The importance of forming spiritually sound and Holy Priests, was recently underlined by visits to several Seminaries by Pope Benedict Special Envoy to the climax of the Centenary celebrations of Catholicism in Northern Ghana.
His Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples at the Vatican, among other places, visited the St. Victor’s Major Seminary at Tamale and interacted with the Staff and Seminarians. He also visited St. Augustine’s Millennium Seminary, Tamale, where he laid the foundation stone for the construction of a Chapel.
He visited and blessed the site for the construction of the St. Gregory The Great Major Seminary in Kumasi.
He was at the St. Paul’s Philosophy Seminary at Sowutuom in Accra where he interacted with the Staff and Seminarians.
Last, but not the least, he visited the St. Peter’s Regional Seminary at Pedu, where he presided over the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Seminary.
A Seminary is regarded as the nerve centre of the Catholic Church since all those who serve the Church as Priests, Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals, even the Pope, pass through it to be properly formed for their task.
It is on record that St. Peter’s which marked its Golden Jubilee with the theme: 50 Years of Priestly Formation: Past, Present and Future,” has trained about 1,000 Priests since its establishment, a feat worthy of commendation.
Cardinal Dias’ remarks when he addressed the Seminary Staff and Seminarians at the St. Victor’s Major Seminary, Tamale, should guide Seminary Formators in their work.
Future priests, he said, were in danger of being ‘absorbed’ by the world if they lacked solid spiritual formation.
In our view, failure to give solid spiritual formation could open the Seminarians to unnecessary criticisms from those who are ill-informed about what the training of Priests entails.
The Standard reminds Seminary Formators that the Church considers Formation “As one of the most demanding and important tasks for the future of Evangelisation of humanity.”
The lay faithful need Holy Priests who are imbued with the three “Ds” recommended by Cardinal Dias, which are Doctrine, Discipline and Devotion to the Sacraments.
Anything short of priests who are disciplined, holy and dedicated to their priestly service, will not be promoting the interests of their communities.
Some of the problems facing Seminarians include inadequate accommodation and transportation.
Even though times are hard, it is the hope of The Standard that our Seminaries would continue to enjoy the little support; financial or otherwise, from outside donors, whose resources have considerably dwindled.
We congratulate the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference for the interest it had shown in training the right calibre of persons for the Church’s Evangelisation mission.
We also commend all the Past and Present Rectors of the Seminaries for their efforts.
We wish St. Peter’s Regional Seminary, Pedu, a Happy Golden Jubilee celebration to continue with the good work it began 50 years ago.
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