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  Vocationews Vol. II Number 1                  October 1991     -      April 1992.

 

SOCIAL MOBILITY AND

      VOCATIONS 

( By Fr. Asouzu).

 

 

“It would be immoral to discriminate against a person who has made a place his home” 

One of the bless­ings of our time is the ease of movement of peo­ple from place to place. This has rein­forced our search for bet­ter living conditions else­where. Even whole fami­lies, as a matter of neces­sity, emi­grate to areas that offer better living con­di­tions or better oppor­tu­ni­ties for the maintenance of its members. Since the home is the cra­dle of reli­gious voca­tions, such chang­es do also af­fect voca­tions in a special way. In a country like ours with mini­mum em­ploy­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties at different levels and locali­ties, the need for resettlement in more viable localities is now commonplace. Immigrants are often confronted in their new localities with such difficulties as discrim­ina­tion and isola­tion. Faced with such prob­lems, they often seek a way out through one form of adapta­tion or the other which could effect funda­mental chang­es in the life style of a family. In this regard, the voca­tional quest of members of a family is not left out. Be­sides vo­ca­tion to mar­ried life, per­haps, there is a noticeable high lev­el of inte­gra­tion be­tween immi­grant and their hosts commu­nities within the area of lay apostolate. Sur­prising­ly the same can­not cat­e­gori­cally be said of vocations to the priest­hood and oth­er reli­gious voca­tions where  the question of a candidate’s place of origin could be cru­cial. There could be per­suasive rea­sons for such con­sider­ation. Wher­ever one does occur, considerations for effec­tive evangelization should be para­mount. On the part of immigrants seeking admission into religious life, it would be advis­able if they should from the very word go endeavor to iden­tify them­selves with the locali­ty in which they find them­selves, since this would height­en their credibility. The acquisi­tion of a high level of integra­tion is necessary for effec­tive evangelization within a specif­ic locali­ty. This is in so far impor­tant as mission­aries must dem­onstrate a cred­it­able level of acqui­sition of basic posi­tive forms of sec­ond­ary identity based on the expec­ta­tions of his locality of op­era­tion. This they can do by ac­quir­ing all the posi­tive qual­i­ties ob­tain­able in those place, like learn­ing the lan­guage in vogue, im­bibing the cus­toms and tradi­tion of the place, showing inter­est in the ac­tivities of the place etc.Considering the con­stitu­tion of our soci­ety, ev­ery­one can­not actually work in his home, in his local gov­ern­ment or even in his state. It would be im­moral, there­fore, to dis­criminate against a per­son who has made a place his home through the acquisition of ba­sic posi­tive forms of iden­tity ob­tain­able in a place. Any candidate to religious vocation who has sub­stan­tially identi­fied with a lo­cality should be ac­cept­ed with open arms since to do other­wise would be to con­sti­tute a stum­bling block to the spread of the gos­pel. On the oth­er hand, the ideal of reli­gious vo­ca­tions shows itself in perse­ver­ance. Hence the dis­po­sition to un­neces­sary con­stant chang­es -  from one lay apostolate to an­other even from one dio­cese  or con­gre­ga­tion to an­other  -  is not al­ways the best atti­tude. The service of God could be effec­tively implemented in any local­i­ty. There seems to be a numerus clausus in certain lo­cali­ties with regard to religious voca­tions. On the other hand, some local­ities are arid on the same issue. How do we explain such paradox if it were not the same Lord that calls?  Vocation is a gift and it is the Lord that calls and not man. Hence the tenden­cy to give the im­pres­sion that “the boat is full” could stifle genu­ine religious voca­tion. Moreover it could be a mockery of history which does repeat itself and indeed has often been very harsh with reli­gious voca­tion. As a gift, the blossoming of reli­gious voca­tion in many parts of our local church must be greeted and ac­cept­ed with joy and be seen as God’s special inter­ven­tion in the history of our salva­tion. This is our chance to be catholic and univer­sal in everywhere!

The Voca­tion-News/New Year Get-Together:

The di­ocesan New Year get-to­gether was orga­nized at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Aba on Janu­ary 27, 1992. At that gath­ering, the first edi­tion of Vo­cation News was for­mal­ly intro­duced to the priests and reli­gious work­ing in Aba dio­cese. The news­let­ter was greeted with joy and approval. His Lord­ship in­structed that ev­ery parish and re­li­gious com­mu­nity working within the dio­cese should have a copy for the dissemi­nation of infor­mation concerning move­ment of voca­tion in the dio­cese. He more­over stressed that every reli­gious communi­ty serving in the di­ocese should liaise with the voca­tion direc­tor to have all activ­ities concerning voca­tions in the dio­cese well coordinated and subse­quent­ly presented in the newsletter. There wasn’t much negative criti­cism on the news­let­ter. How­ever sug­ges­tions were made with re­gard to its scope.  Among other things, some were of the view that the scope should be wid­ened to ac­com­modate other pas­to­ral news from the dio­cese.

The editori­al board is very grateful for the positive echo that the news­let­ter has gen­er­ated and is highly en­couraged. The many sugges­tions will surely go a long way to im­proving the out­put.

Since a lim­ited num­ber of cop­ies are pro­duced at subsidized rate the edi­tori­al board would be very grateful for any con­tribu­tion to­wards defraying minor ex­penditure.

News From An­nun­ci­ation Semi­nary.

The just re­leased SSC re­sults has reached the Vo­ca­tion News. Our can­di­dates for the exams were drawn from Annun­cia­tion Sem­inary Amaudara and Immac­u­late Con­ception Semi­nary Umuahia. The re­sult was fair judging from the fact that An­nuncia­tion Semi­nary is attempting this examination for the first time. 36 semi­nari­ans sat for the exami­na­tion. All the stu­dents per­formed very in­telligently. Only one stu­dent scored be­low 5Cs. 16 are yet to cred­it in Eng­lish. While the rest passed very well with many As. We congratu­late them for the mar­velous per­for­mance.

The diocese is wor­ried at the dwindling stan­dard of English lan­guage in the ju­nior semi­nary as is evi­denced through the just re­leased result. At the priests meeting of February 17, 1992 the semi­nary was an issue. The rec­tor identi­fied inadequate staffing as one of the major prob­lems now facing the seminary. Solu­tions were sought to this problem and among others things his Lord­ship the Bishop appealed to our priests to go in for stud­ies of the courses taught at the semi­nary in uni­versi­ties. The aim is to have priests who read secular subjects who can be posted to the seminary as teachers on a permanent basis. This ap­peal found ac­ceptance among the priests. His Lordship hopes that priests can now volun­teer to go in for these courses as a last­ing solu­tion to the perennial prob­lem of inadequate staffing at the sem­inary. Moreover this  ap­proach is con­sidered very cost ef­fective bearing in mind that a lot of money is spent in pay­ing teach­ers on the pay roll. In the in­ter­im, Rev. Frs. Charles Ubawike and Solomon Ezenibe vol­unteered to teach Eng­lish language at the seminary on part time basis. The fa­thers thanked them for their kind gesture and it is hoped that others would fol­low suit most espe­cially in teaching sci­ences subjects. The voca­tion di­rec­tor prom­ised to send more semi­nari­ans, who had very good re­sults at the just conclud­ed SSS exams to the sem­i­nary (see posting p.3).

The Resurrec­tioN Is A ContinuouS EvenT!!!

EVENTS: Decem­ber 1991.

Seven Sem­inar­ians were or­dained on December 15, 1991.dea­cons: Anumata Christo­pher, Chikezie Emmanuel, Kanu Ken­neth, Oguzie Mi­chael, Uchendu Cajetan, Ugboaja Ja­cob, Onyedeke Nathaniel. On the same day 5 semi­narians were in­stalled acolytes: Ekezie Alphonsus, Ihesiaba Augus­tine, Obidum Jude, Ogbonna Leon­ard. 7 seminari­ans were equally installed lectors: Alilonu Au­gustine, Ezeh Ga­briel, Iroh An­thony, Nwoko Ignatius, Okite Chiemeka, Omotu Charles, Uwasomba Chikezie.

April 1992:

April 22

Vicariate Exams:

April 23:

Meeting: Vocation Di­rector and semi­nari­ans represent­ing the three se­nior semi­nar­ies. Theme: Strategies for apos­tolic work 1992.

May 4, 1992:

The vocations minis­try is organizing the course: “Ru­di­ments of data process­ing” for our semi­narians who have success­fully com­pleted their SS 3 ex­amina­tions. The aim is to introduce semi­nari­ans to the use of com­puters and modern informa­tion technic. All semi­narians of this cat­egory are to re­port at the chan­cery every first mon­days of the month. Lec­tures be­gin at 8.30 a.m. in the conference hall.

Vocations Coordina­tion: A MEETING TO THIS EF­FECT IS SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY JULY 13, 1992 AT 11.30 A.M. THE VENUE IS THE CON­FER­ENCE HALL AT THE CHANCERY.

 

All reli­gious communi­ties resident in the dio­cese are to send rep­resentatives along with reports concern­ing movement of voca­tion in their commu­ni­ties.

Fathers’ Retreat: The fathers’ re­treat of this year has been sched­uled for July 14 - 16, 1992. The Ven­ue is St. Mary’s parish Azumini.

Fr. Anozie has ac­cept­ed to play host to the fathers. Rev. Fr. Dr. Kevin Madu (Spiri­tual Director and Mor­al Theologian of  Seat Of Wis­dom Seminary Owerri) has accept­ed to moderate the re­treat. We thank them and wish Fr. Madu a happy stay in our dio­cese.

PRIESTLY  OR­DINATION 1992.

 

His Lordship has ap­proved the fol­lowing dates and ven­ues:

July 1992

July 5

  Rev. Ugboaja         

  At Mbutu Ngwa.  

July 11

  Rev. Onyedeke

  At Nsu.

July 18

  Rev. Uchendu

  Rev. Anumata

  At Ibeme.

July 25

  Rev. Oguzie

  At Ozuagba.

   August 1

  Rev. Kanu

  AT Mbawsi.

  August 15

  Rev. Chikezie

  At C.K.C., Aba.

 

 Monthly Rec­ollec­tion:

The vocations min­is­try is happy to ac­cept from his Lord­ship the added re­sponsibility of see­ing into the vocations of our priests after their seminary forma­tion. This task has been speci­fied as con­sist­ing in organiz­ing the month­ly rec­ollec­tions for our priests, sched­uling sem­i­nars, work­shops and oth­er spiritual and in­tel­lectu­al activi­ties that might be consid­ered useful for the vocation of priests. In this regard the voca­tions minis­try has mapped out a theme  for this year: “Priesthood and the Priestly Func­tions”. Nine sub-themes have been as­signed to nine speakers on different topics ranging from the priestly role and expec­tation, “The priest and Re­li­gious move­ments of his time” “The priest and the ma­terialistic tenden­cies of his time”, The priest and Jus­tice” to “The priest and Chari­ty”, the Priest and Simplicity”. Other topics are “The priest and Sexuali­ty” and “Elements of Priest­ly Holi­ness”. The priests of the diocese have been enjoy­ing in­ter­esting lectures on these topics once every month. Attempts are being made to in­corpo­rate topics from spe­cialized areas as Psychology, Admin­is­tration, Finance, Psychiatry etc.

APPOINTMENT: His Lordship Bishop V.V. Ezeonyia has ap­pointed Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Nwokonko, one of the diocesan examiners. He has since assumed du­ties at this year’s vicariate exami­na­tion. His area of special­ization is Dogmat­ic Theology which he studied at CIWA. He holds an M.A. from Universi­ty of Calabar.

Posting: The following seminari­ans have now been as­signed to their first official duties in the diocese:

Chukwuezi Paul (Amaudara Semi­nary); Egbulefu Charles (Umungasi, Aba); Ekpendu Chidi (Mbawsi); Enyinna Pas­cal (Amaudara Seminary); Madugha Christopher (Our Lady of Lourdes, Aba); Mbagwu Ken­neth (Amaudara Semi­nary);Okoli Augustine (Aba-Ukwu; Omire Vic­tor (Our Lady of Fatima, Aba); Onwuka Don­ald (Ogbor Hill); Onyebueze John ( Umuokpoji, Aba); Onyechesi Longinus (St. Eugene’s Aba); Ogbonna Kingsley (St. Joseph’s Aba); Okite Donatus (St. Mary’s Ariaria); Opuehi Jerome (St. Joseph’s Aba). We con­gratu­late them and wish

them fruitful apostolate.

CON­GRATU­LA­TIONS AND AC­KNOWL­EDGE­MENTS:

SONS OF MARY MOTHER OF MERCY (SMMM): The vocation ministry is happy to welcome 21 senior seminarians from the congre­gation of Sons of Mary Moth­er of Mercy to do their ap­ostolic work in the diocese during this year’s July to August apostolic work. We wish them a happy stay in the diocese.

NATIVITY SPIR­ITUAL YEAR: Christian Emetulo has won the prize of  best behaved seminarian for first semes­ter: We wish him continuous good behavior. We equally congratulate the second aux­iliary, the master of cer­emo­nies, the procura­tor, the labor master and regula­tor who are from Aba dio­cese.

PONTIFICAL URBAN UNI­VERSITY ROME: All our students who par­tic­ipated at the B.Phil. exami­nation of June 1991 passed their exami­nation. We con­gratulate them. The B.D. was impressive with Rev. Fr. William Onwumdi recording a Suma cum laude - the highest grade that could be awarded at this level!!

 FAREWELL: Mr Pierre Magougu our Camer­oonian student will spend his long vacation at home. We wish him safe journey home.

The following have left the seminary since January 1992: Mr Vincent Ekeh (The­ology 2 Ikot Ekpene); Mr Christopher Nwadike (On probation at Mbutu Ngwa); Mr. Opurum Pat­rick (Theology one Ikot Ekpene); Mr Justin Madugba (Theology one Seat of Wisdom Seminary); Mr Augustine Alilonu (Theology two Seat of Wisdom Seminary). We wish them God’s bless­ing wherever them may find themselves.

INTER-DIOCESAN AP­OS­TOLIC WORK: We heartily welcome the fol­lowing to our dio­cese:

Abba Joe-Barth (Onitsha Archdio­cese); Uruegbe Kevin (Orlu dio­cese); Ejim Joseph (Awka diocese).Besides the following seminar­i­ans will do their inter-diocesan ap­os­tolic work with us: Victor Ozoufuanya, Raphael Odike, Okonkwo Izunna C. We wish them all the best and very fruitful apostolate in our diocese.

The following seminar­ians from our diocese are serving in other dioceses: Gabriel Eze (Onitsha Archdiocese), Charles Omotu (Enugu Dio­cese),  Anthony Iroh (Awka dio­cese), Okite Hendilaha (Awka dio­cese), Nwoko Ignatius (Onitsha Archdio­cese), Uwasomba Chikezie (Orlu Dio­cese),

DEATH:  Mr Celestine Onwutuebe the father of Mr Emmanuel Onwutuebe (St. Joseph’s Sem­inary) is dead and has since been bur­ied at Mbutu Ngwa. We keep praying for the re­pose of his soul.

APOSTOLIC WORK/PROBATION: Comprehensive re­ports con­cerning sem­inarians on apos­tolic work and pro­bation are to be sent to the voca­tion di­rec­tor latest end of July 1992. Seminarians on six months apostolic work and those on pro­ba­tion can  leave their places of as­signment after the consulta­tion with the bishop in Au­gust. Sem­inarians on six months apostolic work and those on probation are to arrange with the priest un­der whom they are serving for their holidays.t. They are yet to leave no duties un­com­pleted -   most espe­cial­ly those on teaching assign­ment.

APOSTOLIC WORK FOR SENIOR SEMI­NARIANS:

Apostolic work for senior seminarians begins on July 3, 1992 and ends August 10, 1992 (6 weeks).  Every semi­narian is to demonstrate excep­tional sense of re­spon­sibility. Seminar­ians are to collect the guidelines for their work from the di­ocesan head seminarian in each sem­i­nary.  Care­ful and system­atic  plan­ing is very essen­tial to successful apostolate. Leave nothing to chance!!  

ANNU­AL CON­SUL­TA­TION WITH THE BISH­OP: All seminari­ans on 6 months, 6 weeks, 1 year apostolic work on spiritual year and those on probation are to report to the chan­cery C.K.C. Aba on August 11, 1992 for the annual con­sul­ta­tion with the bish­op. Sem­inarians are expected to  be seated in the conference hall at 8.30 a.m.

 

CONSULTATION WITH THE VOCA­TION DIRECTOR: FIRST MONDAYS OF EVERY MONTH.

VEN­UE: VOCA­TIONS OFFICE -  CHAN­CERY.

TIME: 7.30 A.M - 9.30 A.M.

Mailbag: “ Hold on to the rud­der of Vo­cation News. The pub­li­ca­tion I think is very in­for­mative, encourag­ing,awakening, and helpful in Evangelization. May the Vo­ca­tion News grow from strength to strength.  I hope, all of us will grow to love it. I would please re­quest all and sundry to join hands togeth­er to nurture this new baby to maturity”. From Fr. Char­lie Ifemeje.

The Vocation News thanks Fr. Ifemeje and others who have sent in their messages.