The role of Christian families of Gangama parish in formation of the future priests in light of Pastores Dabo Vobis

Abstract

The topic for this research is: “The role of Christian families of Gangama Parish in formation of future priests in light of Pastores Dabo Vobis.” The questions that guided the research are: Who is a priest in the Catholic Church? What is the role of a family in forming a Catholic priest? Which challenges do young men in formation to priesthood face? I have used a cross - section design with both descriptive qualitative and quantitative technique of data collection. Qualitative information was obtained through key informants and conducting interviews. Quantitative data was obtained from respondents who after issuing them with questionnaires, answered and returned them to the researcher. The findings indicate that a term ‘priest’ is defined as; a man called and chosen by God who attends the necessary training and leaves his family after ordination to serve God through the Church. A priest is one who administers sacraments. A priest leads people to God as spiritual advisor. A priest is a collaborator with the Bishop in a certain parish he has been entrusted. A priest is ‘another Christ’. A priest is an intermediary between people and God who vows to life of celibacy and poverty. A priest is a missionary of God in the world who works for the spread of the kingdom of God on earth. A priest is an apostle of Christ. A priest is one who takes care of the temporal goods of the Church and her institutions like: hospitals and schools. The Christian family plays the following role in training of young men to the Catholic priesthood. The parents receive the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, bear children, introduce the faith to the children through sacraments of initiation, teach good morals to the children, encourage children to love associating with priests, serve at the altar and joining apostolate of the Church, encourage the children to love the vocation to the priesthood, parents promote their children’s being in the seminary. The challenges faced by the young men who join seminary formation in view of becoming Catholic priests include: discouragements from some people of opposite sex who see seminarians as future husbands, inadequate forgiveness from supervisors, political instability, temptations, financial constraints, witch craft that disorganizes the family and makes the future priest lose interest in formation to priesthood, long period of formation, peer pressure, chronic sickness, discouraging cultural beliefs from which future priests as heirs of the family and wish to have grand - sons and grand - daughters. Future priests are at times misunderstood by Christians and supervisor / formators. Future priests face intellectual challenges, spiritual challenges, pastoral challenges and hidden identity