Every other activity in CIDJAP was grounded as CIDJAP celebrated her 24th Anniversary on 5th October, 2010.
The ceremony started early in the morning with the holy mass officiated by His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. C.V. Onaga with a host of other priests.
In his homily, his Lordship stated that in our daily lives we are all like Mary and Martha. Some are consumed more with spiritual matters and work more on activities that are lasting and will lead to heaven. However, some are over-burdened with earthly matters like Martha.
As workers in CIDJAP, there is this temptation to look at our salaries and compare it with others in the outside world. This may influence us not to give our best in our various departments, look down on the poor people we work with or develop a disturbing apathy to our duties.
As social workers in CIDJAP most of our Activities border on human development, empowerment of the down trodden, creating hope for mankind, doing justice work and working towards peace. He urged everybody to work like Mary who married action and prayer in order to get the best result. Whenever we find ourselves in a difficult corner in the course of doing our duties we will go back to Christ our root to find strength and wisdom.
He commended Msgr. Obiora Ike for being the brain behind the whole set up. He defined him as a catalyst which accelerates and moves people without being pushed over. He thanked God for his good health and prays that CIDJAP will grow from strength to strength.
Speaking further Bishop Onaga remarked that coming to CIDJAP is like coming home to his roots and needs no introduction at the institute.
During the offering presentation, the staff presented the Catholic Social Teaching programme and His Lordship commended the institute for such a noble task and pledged his absolute support for the programme. In his thanksgiving speech, the director of CIDJAP Msgr Obiora Ike thanked his lordship and all the priests gathered for creating time within their tight schedule to identify with CIDJAP. He promised that at 25 years the institute ripe and will gather momentum to go into more developmental works.
After the Holy mass other social functions followed with the youths from St. Leo’s Parish entertaining the guest with their wonderful performance. There were free speeches, drama, cultural dances and other side attractions.
Moreover, this event kicked off the jubilee year which will be celebrated in October 2011.
