Formation

Africa is a continent of hope for the Catholic Church. Worldwide, one in every five Catholics now comes from the African continent, as does one in every seven priests and roughly one in every three seminarians. Not surprisingly, therefore, vocations are also on the rise in the Diocese of Tete in northwest Mozambique. Right now, 34 young men from this diocese are currently studying in various seminaries around the country, and another 16 are currently being trained at the propedeutic ...

The apostolic vicariate of Hawassa (Awassa) is in southern Ethiopia and covers a vast region of approximately 45,560 square miles, or roughly one-third the size of Germany. The vicariate is divided into just 20 parishes, each of which covers numerous villages, many of them extremely remote in isolated and inaccessible areas. Some of these villages have a chapel of their own, since the nearest parish church is simply too far away. In most of these small villages, it is only ...

At present, there are 20 young men training in the major seminary of Cochabamba in Bolivia. They come from various different parts of the country but are united in their wish to serve God and their brothers and sisters one day as priests. They represent a great hope for the Church in Bolivia, since the country urgently needs more priests in order to minister to the growing number of Catholic faithful. The seminarians come from very different backgrounds. Some of ...

Ever since the end of 2015, northern and eastern Burkina Faso have been the focus of violent Islamist terrorism. Today, two-thirds of the West African nation is suffering from this terrorism, and two million people have been forced to flee their homes. In 2019, attackers began deliberately targeting the Christian faithful and their churches. And the violence of the jihadist attackers against priests, religious, and ordinary Christian faithful has steadily increased in intensity ever since.   Yet despite this threat to ...

The Diocese of Klerksdorp is in South Africa’s Northwest Province, an area with a population of 1.8 million souls, of whom roughly 117,000 are Catholic. They are ministered to by 31 priests.   In the past, there were only very few vocations in the diocese, with the result that even those who did perhaps feel a calling to the priesthood were very reluctant, fearing that they might be quite alone in the seminary. This meant that there were still fewer vocations. ...

Nigeria is a dangerous country for Christians, especially for priests. In the past 10 years, over 150 priests were abducted, and over a dozen were murdered. And yet the number of vocations is not falling; on the contrary, it is even increasing, and there are many young men who desire to become a diocesan or religious priest.    One congregation that is blessed with numerous vocations is the Sons of Mary, Mother of Mercy, a congregation founded in 1970, in Nigeria‘s ...

Almost one-third of all seminarians in the world today are from the continent of Africa. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, the number of priestly vocations is gratifyingly large. In the archdiocese of Kinshasa, there are no fewer than 221 young men currently training for the priesthood.   The rector of the seminary, Father Emmanuel Kwazifwanga Abita, knows all their life stories. He tells us, “One of our candidates already felt the desire to become a priest as ...

The Diocese of Rio Branco lies in western Brazil. Large sections of this area of over 40,000 square miles are covered in rainforest. A remote and inaccessible region with vast distances and many settlements only accessible via water, it has a population of about 700,000 people, of whom approximately half a million are Catholic. There is a grave shortage of priests within the diocese, with just 39 active priests, so that on average, each one has to minister to almost ...

There are over 120 “Redemptoris Mater” priestly seminaries around the world. They were established by Pope Saint John Paul II to promote the new evangelization. And today, young men from many different countries and nationalities pursue their vocation to the priesthood in these seminaries. The particular feature of the seminaries is that the priests who emerge from them are ready and willing to go anywhere in the world as missionaries, at the request of their own bishops.   One of these ...

Chad is a landlocked country in Central Northern Africa, in the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara. It has an area of over half a million square miles and a population of just over 16 million, making it thinly populated, relatively speaking. The majority of the population is Muslim.   The apostolic vicariate of Mongo is in southern Chad and serves an area of approximately 211,000 square miles, almost the size of France. But there are only about ...