African seminarians warned to reject ‘revisionism’ and 'detach from materialism'

Seminarians in Africa are being warned against embracing the misleading ideology of revisionism and succumbing to a world bedevilled by materialism. The warnings were made at the Uganda Martyrs National Major Seminary, during its seventh session of the ongoing “Synodal Conversations” that are part of Pope Francis’s long-running Synod of Bishops on synodality. <br><br>The pronouncements also come at a time when Africa's seminaries are increasingly producing the priests that are taking up the pastoral slack across much of the Western world following the decline in vocations happening in so many developed countries (though there are indications that <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/number-of-ordinations-in-france-rises-as-country-continues-to-buck-secular-trends/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">trend may be shifting in country's such as France</mark></a>). <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/irelands-vocations-crisis-reflects-lack-of-initiative-and-evasion-of-issue-by-church/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Ireland’s vocations crisis reflects lack of ‘initiative’ and ‘evasion of issue’ by Church</mark></a></strong> “In our seminaries and formation places, we have a lot of misleading ideologies that come as well-researched ideas,” Father Callisto Locheng, a formator&nbsp;at the Uganda Martyrs National Major Seminary, said during a 19 July address to an online audience of over 200 people. “We are witnessing the ideology of revisionism whereby people intentionally, deliberately revise facts and misrepresent them.” The Ugandan priest, who also serves as dean of the faculty of arts and social sciences at the University of the Sacred Heart Gulu in Uganda, urged seminarians to stick to the truth, while lauding the efforts made by the Church in Africa when it comes to training priests who can adapt to every situation. “There is a lot of effort by the Church through our bishops to make sure we train young men dedicated to God, and young men who are aware of the task that the Lord has called them to do,” Locheng said. He underscored the need to train priests to apply what they are taught for the betterment of society. “There is something lacking in our formation that we must face," Locheng cautioned. "Unfortunately, there is very little application of the subjects we teach in formation to the concrete life of the people. “I teach some subjects which look too theoretical and very isolated. Our philosophy must be taught in such a way that it is not just about learning how to think correctly, but also how to apply what we learn to the real situations of life,” Locheng said. He added that well-formed priests must exercise a sense of self-sacrifice, saying it is an important ingredient for effective priesthood in a world bedevilled by materialism. “This is an aspect that is rarely insisted upon in formation. We must insist on the virtue of detachment from materialism; detachment from places and detachment from people,” the priest said. He insisted that formation centres should insist on the virtue of humility, highlighting that in the context of a continent with a vast assortment of ethnicities and tribes, priests need to be trained to be able to live with everyone. Father Nicholaus Segeja M’hela, a member of the Vatican’s Theological Commission of the Synod who also spoke at the event, said priestly formation should enable seminarians to become faith influencers. He said the system embraced by the Church in Africa of Small Christian Communities (SCCs)&nbsp;has been helpful because not only do these communities help in selecting those for formation, they also facilitate background checks used to determine how suitable candidates are for formation. <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/africa-calling-westerners-must-accept-that-catholicisms-centre-of-gravity-is-shifting/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Westerners must accept that Catholicism’s centre of gravity is shifting</mark></a></strong> <em>Photo: St. Paul’s Catholic Seminary, Accra, Ghana. (Credit: Vatican Media; via Crux.)</em>