By Zenith News
Despite the widespread terrorism which is increasingly affecting Burkina Faso, and although priests and catechists are the main targets among pastoral agents, the country has seen a growth in priestly vocations in recent years. Supporting these future priests in their formation is one of ACN’s priorities. While for most people Christmas is a time of family reunions, this is not the case for many seminarians in Burkina Faso.
Because of the serious security crisis caused by terrorism, some must forego joining their families. “Not everyone knows where to go during the Christmas holidays,” Fr Guy Moukassa Sanon tells the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Fr Guy is rector of the St Peter and St Paul seminary of Kossoghin in Ouagadougou, the inter-diocesan philosophy seminary. For some of these young men, to go home would imply risking their lives, so instead they are welcomed in diocesan centres or host families or invited by other seminarians to spend the holidays with their families in safer regions.
“Some seminarians have had narrow escapes,” recounts the rector. “One of them, for example, went home to spend the holiday with his family. While he was outside the house, the terrorists arrived. Their initial target was his father, a catechist, who fortunately was away at the time. However, the terrorists, who were well informed, then demanded the seminarian son. Hearing their threats, he climbed over a wall and fled into the fields under the cover of night. Although the terrorists went after him, they didn’t manage to find him. He hid for a whole day, waiting for the danger to pass before he returned home.” According to Fr Sanon, the fact that so many young Burkinabés want to become priests despite the security crisis is thanks to good vocations work but also because it’s easy for young men to meet people in their daily lives “who witness to the love of Christ in an obvious way”.
Since secularisation is not yet as present in Burkina Faso as it is in Europe, Fr Sanon explains that the awakening of a vocation is easier “than in a materialist context where you don’t expect anything of God”. The challenges of forming future priests The rector says that the number of seminarians at St Peter and St Paul is so great that there isn’t even enough space for them all. “We’ve converted community rooms into little units separated by partitions to accommodate them. However, the conditions are far from ideal for their studies, and even that hasn’t been enough to be able to welcome everyone, so we’ve had to accommodate 22 seminarians outside and send another 11 to a seminary in Mali.” Fr Sanon underlines the importance of good formation of future priests for the credibility of the Church. “It’s crucial that future priests can give authentic witness to their faith, that they have really been able to meet Christ personally, that the Gospel is their food and their passion.”
