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Vocationews Vol. I Number 1                  July 1990     -      October 1991.

With the or­dina­tion of His Lor­dship Bishop V. V. Ezeo­nyia C.S.Sp. on the 1st of July 1990 as the first Bishop of Aba work within the dio­cese began in er­nest. The new dio­cese was faced with the big tasks of set­ting up the basic amenities

for ef­fec­tive ad­minis­tra­ti­on. Among other things, the cu­ria, di­verse boards, com­mis­sions, com­mit­tees, di­rectorates and groups were constituted to take charge of dif­ferent func­tions wit­hin the dio­cese.­The voca­tions minis­try was created under­  the di­rec­tor­ates, to take charge of matters con­cern­ing voca­tions in the new Diocese. His Lord­ship V.V. Ezeo­nyia C.S.Sp ap­po­int­ed Rev. Fr. Dr. In­no­cent Aso­uzu  as the Voca­tion Direc­tor. It was not until Sep­tember 1991 that Voca­tions Minis­try along with other admin­is­trative bod­ies were offi­cially com­mis­sioned and in­augu­rated in the dio­cese. The voca­tion di­rector pre­sent­ed the bis­hop with a program of ev­ents for Vo­ca­tions Min­is­try in Aba Dio­cese. Be­sides out­lining in ge­neral the scope of voca­tions min­istry in the church, the program­ pro­vid­ed concrete sug­ges­tions perti­nent to the needs of Aba dio­cese. High­lights of the pro­gram in­cludes the divi­sion of the voca­tion year into two ses­sions. The first ses­sion be­gins in Octo­ber and ends in April. The sec­ond ses­sion begins in May and ends in Sep­tem­ber. A Theme for voca­tion minis­try is to be for­mulat­ed yearly to set the goals for the acti­v­i­ties of the year. The vo­ca­tion year 1991­/92 is to run un­der the theme “living the di­ocesan spir­it”.

 

Sta­tis­tics: A data­base was set up to docu­ment all vi­tal pieces of infor­mation concern­ing the move­ment  of vocation in the  diocese. As of now, we have a student strength of ca. 354 junior sem­i­narians, 98 sem­i­nari­ans on our roll call have fin­is­hed their ju­nior se­minary trai­ning. Of these 62 are in our three region­al major semi­naries at E­nug­u, Owerri and Ikot Ekp­en­e. A break down of the number of our se­n­ior semi­nari­ans is as fol­lows:

 

According toYear of Study­

1st Yr. Phil......5.

2nd Yr. Phil.....10.

3rd Yr. Phil......7.

4th Yr. Phil.....17.

1st Yr. Theol.....4.

2nd Yr. Theol.. ..7.

3rd Yr. Theol.....5.

4th Yr. Theol.....7.

*Cameroon Stu­dent.............1.

According to Campus­es:

Enugu ....19.

Owerri...­.21.

Ikot Ekp..22.

 

 According to

Geographical

spread:

Achina.......­....1.

Akokwa.....­......2.

Akpo.........­....1.

Asa.......­....­...1.

Dikenafai...­.....1.

Enugu.......­.....3.

Ikeduru....­......1.

Inyishi...........1.

Ishiagu...­........1.

Mbaise........­...14.

Mbano Ehime.......1.

Ndoki.........­....1.

Ngwa..........­...23.

Okofia........­....1.

Ukpor........­.....1.

Umuchu............1.

Urualla.......­....1.

To­tal......­.....­.62.

 

We have 14 seminari­ans cur­rently doing their spiritu­al year at Na­tivity Spiri­tual sem­inary at Ozu-Abam. 5 sem­inarians are on p­roba­tion, 1 on spe­cial duties at Annun­ciation seminary, Amaudara. 4 are on apost­ol­ic work. Con­sider­ing the de­mands of pr­ies­tly du­ties­today 10 semi­nar­ians have been asked to go and qual­ify aca­demi­cally, while 2 who re­quest­ed to do the same were gr­ant­ed p­ermis­si­on. 7 Seminarians have dropped out since the cre­ation of the diocese.

The vocation year of 1990­/91 was co­ncluded with the annu­al per­sonal inter­view be­tween the b­ish­op, the vo­cation direc­tor and each semi­nari­ans. Each semi­nar­ian had the oppor­tu­nity to discuss rel­e­vant issues at the in­ter­view. They were re­minded of their  special calling and of the ­need to project the good image of the dio­cese and to reflect in their lives the good training they are re­ceiving. The need for them to imbibe and cultivate the di­ocesan spirit was hig­h­lighted. The semi­nar­ians ex­pressed de­light and sat­is­faction with their train­ing and with the treat­ment given them dur­ing their ap­os­tolic work. They went back to their respec­tive campuses full of joy, zeal and optimism for the 1991­/92 academic year. 

 

Acknowledgment:

We happily acknowledge the sup­port being re­ndered the vocation minis­try through the following individ­uals:

Rev. Fr. Ifeanyi Anozie.

St. Ann’s Urban.

Knights of St. Mulumba.

Sir Izuwa and Family.

We are equally grateful to all individuals who have contributed in any way to­wards the spread of vo­ca­ti­ons in the diocese of Aba.

Appeal: We appeal to you to sponsor ­seminari­ans on their way to the p­riestho­od. The fruits of this apo­stolate was b­les­sed spec­ifically by the Lord him­self. ‘If any­one gives so much as a cup of cold wa­ter to one of these little ones be­cause he is a dis­ciple, then I tell you sol­emnly, he will most cer­tainly not lose his rewa­rd’ (Mt. 10:4­2). If you intend to spon­sor a seminari­an kindly write to the voca­tion di­rec­tor: The Voca­tion Direc­tor, Christ The King Dio­ce­se, P.M­.B. 7526, Aba, Abia State, Ni­ge­ria.  You can indi­cate a candi­date of your choice or what grade of seminarian you intend to sponsor i.e. whe­ther a phi­loso­pher or a theologian. The sponsorship could also be jointly undertaken, even groups and pious soci­eties can sponsor some seminari­ans. The cost of sp­on­soring a senior se­minarian for one year is 1000. One could still do the much one can!

News From Annunciation Seminary.

The junior seminary which since the cre­ation of the diocese has been managed by Rev. Fr. Peter Nwogu got a new l­ead­er­ship with the in­cep­tion of the 1­991­/92 academic year. Rev. Fr. In­no­cent Ajuonu  was ap­pointed Rec­tor and Rev. Fr. Wil­liam Onwudi his vice.

Some of the prob­lems they had to con­tend with includ­ed those of inadequate st­aff­ing and accom­mo­dation for the semi­nari­ans. With the post­ing of 6 rela­tively highly qua­lified s­emi­nari­ans to assist them as t­eac­hers and pre­fects, the rec­tor and his vice  found a good team t­owards sur­mount­ing some basic dif­fi­cul­ties. The priests of the diocese t­hem­selves  rallied round the seminary and in a spir­it of fra­ter­nal charity and solidarity raised the wonderful sum of over 129,000 (One Hun­dred and twen­ty nine thou­sand naira) to­wards the provision of some basic ameni­ties for the junior semi­nari­ans. The semi­nary is enor­mou­sly grateful to all our Priests for their great concern towards her.The sum that was donated has been gainfully em­ployed: Our jun­ior semi­nari­ans now  en­joy good toilet fa­cility in addi­tion to some well reno­vated do­rmitories and cha­pel. Reno­vation work  and the erection of other new buildings are still going on. It re­quires a lot of capital to make the sem­i­nary a con­du­cive atmo­sphere not only for academ­ic work but for prayer and those things that help to form young people to good priests.

You are the salt of the earth!!

Aba Dio­cese plays Host: With the retirement of His Exc­ellency Rt. Rev. Dr. An­tho­ny Nwedo C.S­.Sp., the ap­point­ment of His Lord­ship, Bishop Lucius Ugorgi to succeed him and the cre­ation Aba dio­cese certain changes and ad­justments be­came inevitabl­e. One of these was the need to inte­grate mem­bers of the con­gr­ega­tion of Sons of Mary M­oth­er of Mer­cy into the pro­gram of the two dio­ceses. 20 Seminarians of this con­gregation founded by Bishop Nwedo were de­ployed to dif­ferent parish­es in Aba dio­cese. Their ministry was highly ap­-     pre­ciated and it is hoped that this gesture of good­   will and cooperation shall  con­tinue to exist be­tween the new diocese and this great mis­sionary con­gre­ga­tion.

 

EVENTS

His Lordship Bishop V.V. Ezeonyia con­ducted the first or­dina­tion in Aba di­ocese with the pries­tly ordina­tion of Rev. Ohu­oba Louis, Rev. Nwosu Peter and Rev. Nneji Jo­seph. This was fol­lowed by the diacon­ate Or­dination of Mr. Wil­liam Onwudi on 15th  De­cem­ber 1990. On the same day 7 semi­narians were in­stalled aco­lytes while 5 were in­st­alled Lec­tors. 1991 wit­nes­sed another pri­estly or­di­na­ti­ons in the diocese of Aba with the ordi­na­tion of Rev. Wil­liam Onwudi. The can­di­da­te was or­dained in his home parish to the gre­atest joy of his people.

Program 1991/92.

 

The following areas are pr­iorities:

1) Creat­ing Aware­ness for diocesan spi­rit/p­rie­stly vo­ca­tion in the dio­cese.

2. Appealing for aid and the spon­sor­ship for semi­nar­i­ans.

3. Arrangement for Ordina­tions.

4. Apostolic work.

Vocation Ministry will de­vote this year in consoli­dating the ac­tivities ini­tiated last year: Attempts would be made to create awa­reness for diocesan spi­rit most especially among our seminari­ans. The apos­tolic work of the second session of this vocation year would there­fore focus on identi­fying and bringing to every station some expe­ri­ences  that give us our identity in the diocese of Aba. This has become neces­sary in view of inte­grat­ing our numer­ous  out­sta­tio­ns into a unified con­scious­ness and mission­ary endeav­or.

 Since self-help is the best help, it is hoped that the sacred duty of supporting the church would be most manifest in the train­ing and maintenance of priests and seminar­ians. In this spirit we would very much appreciate it if more peo­ple commit them­selves to the apostolate of finan­cia­lly help­ing the diocese in the training of seminari­ans. It is hoped that the duty of training seminari­ans would be something str­ongly entrenched into the practice of the faithful of our diocese. We are very happy that our appeal in this regard is gradually find­ing a posi­tive echo: Some individuals, families and soci­eties have indi­cat­ed their inter­est and in­tention in train­ing some semi­narians. It is our prayer that the fruits of this nobel work would con­tinue to be reaped abun­dan­tly within the dio­cese. Thro­ugh your goodwill the work of train­ing our semi­nari­ans would be a joy in­stead of a bur­den.

 

Last year seminarians were posted to par­ishes on the principle of greatest num­ber to greatest need. Hence those parishes that needed many seminarians due to the config­uration of their p­as­toral needs got them. A ce­ntral fund was created from which seminarians were re­munerat­ed. Contribution to this central fund was done by the parishes on the pri­nciple of “each accord­ing to his financial abili­ty”. This idea has proved pasto­rally very rewarding and ef­fec­tive in the de­pl­oyment of our scarce man­po­wer re­sourc­es to the places we need them most. Unsad­dled with an otherwise huge fi­nancial involvement for remuneration of many semi­narians, poorer par­ishes and most especial­ly p­arish­es with many out­sta­tions to admin­ister, now feel free to ask for many seminarians to help in the work of eva­nge­lization. We would like to adopt this method of de­plo­ying semi­narians for the mean time, since it has proved very useful in tack­ling some pastoral pro­blems con­front­ing our dio­cese most espe­cially at the out sta­tions. Since our objec­tives are sublime, let us try to avoid the retro­gres­sive spirit of putting our in­terest first in this ar­ran­gement. The sacrifice asso­ciated with poll­ing our resources together for a common goal is worth it even if our particular par­ishes are now on the giving end. Bearing in mind that the diocesan affair is also a true test of our rela­tionship to the mystical body of Christ, it truly represents, any amount spent any­where for the growth of the gospel is well spent.

Applica­tions: All those desiring to join the diocese of Aba and be trained as priests are re­quired to have, among other things, a basic quali­fica­tion of 5 Credits plus Eng­lish in WASC examination or its eq­uiva­lent. They should ad­dress their applications to the Vocation Director and have their return ad­dr­esses written in clear le­gible capital letters.

 

We handled a total of 25 appli­ca­tions, from within and outside the diocese, from young ­men desiring to join the dio­cese. While it gives us joy at the number of candidates who are in­terested in serving in the diocese of Aba as future priests, it is however per­tinent to point out that ma­jori­ty of these appli­ca­nts are ex-semi­nari­ans.

 

Comment:  Seminari­ans should endeavor to be­have well in their places of tr­ain­ing. It is not only a part of their trai­n­ing to acquire the best character possible but it is a sign of their call­ing to prove that they are of good conduct. Mor­eover they are ex­pec­ted to show appre­ci­ation for the ef­forts being ex­pended by the peo­ple of God in their tra­in­ing through such ex­cep­tion­al good be­havior. It does not make sense to jeo­par­dize the opportunity given to you only to start tell­ing very long and com­pli­cated sto­ries after­wards. “It is easier to get out of the semina­ry than to come in again” (Bishop V.V. Ezeo­nyia).

 

All Nations!! Teach Ye All Na­tions!! Teach Ye All Nations!!