Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji // (born January 13, 1952) is a Nigerian prelate of the Catholic Church who serves as the Archbishop of the Latin Church archdiocese of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria.[1]

Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji
Archbishop of Owerri
Church
ArchdioceseOwerri
Appointed6 March 2022
Installed23 June 2022
PredecessorAnthony John Valentine Obinna
Successorincumbent
Other post(s)
Previous post(s)
  • Bishop of Umuahia (1990‍–‍2018)
Orders
Ordination16 April 1977
Consecration1 July 1990
by Paul Fouad Naïm Tabet,
Anthony Gogo Nwedo,
Albert Kanene Obiefuna
Personal details
Born13 January 1952 (1952-01-13) (age 72)
Naze, Nigeria

In 2022, he was appointed as the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).[2] He followed on from the previous president, Augustine Obiora Akubeze.

Clerical career

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Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji was ordained a priest on April 16, 1977.[3]

On April 2, 1990, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Umuahia. The Apostolic Pro-Nuntius in Nigeria, Archbishop Paul Fouad Tabet, 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, the bishop who was rejected by many priests in the diocese due to his ancestry.[4]

Pope Francis appointed Ugorji archbishop of Owerri on March 6, 2022.[5]

Suspected plagiarism

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Ugorji's dissertation[6] on the ethical principle of double effect was submitted to Bruno Schüller (1925–2007) at the University of Münster 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.[7] Several parts were copied from popular reference works, other parts from an American dissertation published in 1935.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Daniels, Ajiri (2022-03-06). "Lucius Ugorji appointed Archbishop of Owerri Catholic Archdiocese". The Daily Sun. Retrieved 2022-06-20.
  2. ^ Association of Catholic Information in Africa website, article dated 3/9/22
  3. ^ "Lucius Ugorji appointed new Archbishop of Owerri, replaces Obinna". The Niche. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  4. ^ "Rinuncia del Vescovo di Ahiara (Nigeria) e nomina dell'Amministratore Apostolico sede vacante ed ad nutum Sanctae Sedis". Daily Bulletin (in Italian). Holy See. 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
  5. ^ "Rinuncia e Nomina dell'Arcivescovo Metropolita di Owerri". Vatican's Sala Stampa. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  6. ^ The Principle of Double Effect. A Critical Appraisal of Its Traditional Understanding and Its Modern Reinterpretation. European University Series on Theology. Peter Lang. 1985.
  7. ^ Schachenmayr, Alkuin (2022). "Concerns about Archbishop Ugorji's Dissertation on Double Effect" (PDF). Forum Katholische Theologie. 38 (2): 135–148.
  8. ^ Kramer, Herbert G. (1935). The indirect voluntary or voluntarium in causa. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America.
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