Bishop Emeritus
Most Rev. Gregory Obinna Ochiagha (Late)
The Most Rev. Gregory Obinna Ochiagha, Ph.D., was the Bishop Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria. He was born on August 31, 1931, at Ibeme in Imo State. He was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Umuahia on July 31, 1960, by Most Rev. Anthony Gogo Nwedo. He was the first priest of the Diocese of Umuahia, which was established in 1959.
Bishop Ochiagha was among the pioneers of All Hallows Seminary, Onitsha, Anambra State. He later earned his doctorate from the Catholic University of America.
During the Nigerian Civil War, the bishops of the old Onitsha Province appointed him to work with the government of Biafra. He was the only priest on the team that met with the Nigerian delegation in Lomé, Togo, for peace talks aimed at reconciliation between Nigeria and Biafra.
After the war, he served as Director of Communications for the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province from 1970 to 1972. He also served for five years as Rector of Immaculate Conception Seminary, Ahiaeke, Umuahia, Abia State. He was among the priests selected to reopen Bigard Memorial Seminary, Enugu, after the civil war, where he later served as a teacher and bursar.
He was subsequently appointed the pioneer Rector of Bigard Memorial Seminary, Ikot Ekpene Campus, in present-day Akwa Ibom State, now St. Joseph Major Seminary, Ikot Ekpene. At different times, he also contributed to curriculum revision for schools in the old Imo State and served on various government boards.
In 1980, His Holiness Pope St. John Paul II appointed him the first Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu. He was consecrated a bishop in Rome on January 6, 1981, and installed at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Orlu, on February 15, 1981.
As Bishop of Orlu, Bishop Ochiagha held many provincial and national responsibilities. These included serving as Chairman of the Liturgy Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria; leading the planning and hosting of the National Eucharistic Congress in Jos in 1983 and the Second National Eucharistic Congress in Owerri in 1993; serving as Chairman of the Seminary Commission for the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province; and later serving as Chairman of the Seminary Commission for the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province from its inception until his retirement as bishop.
Bishop Ochiagha was deeply committed to Divine Providence, the Church, and the priesthood. He loved the Latin language and had a profound devotion to the Sacred Liturgy. In the 1990s, he reintroduced the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Orlu, making Orlu the first diocese in Nigeria to offer Mass in Latin. In 2009, he invited the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter to establish a parish in the diocese.
Bishop Ochiagha served the Diocese of Orlu until his retirement in 2008, when he handed over to Most Rev. Augustine Tochukwu Ukwuoma, the current Bishop of Orlu.
Death and Burial
His Lordship, Bishop Gregory Obinna Ochiagha, died on December 29, 2020, at the age of 89. He was buried on January 12, 2021, at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Orlu, Nigeria, the magnificent cathedral he built while serving as Bishop of Orlu Diocese.