A Word about Vocations to the Priesthood in Nigeria (or Africa)
The Church in different parts of the world is going through a difficult time today particularly as it concerns vocation to the priesthood. In many places, people are beginning to wonder if there is going to be Eucharistic celebrations in the next generation. This is because, even now, some Christian communities can no longer find priests for regular Masses.
Since people began to see signs of this shortage of priestly vocation, fervent prayers have continuously been offered to the Lord of the harvest asking him to send more labourers to the plentiful harvest.
What is happening in Africa today particularly in Nigeria tells me that the Lord is answering our prayers perhaps in a way that we did not expect. There are so many men with promising future who are responding to the call to become priests and even missionary priests for that matter.
In the Spiritan Province of Nigeria, to which I belong, there are over eight hundred (800) applications every year of people who want to become priests. We are just one out of many other religious orders in the country. These do not include the vocations in the fifty dioceses in Nigeria that send their candidates to the various major seminaries spread across the country. Some of these young men who apply to become priests hold professional degrees from renowned universities in the nation. How could one explain this except that it is the Lord?s doing?
Sometimes we find voices which attribute this teeming vocation in parts of Africa to the economic hardship prevalent in the continent. It is said that priesthood offers people the security of their daily bread and even affords them the opportunity of becoming like chiefs in their clans.
If this is the case, we still have reasons to thank God who can turn the situation of bad economy into blessings of abundant labourers for the harvest. However, I know places where economic misery has not been able to generate vocations as it is claimed to be the case in Africa.
Besides, I am one of those who believe that the authenticity of a vocation does not depend on how it was started, the initial intention or motivation. If this were the case, then I would say that none of the apostles of Jesus had an authentic vocation. Each of them followed Jesus because of an anticipated material gain.
Jesus was not bordered by their initial intentions. Through the process of formation given to them by Jesus which culminated in the eventual descent of the Holy Spirit on them, those self-seeking men of Galilee abandoned their initial aspirations and took up the mission of Jesus. Thus, I believe that the onus is on the Church and its systems of training future priests today to produce the best out of the many people that the Lord is sending to her through Africa.
It would be nice if every Christian begins to see the vocations coming from Africa (and of course from other places like Asia) as a blessing meant for the universal Church. Sometimes in the past such blessings came from Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France. Today, the Lord is doing it from Africa.
Thus, in order to match quality with quantity, so much has to be done in terms of training or formation of future priests. Everybody needs to get involved in different ways to make this blessing a blessing indeed.
As we rejoice and thank the Lord for answering our prayers for more labourers, let us join hands together to make out the best from this for the good of the Church and humanity.
In the meantime, the challenges facing the Church with regard to the overwhelming growth of vocations in Africa are enormous. For us Spiritans in Nigeria, for example, we do not have adequate accommodations, classrooms, water, electricity supply and formators to accompany the seminarians in training. The assistance we get from our General headquarters in Rome cannot go so far. We get some support locally from benefactors and benefactresses. Yet, sometimes, we have found ourselves having to close down the seminary or go on vacation earlier than planned because we did not have enough resources to keep the seminary running.
How Can We Help the Seminary?
There are many ways you can get involved or help to boost vocations:
Please click here to donate.
Since people began to see signs of this shortage of priestly vocation, fervent prayers have continuously been offered to the Lord of the harvest asking him to send more labourers to the plentiful harvest.
What is happening in Africa today particularly in Nigeria tells me that the Lord is answering our prayers perhaps in a way that we did not expect. There are so many men with promising future who are responding to the call to become priests and even missionary priests for that matter.
In the Spiritan Province of Nigeria, to which I belong, there are over eight hundred (800) applications every year of people who want to become priests. We are just one out of many other religious orders in the country. These do not include the vocations in the fifty dioceses in Nigeria that send their candidates to the various major seminaries spread across the country. Some of these young men who apply to become priests hold professional degrees from renowned universities in the nation. How could one explain this except that it is the Lord?s doing?
Sometimes we find voices which attribute this teeming vocation in parts of Africa to the economic hardship prevalent in the continent. It is said that priesthood offers people the security of their daily bread and even affords them the opportunity of becoming like chiefs in their clans.
If this is the case, we still have reasons to thank God who can turn the situation of bad economy into blessings of abundant labourers for the harvest. However, I know places where economic misery has not been able to generate vocations as it is claimed to be the case in Africa.
Besides, I am one of those who believe that the authenticity of a vocation does not depend on how it was started, the initial intention or motivation. If this were the case, then I would say that none of the apostles of Jesus had an authentic vocation. Each of them followed Jesus because of an anticipated material gain.
Jesus was not bordered by their initial intentions. Through the process of formation given to them by Jesus which culminated in the eventual descent of the Holy Spirit on them, those self-seeking men of Galilee abandoned their initial aspirations and took up the mission of Jesus. Thus, I believe that the onus is on the Church and its systems of training future priests today to produce the best out of the many people that the Lord is sending to her through Africa.
It would be nice if every Christian begins to see the vocations coming from Africa (and of course from other places like Asia) as a blessing meant for the universal Church. Sometimes in the past such blessings came from Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France. Today, the Lord is doing it from Africa.
Thus, in order to match quality with quantity, so much has to be done in terms of training or formation of future priests. Everybody needs to get involved in different ways to make this blessing a blessing indeed.
As we rejoice and thank the Lord for answering our prayers for more labourers, let us join hands together to make out the best from this for the good of the Church and humanity.
In the meantime, the challenges facing the Church with regard to the overwhelming growth of vocations in Africa are enormous. For us Spiritans in Nigeria, for example, we do not have adequate accommodations, classrooms, water, electricity supply and formators to accompany the seminarians in training. The assistance we get from our General headquarters in Rome cannot go so far. We get some support locally from benefactors and benefactresses. Yet, sometimes, we have found ourselves having to close down the seminary or go on vacation earlier than planned because we did not have enough resources to keep the seminary running.
How Can We Help the Seminary?
There are many ways you can get involved or help to boost vocations:
- First is through prayer. Daily prayers and Masses for the seminarians and for the priests training them would be highly appreciated.
- Second, you can adopt a seminarian or make contributions for their training. It will be a good idea if you can singly or together with others offer the world the gift of a priest in your life time. How else would the will of God for more labourers be fulfilled except in this way? It takes about N300,000.00 or US$3000.00 to train a seminarian in a year.
- Third, one can help to train somebody who would become a trainer of priests. More priests are needed in the seminary and they need specialized training in order to fulfill this role effectively. Would you like to contribute to the training of such priest-trainers?
- Fourth, you can us to put some basic infrastructure in place in the seminary such as a school bus, a kitchen, a hostels, computers or photocopiers.
- Fifth, your diocese, parish or association can adopt a seminary like ours in Africa. In that way you should share more closely in the life and formation of future priests and missionaries.
- In all, the formation of priests remains a very serious challenge for the Church today. A lot of praying has to be combined with hard work to see that we give the world good and holy priests. This is what we do at SIST. Why not join us in doing this?
Please click here to donate.