The Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment was
officially declared open on October 3rd 2018 and will be brought to an end on
October 28th 2018 at Rome, Italy. Some preparatory questions were addressed to
the different continents across the world.
The aim of these questions is to assist
the ecclesial bodies to express their understanding of the world of young
people and assess their experience of vocational accompaniment, in order to
gather information for drafting the work- document known as Instrumentum
laboris. The following questions were addressed to Africans:
Question 1. What plans and structures in pastoral vocational care
for young people best respond to the needs of your continent?
Answer: Pastoral Care are those practices that supports
the spiritual, moral and social well‐being, welfare and development of children and young
people. Pastoral Vocational Care are those practices that has to do with
the discernment, promotion and formation of young people. Vocation itself is a
calling!
The current pastoral vocational care for young
people is not yielding the expected fruit because the method of formation is
not just strange to the African youths it is also directly against the African
Value of Communal and Religious Life. A strict clerical and hierarchical
structure of formation has little or nothing to do with the pastoral care of
the people.
The Holy Father, Pope Francis, told his pastors, “...be
shepherds with the smell of sheep,” so that people can sense the priest is not
just concerned with his own congregation, but is also a fisher of men." A
priest that is completely isolated from the people cannot smell like the
people. A priest that is self-centered and clerically minded can never smell
like his sheep. A priest that is hand-picked by the power that be is not the
priest of the people. What we need in Africa is a people-oriented priests, a
priest of the people, by the people and for the people.
Question 2. What does “spiritual fatherhood” mean in places where
a person grows without a father figure? What formation is offered?
Answer: This is the most realistic and practical question as long
as Africa is concern. This question considers countries like Nigeria where so
many children have lost their fathers through insurgencies such as Boko Harran
and herdsmen killings. If these orphans grow up without any father figure their
lives the idea of spiritual father makes little or no sense. Worst still, they
will find it difficult to relate with God as their Heavenly Father.
The way forward is for the Church to establish an orphanage home
in all the dioceses in Africa where such orphans will have access to practical
pastoral care. A father figure can be provided for such homes. St, James
declares, Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is
this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress..." (James 1:27).
c. How do you communicate to young people that they are needed to
build the future of the Church?
Answer: The African youths don't need anybody to tell them
that they are needed in the Church. There is vocation boom in places like
Nigeria. Unemployment must have contributed to this increase in vocation. So
many young people who wants to serve in the Church are rejected. Instead of
frustrating these young vocations the Church in Nigeria and other parts of
Africa should harness these vocations and send them to areas like Western world
and even Northern parts of Nigeria where Pastors are needed. This was exactly what the Irish Church did
when they had their own vocation boom. A
day is coming when the economy of Africa will improve, the Church will look for
vocation and they will not find it!
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