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Imo State, and many other interviewees confirms that the Catholic Church in the Owerri Ecclesiastical Province attends to the motherless babies in the homes that belong to the Catholic Province of Owerri and beyond the bounds of the Catholic Church. In that way they attend to the welfare needs of motherless babies of other Christian denominations and organizations and individuals.

It is worthy of note that some philanthropists build and donate homes to the church for the motherless. The fact that the church and other organizations instituted motherless babies homes have created a very great opportunity for the wealthy who are of benevolent spirit to visit the motherless babies in those homes and make tremendous donation to provide for their needs.

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based on a strong feeling of superiority and inferiority complexes. The church in the apostolic era, took it up to take care of the congregation of which the orphans were among them without social ostracism. The missionaries that brought Christianity to Igbo land had their congregation in Christian village. They had no orphanages among their institutions for evangelization strategy.

The traditional society accounts for the welfare of the orphans.

With the advancement of time, or modernization, there were many more demands emanating from the demands of the advancing society. The adopted European ideologies planted new ecological disposition in human relations, political ideology, economic conception and practices, religious and cultural intolerance, the Igbo society took a different shape from the traditional setting.

New demands of live were on especially with independence in 1960. Like people without self control agitations came up for certain rights. Misgivings plunged into the Nigerian society and the unexpected happened, the war broke out and many lost their homes, parents, and everything they had. Hunger was experienced by all as the effect of malnutrition took toll, death and kwashiorkor was the order of the period, the institution of orphanage among other needs became paramount. Those orphanages instituted to service the war-effect created the foundation for the orphanages in existence in the recent time. Any of them are no longer in existence. For instance there were orphanages at St. Patrick Catholic church Ogbor, in Ugiri Mbano. There was one at Ibenkwo Umunumo in Ehime Mbano, another one at Enyiogugu Mbaise, and Ekwerazu, Mbaise Another one was sited at Oziri Inyisi during and immediately after the war, all to service the war effects, but these are no longer in existence. They served the purpose of the moment and later ceased to exist.

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This is accountable to the fact that in the traditional Igbo Society, every member belongs to the same extended family not just the nuclear family. It is relegatory for a family to send the children of the late brother away to the orphanage home but in rare cases, there could be families who are too poor to cater for their needs and could not take up the addition burden of the late brother. The orphanages offer the needed attention to the orphans. Orphanages are institutions identifiable more with urban cities. It is easily acceptable among the urban dwellers who are used to live of individualism.

Uche (2007) identifies that the church as a sanctified body of Christ received a distressed call and in response to the prevalence large-scale discrimination the church was set to enforce its universal apostolic functions in order to promote individual freedom and liberty. The church has never relented in caring for those in need. But as the war ended and some of the effects of the war faded or even developed to a more dangerous or serious standard, the Church‘s attention to social welfare services took shape to address the matters of the moment. According to S.

Anyanwu (personal communication, 5^th October, 2017) the Catholic Church has in so many ways taken care of the needy and the poor, the neglected of the society. To that effect the Catholic church of Owerri Ecclesiastical province has orphanages at Alike-Obowo, - Holy family sisters of the needy are in–charge of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage Home at Amatu Alike Obowo. This orphanage home is built by Mr. Nwadinobi and handed over to the church.

Some of the institutions are not built by the church but by individuals and organizations and handed over to the church. The case of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Obowo is evident.

Another orphanage is located in Aba diocese at Ntia in Isi-Ala Ngwa North Local Government Area. This orphanage home is managed by Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy. Located in Umuahia diocese is the St. Vincent De Paul Orphanage at Umuafia which is managed by

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Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy Congregation- DMMM. The inmates of these homes receive such social welfare attention like rehabilitation which attended to their psychological and emotional state to review them to realign their feelings and their physical self to the existing society and sit up to live. They are given school education to various levels, and equally learn skills. Some of these inmates became priest and some join religious congregations. According to Uche (2007):

The church has remained an agent of social change, transformation and development. The Bible in similar situations determines what the gospel can do for the various groups of people, societies and cultural life. The kingdom of God implies total transformation or liberation of the poor and the oppressed which becomes true sacrament of God‘s historic saving activity. (p. 145).

The Catholic Church in Owerri Ecclesiastical province has among many other ways catered for the oppressed such as the orphans especially those that are depressed due to the oppression they received from uncaring relations.