THE
RECTOR’S WELCOME ADDRESS FOR 2019/2020 INAUGURAL MASS
 |
| VERY REV FR. HABILA DABOH |
Your grace, the Metropolitan archbishop
of Kaduna and the chairman of the seminary Board, Most Revd Matthew M. Ndagoso,
the team of formators, lecturers here present, my dear seminarians, I welcome
you all to the inaugural Mass of the 2019/2020 session of Good Shepherd Major
Seminary, Kaduna. During this Mass of
the Holy Spirit, the formators and lecturers shall make their profession of
faith and take the Oath of Fidelity.
Some seminarians will have their investiture. New functionaries shall be commissioned; our
vision statement for the year shall be presented.
This Eucharistic celebration marks the
official opening of the 2019/2020 academic year. I am more than happy to say that our seminary
is now full fledged because the four arms of both philosophy and theology are
complete. We also have with us the
Missionaries of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and international seminarians from
Benin Republic. In my opinion, we are
complete and we have no reason not to be like other seminaries that have
existed many decades. I am also proud of
the quality of formators that we have assembled in the seminary. Our visiting lecturers are simply second to none. The Philosophy and theology departments are
solid. We shall do our best to continue
to make this seminary the cradle of spiritual and academic excellence.
We
all know that there is a dearth of honesty in our society today. It is
important to remind ourselves that honesty goes beyond mere telling the truth.
It has to do with the individual being real to himself and others. Being
truthful and honest is most needed in a community such as ours. As formators
and lecturers, we cannot but be honest, opened and sincere to those we are
forming and lecturing. This honesty should be demonstrated in everything we do,
especially in relationship with our seminarians. Seminarians must also imbibe
the attitude and culture of profound openness, sincerity and honesty in order
to give their formators the enabling confidence to form and educate them
according to the mind and heart of the Church. If formation is built on the foundation of dishonesty, fear and lack of
openness, we can be sure of a corrupt, dishonest and a failed generation of priesthood
in the near future. Pope Francis, talking on vocation and discernment in
his post synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus
vivit to young people said youths (seminarians) must develop the ability to listen to their helper. The helper he said
could be a priest, religious, layperson or even another young person. He went
further to say they must listen to their helper unconditionally without being
offended or shocked, tired or bored. Therefore, the formandee must listen
and be opened to the formators in order to learn from them. If you fail to be
opened and sincere to your formators, as I said last year, then we can be sure
of no quality harvest in the Catholic priesthood.
May
the grace of God, through the sanctifying power of this Mass and the
intercession of our Lady support us through this academic year and journey of
faith Amen. May I humbly invite the bishop to please continue with the Mass.
