Aid to the Church in Need: Sudan: The feeding of the 45 seminarians

Sudan: The feeding of the 45 seminarians

Posted by Press release on 9/4/2009, 12:33 pm
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ACN News, Thursday, 9th April 2009 – SUDAN

The feeding of the 45 seminarians

By John Newton

DISASTER has been narrowly averted after reports that Sudanese seminarians returning from exile were facing a dire shortage of food.
The 45 junior seminarians were all set to go back to start the new term at St Josephine’s Minor Seminary in southern Sudan when pastoral coordinator Marcellus Nkafu declared that food and other basic needs were in very short supply.
In response to an urgent appeal, Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, has given over $55,000 in urgent assistance to the seminary in Mapuordit, Rumbek diocese.
The grant comes as the seminary staff need funding for staple supplies – rice, lentils, flour, beans and cooking oil.
Mr Nkafu said: “We are very grateful for the enormous support we have enjoyed from Aid to the Church in Need without which we would not have been able to do anything.”
The Catholic charity is considering giving more aid.

(Bishop Cesare Mazzolari inaugurates the ACN-funded St Josephine’s Minor Seminary, Mapuordit, Rumbek, south Sudan)

In the long term, the seminary leaders are hoping to produce much of the food on site.
Mr Nkafu said: “We hope they can raise some food for the future through gardening and raising pigs.”
They already have two pigs but cannot expand the litter because they lack funds.
While some cultivation of the vast compound took place last year, most crops were lost after goats wandered into the compound and ate them.
Mr Nkafu said: “We are looking forward to fencing the compound of the seminary.” New fencing will cost $85,000

(Some of the seminarians in their classroom)

The minor seminarians, who were forced into exile during the conflict in south Sudan, have returned to their native country at a time when their bishops have been prioritising clergy formation, especially after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
That year saw the start of the plan to move the seminarians to Mapuordit. ACN provided over $300,000 in aid for the new seminary buildings, which were inaugurated by Bishop Cesare Mazzolari in June 2007.
Key to the move to Rumbek was that the students divide their time between St Josephine’s and a nearby Catholic secondary school.
Over the holidays the seminarians return to their home parishes. Close contact with parish clergy enables seminary staff to follow the students’ formation closely.
Students pay their own school fees as well as transport costs between home and school.
According to Mr Nkafu, this encourages the seminarians against an attitude of dependency.
He added “Although the construction of the Minor Seminary has not been easy, we have achieved quite a lot already”.
Minor Seminaries exist to provide a good education and spiritual formation for potential candidates for priesthood, religious life, and key lay ministries.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 140 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org