Their journey towards priesthood

Seminarians and bishop
(bishop's house, 2019)
The diocese of Manzini (Kingdom of Eswatini) is blessed with local vocations. At present we have seven seminarians coming from different parishes in our diocese. They spent most of the year in South Africa at the seminary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC). They come back for their holidays which they spend basically in our parishes. It is during their holidays in the country that we make time to meet for half a day. It gives me an opportunity to hear a bit about their personal journey towards priesthood.

Last December, though, we were able to take a couple of days together at the "St Lucia retreat and training centre" in the Vicariate of Ingwavuma (where I was bishop before being appointed to Manzini).

It had been their request to have a retreat together during their holidays in the diocese. They do have retreats in the seminary but they felt it would be good to have one locally too.

It was also a good opportunity to finally share with them the reflection of our people regarding the type of priests we need in our diocese.

Vicar General, seminarians and bishop
(St Lucia, 2018)
In 2017 the rector of the seminary asked them: 
what type of priests does your bishop need in his diocese?
They did not know what to say and they then referred the question to me. I felt the answer should come "from all of us": bishop, priests, religious, laity. Therefore I asked the parish pastoral councils to reflect on this and to let me know. Priests had done their own sharing in the past and therefore I asked them to allow the lay people to reflect by themselves.

I collected everything and sent it to the rector of the seminary but never had a chance to share that with our seminarians. I wanted to do it as part of a day or two together and not just as a list of things to keep in mind.

We had a great day. I started by asking the seminarians what they thought people had said. Each one of them took some time to think about it and then reported to the group. We then compared it with what I had gathered from the parishes. 

The final step was a very important one. I asked them: 
do you think the formation we are offering you prepares for the type of priests we need?
The answer was a mixed one as there are many things they believe do prepare them but others need to be added. That is our homework now.


This week, at the end of their time in the parishes and before going home for a couple of weeks, we met again to go through the rector's reports. Each one of them receives the report sent by the seminary and shares with me if he believes it is "a fair image" of his personal journey. 

We are grateful to God for each one of them and we pray they become "good shepherds" in our Church.