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MINISTERIUM – A Journal of Contextual Theology Vol. 6 (Dec. 2020) 46-59 CARE OF EX-SEMINARIANS IN THE NIGERIAN CHURCH Benjamin Ike Ewelu, Ph.D.1 E-mail: [email protected] And Stephen C. Chukwujekwu, Ph.D.2 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This essay states that ex-seminarians, especially the expelled ones, face many difficulties and challenges in Nigeria. It argues that the Church in Nigeria should show more concern, love and care for these ex-seminarians who in most cases feel disappointed, abandoned and neglected by the Church. By going into the meaning and nature of the vocation to the priesthood as an inner call which a candidate tries to respond to, the paper exposes some erroneous intentions some candidates usually enter the seminary with. In doing so, the essay argues that though the candidates are not to blame for such false motives, at the same time they cannot be promoted to the priesthood because of certain conditions the Church requires of the candidates, given the nature of the life and work of the Catholic priest. Thus, there are and would continue to be cases of expelled ex-seminarians. In its expository and argumentative methodology, and making use of some life examples, the paper tries to convince the reader that the rehabilitation and pastoral care of the ex-seminarians call for immediate attention in the present-day Nigerian Church. As a form of solution, the paper points out the areas where the ex-seminarians need the Church’s assistance and also points out the means and modalities the Nigerian Church can employ to help and care for them. Keywords: Ex-seminarians, Vocation, Expulsion, Rehabilitation, Pastoral-Care, Sense-of-Belonging, Eternal-Salvation. Introduction The question of contextual theology in Nigeria today should pay attention to some of the contemporary problems facing the Nigerian Church. One of such problems is the position of many ex-seminarians in the Church of Nigeria. The Nigerian Church has almost no place and no concern for her well- 1 Benjamin Ike Ewelu is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Department of Philosophy, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State, Nigeria. He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Ekwulobia, Nigeria. 2 Stephen C. Chukwujekwu is a Senior Lecturer at Department of Philosophy, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State, Nigeria. He is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, Nigeria. 46 | P a g e Care of Ex-Seminarians in the Nigerian Church meaning sons, who came up willingly and in almost all the cases sincerely to serve God and their sisters and brothers in and through the Church as priests, but who for one reason or the other did not make it to the priesthood. This essay is concerned more with the ex-seminarians that are expelled from the seminary; that is to say, the seminarians that still guarded the intention and the desire to become priests but were dismissed from the seminary by some competent authority for some reasons. It all means that the seminarians who willingly decided and left the seminary on their own are not the immediate concern of this essay. It is the opinion of this paper that the Church in Nigeria has almost no thought at all, not to talk of having plans for her expelled ex-seminarians. The Mother Church in Nigeria should be concerned about her expelled ex- seminarians because many of them really languish psychologically, spiritually, socially, economically etc. The ‘internal bleeding’ (grudges and regrets) many of such ex-seminarians go through is often very obvious when you converse with them or when you observe them closely within certain set-ups. It is the suggestion of this essay that the Church in Nigeria needs to build up some “structure” that can provide some pastoral care of her ex-seminarians. Their pastoral care is an urgent need. Vocation to the Priesthood The desire to enter the seminary, that is to say, to train for the priesthood, is generally said to be a vocation, a divine call. This general belief may be traced to the call of the small boy Samuel as we read in the Sacred Scriptures (1 Sam 3): “Yahweh called, ‘Samuel, Samuel’….” Other outstanding instances of divine call in the Old Testament include the call of Abraham (Gen 12), of Moses (Ex 3), of Elijah (1Kings 17), of Isaiah (Isa 6), of Jeremiah (Jer 1), of Ezekiel (Ezek 1). In the New Testament, one can think of the call of the first four Apostles by Jesus Christ. Having been called, each left everything and his former job and followed Christ. We can also think of the call of Matthew the tax collector (Mt 9:9) and the dramatic call of St. Paul on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6). About becoming a priest, the Letter to the Hebrews states clearly: “No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was” (Heb 5:4). This divine call is what is usually referred to as ‘vocation’. The candidate to the priesthood, who manifests positive signs of being truly called is considered to have vocation. This idea of considering the desire to become priest as a call from God is made very evident by a boy who once attended the entrance examination into All Hallows Seminary Onitsha. As the seminarian-teachers were marking the entrance exams papers, one of them came across a very weak answer script. As he was about putting it away among the discarded papers, he noticed that there 47 | P a g e MINISTERIUM – A Journal of Contextual Theology Vol. 6 (Dec. 2020) 46-59 was a footnote attached to the script by the candidate. The footnote read: “Please Father remember Christ said ‘come and follow me.’ So I have come.” When this footnote was shown to the team marking the papers, they decided to show it the Father Rector, to see whether there could be a way of considering the “pious” boy. The Rector looked at the paper thoroughly and said: “Poor boy, you have come, but you are unable to follow.” This is actually the problem; it is not all who respond to the inner desire to become priest are able to follow the formation for the priesthood. It is one thing to come and totally another thing to be able to follow. Thus, there is bound to be cases of expelled seminarians. We now examine some reasons why some willing candidates to the priesthood are asked to discontinue with their seminary training. Intention of the Candidate It is true that there is the desire to answer the divine call in each person that comes to the seminary to train for the priesthood. However, the intentions vary from candidate to candidate. After all, a bishop said that the first attraction he had for the priesthood was the well-polished and shined black shoes of his ex-patriate parish priest. The young boy simply desired to be in a position where he would have the opportunity of wearing such shoes; thus, he desired to be a priest and entered the seminary. Another bishop also said that his own vocation came from the nice aroma from the kitchen of the priests living in their parish. The young boy desired to share in such a meal one day and so, he entered the seminary. These two persons entered the seminary and realized that they needed to purify their initial intentions. They did so and each ended up a priest and eventually each a bishop. Many others go to the seminary because of festive nature of priestly ordination and first Mass of the newly ordained priest. Most attractive to many young boys is the gift of nice and flashy cars to the newly ordained, as is often the case here in Nigeria. The seminary formation is meant to inculcate in each seminarian the right intention for being in the seminary. The formators in the seminary, the Ordinary of the seminarian, director of vocations and indeed all the faithful watch to see whether the seminarian exhibits the right intentions as a seminarian training for the priesthood. Where a seminarian is showing signs of wrong intentions, the formators normally try to help him purify his intentions and acquire the right intentions. In many of the cases the formators succeed in this task, but in some cases they do not. Some candidates guard jealously their initial intentions for entering the seminary, no matter how evil the intentions are. In such a case, the seminarian is dismissed from the seminary against his will. Those charged with the task of presenting to the Church the candidates for priestly ordination have to present fitting candidates, which the rite of ordination requires. During the ordination ceremony, the candidate is presented to the 48 | P a g e Care of Ex-Seminarians in the Nigerian Church bishop who asks whether the candidate is worthy to be ordained. The presenter of the candidate answers: “By the testimony of those charged with their formation and from the enquiries made among the people of God, I testify that he is worthy.” For this attestation to be true, a candidate not found worthy for priestly ordination has to be expelled. It is in this spirit that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council state: God will not allow his Church to lack ministers if the worthy are promoted and those who are not suited are guided with fatherly kindness and in due time to adopt another calling. 3 This implies that some willing candidates are sometimes asked to discontinue their formation to the priesthood.