Above: Most Reverend Dr. Matthew Ishaya Audu during his installation as Catholic Archbishop of Jos at Fatima Cathedral, Jos, Plateau State.
By Justine John Dyikuk –
Encomiums have been pouring for the Catholic Archbishop of Jos Archdiocese, Plateau State in North-Central Nigeria, Most Reverend Matthew Ishaya Audu following his 63rd birthday celebration which marked a new chapter of wining souls for God.
The prelate’s giant strides were earlier showcased to the world during a homily to mark his 21st anniversary of Episcopal ordination.
At the ceremony held recently at the Sacred Heart Pastoral Centre Jos, the Vicar General Administration for Jos Archdiocese, Monsignor Professor Cletus Tanimu Gotan disclosed that the occasion calls for felicitating with Archbishop Audu “as he recounts the blessings of God on his life and his ministry, particularly, that he has spent 38 years as a priests, the last 21 years of these as a bishop of the Most High God, the last two of these 21 years as the
Archbishop of Jos and metropolitan Archbishop of Jos Ecclesiastical Province.”
Speaking further on the impact the Archbishop has made over the years, he stated that, “No one can say that of the years of the Archbishop and indeed no one knows the profound spiritual impact a priest has on the lives of tens of thousands of the Christian Faithful.
Professor Gotan maintained that within these 21 years as Bishop, the prelate has touched lives through “preaching, teaching, and comforting; his hands baptizing, blessing, anointing, and absolving; his eyes seeing, smiling, caring, and crying; his ears listening, hearing, and understanding; his feet walking, and walking to churches, classrooms, weddings, family gatherings, parish picnics, prisons, nursing homes, deathbeds, and gravesites.
He stressed that “In all of these ways, and many more, the priest makes Jesus Christ present in ways more powerful than we will ever know.”
Monsignor Gotan lauded the Archbishop for helping “people to realize that God is not God the way we would be God, if we were God” while emphasizing “You have stood by Jesus in His trials, in the trials of the members of His Body, the church especially in these days in our nation when we grief in our hearts and express our revulsion against the ugly killings and destructions which have been taking place in some parts of our country.”
He also disclosed that the Archbishop wanted to have a private celebration on this day to be followed by a visit to the Divine Mercy Cathedral Project by some priests, religious and the laity and cap it with a Lunch, hence this arrangement.
He charged the Archdiocesan helmsman thus: “Remember on the day of your ordination that you received from the hand of the ordaining prelate, a paten containing bread and chalice with the following words: Accept from the holy people of the gifts to be offered to Him: Know what you are doing; imitate the mystery you celebrate, model your life on the mystery of the Lord`s cross.
The key words here are: know, imitate, model.
“Think about it. “How will I repay the Lord for all the good that He has done? I will raise the Cup of Salvation, and I will invoke the name of the Lord”. In this solemn Eucharistic celebration, together we will raise the Cup of Salvation and we will thank God for all his benefits in these 21 years.”
He used the occasion to on behalf of everyone in the Archdiocese and in the name of the Bishops of the suffragan Dioceses of the Province of Jos “congratulate the Archbishop as we wish him more fruitful years in the future.”
Born on 7 June, 1959 at Rafin Pa’a, Gitata, Karu Local Government Area of Nassarawa State, Archbishop Audu was ordained a Catholic priest for Makurdi diocese on 23 June, 1984.
He served as an Associate priest in Keffi (1984–86) and Lafia (1986–88) respectively and become the parish priest of Nassarawa from 1988 to 89.
The cleric studied Moral Theology in Rome at the Institute of Moral Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University, Licentiate (1989–91).
Between 1992 and 97, he taught Moral Theology at St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Makurdi where he became Vice-Rector.
He bagged his Doctorate Degree in Moral Theology at the Alfonsianum in Rome in 1999 and was appointed Acting Rector at the same St. Thomas Aquinas from June to December, 2000.
On 5 December 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed him as the first Bishop of the newly created Lafia Diocese followed by his ordination and installation on 31 March 2001.
As providence would have it, on 6 January 2020, Pope Francis appointed him as the third Catholic Archbishop of Jos to succeed Archbishop Ignatius A. Kaigama who has since taken canonical possession as the Archbishop and Metropolitan of the See of Abuja.
