.
