Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji (born January 13, 1952 in Naze,

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

) is the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of Owerri Archdiocese. In 2022, he was appointed as the president of the

Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria is the Catholic episcopal conference of Nigeria. See also * Catholic Church in Nigeria References Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, ...

(CBCN). He followed on from the previous president,

Augustine Obiora Akubeze Augustine Obiora Akubeze is a Nigerian prelate of the Catholic Church and serves as archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City, as of 2011. On 18 March 2011, Vatican Information Service reported that Pope Benedict XVI had appoi ...

Clerical career

Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji was ordained a priest on April 16, 1977. On April 2, 1990,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed him Bishop of

Umuahia Umuahia () is the capital city of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria. Umuahia is located along the rail road that lies between Port Harcourt to its south,and Enugu city to its north. Umuahia has a population of 359,230 according to the 2006 Nig ...

. The Apostolic Pro-Nuntius in Nigeria, Archbishop

Paul Fouad Tabet Paul Fouad Tabet (28 November 1929 – 20 July 2009) was a Lebanese-born Catholic prelate of the Maronite Church, who spent many years in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He became an archbishop in 1980 and from 1980 to 2005 served as apo ...

, consecrated him bishop on July 1 of the same year in Umuahia Cathedral; co-consecrators were the Bishop of Awka, Albert Kanene Obiefuna, and the Bishop Emeritus of Umuahia, Anthony Gogo Nwedo. Pope Francis additionally appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ahiara on Feb. 19, 2018, for the duration of a vacancy that came about due to the crisis surrounding

Peter Okpaleke Peter Ebere Okpaleke (born 1 March 1963) is a Nigerian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Bishop of Ekwulobia since 29 April 2020. He was appointed Bishop of Ahiara in 2012 and consecrated in 2013, but after the local clergy and laity ...

, the bishop who was rejected by many priests in the diocese due to his ancestry. Pope Francis appointed Ugorji archbishop of Owerri on March 6, 2022.

Suspected plagiarism

Ugorji's dissertation on the ethical principle of

double effect The principle of double effect – also known as the rule of double effect; the doctrine of double effect, often abbreviated as DDE or PDE, double-effect reasoning; or simply double effect – is a set of ethical criteria which Christian philosop ...

was submitted to Bruno Schüller (1925–2007) at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

in 1984, and published as a book in 1985. It was well-received by several moral theologians. But Alkuin Schachenmayr noted in a 2022 essay in ''Forum Katholische Theologie'' that numerous passages of the doctoral thesis were originally published by other authors, although Ugorji presented their texts as his intellectual property. Several parts were copied from popular reference works, other parts from an American dissertation published in 1935.

Weblinks

* Entry on
Profile on Umuahia Diocese's homepage

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ugorji, Lucius Iwejuru 1952 births Living people Nigerian Roman Catholics Nigerian Roman Catholic bishops People from Owerri People from Umuahia University of Münster alumni 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops