Pendant of Grace: Fifteen Years of Inestimable Love

July 10, 2009

Today marks exactly fifteen years when I first raised the sacred body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at the table of redemptive love and everlasting blessings at the first mass I ever celebrated. It was a day after my ordination.

Since sixty years of Catholicism was reinvented in my Igala homeland and Idah became the seat of Catholicism in Igala and Bassa lands, I became the first son of Idah to raise at the altar of God the sacrifice of our redemption. Idah had come full cycle.

Idah experienced Christianity with a Christian service celebrated on its territory on the Niger River in 1841 by Revs. Schon and the liberated African slave and later to be made Anglican Bishop, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who were members of the Niger Expedition. Moments later the treaty of 1841 was signed with the Attah Ameh Ocheje, and members of the Expedition representing the British crown, and through the mediation and interpreting genius of another liberated Igala slave, William Johnson, a scion of the Royal family, from the clan of the ruling Attah Ameh Ocheje.

Through my ordination, as a Catholic priest for Idah diocese, I became the first scion of the ancient and native Idah town and from St. Boniface Cathedral parish to be so elevated. As I grimace and glimpse backwards, I remember my late father, mother, and sibling and the entire Christian community of Idah diocese and specifically of St. Boniface parish church whose elation and support, and who through their ongoing encouragement and prayers have anchored me ever since.

These embraced me and honored me as their own; their son and one of them. Thus, my ordination to the Catholic priesthood became the firstfruit and source of many vocations to the priesthood and religious life ever since.

It is remarkable given that before me many by the name Anthony's have made enormous contributions to the growth of the faith in Idah diocese, and in more nuanced modes in Idah town, I belonged to good company. These are the hardworking intrepid German missionary, Rev. Fr. AnthonyKonrath and the Nigerian priest and indigenous missionary, the late Rev. Fr. (later Bishop) Anthony Nwedo. Hence, I can say, I am truly blessed to have these courageous and intrepid fervent souls and priests before me, and whom I can count upon their intercession before God's divine throne in heaven.

I am also humbled looking back at the sacrifice of the first priest ordained for Idah diocese, the first Igala priest, the late Rev. Fr. Dominic Arome.It is now fifteen years since my ordination. It looks like yesterday, still fresh and veldish in my consciousness. However, it cannot be also taken for granted, as a lot has also taken place.

Few months after my ordination, my father, Emmanuel Agbali, who witnessed my ordination died on November 18th, 1994 at the Niger Foundation Hospital, Enugu. As I recall my years of ordination these past fifteen years, I remember how seating at the confessional one day, though one or two other priests were present that my father decided to come to me for his confessions.

I was humbled. I had tried to make him see the reasons to select another priest, but he simply told me: "You are a priest too, why can you not hear my confession?" I was beaten to it. My father added his anointing to my ordination, and enhanced my ministry by so validating it.

I am thankful for God's inestimable grace and goodness.I am also humbled by the many good people who were not only present but were direct sources of inspirations to me along the way, both before my ordination, during, and the years ever since. Prime place goes to my beloved and late bishop, Ephraim Silas Obot, who died on Easter Sunday, April 12th, 2009.

A truly humble and humane man, he taught me and others, members of his flock a lot. He was my bishop, and even more a quintessential pastor of the Cathedral church. He always supported me enormously, and enriched in growing to maturity as a man, a Christian, and then as a priest. Most vitallyu and essentially he cultivated in me the values of prayerfulness, mindfulness, a caring and loving spirit, a forgiving heart, and expoused the virtues of humility, charity, chastity, and generosity.

This man taught me how to engage God in prayer.He was my first teacher of theology; when while still in secondary school (high school) through his weekly Sunday Biblical and Liturgical School (actually a Cathedral Catechetical School) I had the benefit of learning scriptures, liturgy, some Church history and spirituality from 1984-1985.

Later, on I would turn out to be his first formal teacher of the Igala language. As a seminarian doing my one year pastoral year (1989-1990) as the first Idah diocesan seminarian First Auxiliary at St. Kizito Minor Seminary, Idah, I combined this assignment with teaching the Bishop the Igala language, twice a week. Though fascinating, I would vouchsafe to assert that the Bishop was a very poor student of the Igala language!

Nonetheless, I had the occassion to come close to him and especially experience his prayer life and spiritually driven and joy-filled enriched life. A man of patience and perseverance who did not begrudge the arid conditions of life he sometimes faced in a poor diocese, he was persistent in hope.

Few years ago, Bishop Obot honored me and Fr. Patrick Adejoh, my elder brother in the prebysterate, visited the United States, St. Louis, Missouri, in particular, for medical checks, honoring me by humbly sharing my one bedroom apartment, and allowing me to be the chef for the duration of his stay. In the collegiality of ecclesial unity, expression of paternal and fratenal affirmation of our shared and unique ministries, Bishop Obot pointed to us the joy of priestly community living.

During this period he was an absolutely respectful and obedient guest; that did not arrogantly portrayed his power as a bishop as over and above, but radiated in simplicy the virtue of being our beloved pastor and father. He thoroughly respectful of his host and almost over indulgently thankful for every minute gestures shown him.

He was a distinguished father and brother. When father's day came, which he never knew existed until then, he was so elated to call the fathers he knew, and enjoyed receiving a card designating him as a father as well- our spiritual father in the faith.

Then, we would celebrate the mass together, in spite of his debilitating back pain. He uplifted all his priests, religious, and members of his diocese and various events to the Lord in prayers. On that occassion following a phone call from my mother, informing me that a mother of one of our priests, Mrs. Monica Illah, passed earlier that day, the Bishop was overwhelmed.

In his caring manner, we tried to call Fr. Louis Illah to offer consolation. We together lifted Mrs. Illah and her family to God at mass and prayers through that day. This is the depth of a caring pastor's soul. Bishop Obot grounded in his love of God and His Church never faltered in his prayer life. He was astute and firmly rooted in God's divine will and plans. He condoned all insolence and was tireless in admonishment, while prophetically forecasting the future. I remember his pithy saying, "This too shall pass away!"

He is now gone but fondly remembered with thanksgiving forever. From this man, my bishop, I received the grace of ordination; ordaining me a deacon and months later as a priest. I drank from the fountain of his wisdom and shared together with him in the ministry of grace. He was my pastor par excellence; always present, comforting, and consoling. When my biological father died in 1994, he never winked before saying to me then a young priest, "I have even now become more of a father to you."

He mourned my father, whom he called his friend. When my father died, Bishop Obot told me, "I would like to be able to celebrate his funeral mass, know that he was also my friend. He was your father but he was my friend, whom I could count upon, to call him at any hour of the day to go represent me at a meeting. He was my eye in CAN [the Christian Association of Nigeria]."True, I remember in 1983, when within hours after my late bishop came calling on my late father, Dad and the late Mr. Benji George (The popular Idah mechanic) had to travel to Ibadan at a moment's notice.

As Bishop Obot is now gone, I now realize the meaning of the radiant rainbow-like rings formed around the light directly before the altar in an Indiana hospital, that I visualized as I was raising the Eucharistic species while saying the Easter Sunday mass. It was a statement to me of his radiant entrance into the Kingdom of our Lord many hours back.

Few hours later, I would learn from Fr. Patrick Adejoh, through a phone call, that my bishop, my teacher, my student, and my boss has gone to the Lord having borne in patience and humility physical and excruciating pains in his body. I have since not seen that rainbow rings around that particular light!

Also today, two priests who stood on the same altar with me fifteen years ago, Frs. Matthias Ahiaba and Gerald Arome have also gone to their eternal reward sealed with the sign of faith and hope. These were my friends and confidants, even though senior to me in the priesthood and biologically. Others are my other many friends. The Rev. Fr. Reuben Ahmodu whom I had known since my days at St. James' Minor Seminary, Makurdi in the early 1980s, died while I was a seminarian in 1992. He was a strong pillar of energetic resilience for me.

The late Rev. Fr. (Professor) Edmund Emefie Ikenga-Metuh who died in a plane crash in early 2000, and who was present at my ordination in Idah was also a very dear friend, whom I had met in Jos, during my days as a seminarian. He was drawn to my resourceful efforts in promoting African theological and indigenous scholarship.

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ikubolaje, C.S. Sp., was another friend called to the eternal homeland. As a transitionary deacon he was also at my ordination, but left to the eternal bliss almost immediately following an automobile accident in Uyo diocese, gone since almost fifteen years ago- November 1994.

Bishop Joseph Sunday Ajomo, late bishop of Lokoja diocese (1992-2005) was a mentor to me in many ways. He who was not only my rector and formator in the major seminary of St. Augustine, Jos, but was every inch like a father and a fountain of spiritual and human wisdom, candid and loving. He died of cancer, even before I could tell him good bye.

Bishop Ajomo, you live on forever in my consciousness. Helping to train me to be a good priest and person, I can only do what you taught us to do, make the Eucharist the center of our lives. Here on this table, I will remember you forever, until my time is up, and I come calling. I look forward to seeing you come welcome me among the company of saints and angels.

My grandmother, Lydia Abdul who died in the early days of 1999, and was at my ordination; Sr. Sharon Dei, S.S.N.D., my dear friend and teacher who died in 2000 in the United States, were all icons of support and anchors of fortitude, in the midst of life's many mists.

As I recall today my fifteenth year anniversary as a priest, I cannot but remember all of these special and wonderful people in my lives, that God in his kindness brought my way. I invoke their prayers and advocacy, so that when my life is equally spent and done here on earth, I can join in the presence of the eternal bliss to enjoy my own reward of God's blessings, presence, in praising the creator forever.

Today, I pray for all. Some have been blessings for me on this route. I remember those who formed me in the major seminary. Fr. Cletus Gotan; the late Fr. Thomas Kambasaya; the late Fr. Kevin O'keffe, SMA; Fr. Jack Brennan, SMA; Fr. William (Bill) Sullivan, SMA; Bishop Campbell, OSA; Msgr. Dominic Adama; Fr. Jack Moti; Fr. Emmanuel Kure; the late Fr. Francis Duniya; Fr. Patrick Adekola; Fr. "Stone" Peter Tango; Sr. Margaret, O.L.A.; Fr. Mbanusi; OSA; Fr. Thomas Mason, O.S.A.; Fr. Emmanuel Ezenne, Fr. Innocent Eje among many others.

I ask for the compelling blessings of God upon those who have aided my journey and prayed for me. I am praying for all that God will answer their deepest aspirations. Others have tried to become cogs and agents of numerous obstacles. Whereas others due to ambition, ignorance, and self-gratification have maligned without respect and undignifying falsehood, or utter error makes it a duty to vilify me, I pray for the grace to forgive each one of them, as hard as it sometimes is to do so..

As a priest, in the church of Christ, who though unworthy, have received through the inestimable grace of His Love the ability to offer Eucharistic sacrifice at the altar of God's love I pray for the unity of the Church of Christ. I pray for the Holy Father. I pray for the church in Nigeria, for blessing and transformations.

I am in awe of the great many blessings I have received from those associated in many ways with my formation to the priesthood so many to mention. These includes my many fervent teachers in the major seminary, my many classmates, my teachers through many stages of life.On this day I commend to the love of God my classmates (Class of 94) St. Augustine Major Seminary, Jos, Nigeria who have gone to their eternal rest.

Ever, before we finished our training, our classmate, Rev. Deacon Joseph Okpo, opened the gate to heaven, becoming the firstfruit of our class to be called home. Since that April day, in the morning of the resurrection, in 1994, many others have been called home. We commemorate them, and celebrate their memories richly. Among those the Lord has called home are: Fr. Sylvester Embu, Fr. Joseph, Fr. Godwin Zhantur (Jos); Fr. Fidelis Audi, Fr. Thomas Gazem and Fr. Augustine Gwayit (Kaduna); among probably others. May they be sure intercessors for the rest of us.

I pray for my living classmates, many of whom are priests dedicatedly serving in various ecclesial missions in the Church in Nigeria and across the globe. May God bless richly through these human vessels the work of his hands. May they be offered solace in their times of need, and strength in times of weaknesses and trials. We pray for the fervent and terpid to increase in their fervor, while we also pray for the weak and despairing for more divine strength and uplifting.

I equally uplift the priests of Idah diocese some of whom as my senior, motivated me; and many who are younger both in the priesthood and in age, that God will nourish their work. Of course, for all priests across the world, may the Lord suture them in his eternal love.

Counting upon the Lord, may he make use of each and all of us his servants for the sake of his church and the good of humanity. Our Nigerian church is changing, increasing in vocation but equally challenged. May our prayers for the church of our homeland yield fruits as the Lord of the harvest makes it to flower.

In spite of the perennial gloom emanating from the ways of human actors, both at the highest and lowest levels, may the spirit of the living God, through our prayers and the sacrifice of grace that comes alive through our hands be a source of renewed and perpetual energies.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ the eternal priest; and also our mother- the mother of all priests- through her constant intercession uphold and enfold us priests, brothers of her son, Jesus, in her Immaculate Heart, now and forever!

Posted by In God we Live and Move

Christ's Sacred Call: Not through Merit but a Gift

This article is taken from a 2006 article in Spiegel regarding priestly vocations in the Catholic Church, specifically referencing Germany. Nonetheless, the good Lord has and will continue to take care of his Church and prrovide for her needs at all times in season and out of season. Even when the choice of many male and females attuned toward serving God does not fit the logic of the world and the rationality of human convenience, he will continue to send laborers into the harvest and provide for his own Church.
Will the men and women, who answer God's call falter? Can they fail, and even miserably? Yes, they can. The men and women who respond to God's loving invitation to followership, fellowship, and companionship, and whom the Lord enthrusts with feeding His sheep and offering succor, will fail, deny, and may even run away, like poor Peter in the court of Pilate, or even in the Galatian context discriminate- not eating with Gentiles where there are Jews; or even calling certain foods unclean; or even with the early Christian community utilize prejudice, stereotypes, and discriminations at the table, but in all God's abiding presence is ever assured. Regardless of human failures, narrow perception, single-mindedness, ambition, selfishness, and aversion toward egocentrism, God's own realities often will be using such instrumentalities, mere vessels of clay, capable of being broken, but in all being carefully guided by our God.
Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, herein, God calls us to a fervent commitment and a grounded faith crystallized and solidified on the foundation that is our ever constant and enduring God, whom through prayers and encouragement, we need to enthrust our brothers and sisters who have made a loving commitment to be men and women of service of Christ, in serving their brothers and sisters within the church of Christ.
Temptations, trials, attempts at molifying would arise, but through uplifting in prayers the Lord of all ages would encapsulate the faith of his people, drawing all men and women to himself in the ministry of service, of mere human beings, feable, and weak.
Let us remember too, to raise those who are lapsed, lacking in fervent fervor to God, because our God did not abandon Peter when he denied and ran away. Let us also remember to be open to the grace of God, that even our priests, nuns, monks, religious men and women of all stripes, need admonishment in love not out of offending criticism and encouragement, like Paul did to Peter (a convert to the first Pope) when he was using human tactics playing ethnic/racial games, distancing himself from the Gentiles when the Jews where present, while being present with them when the Jews were absent. Let the spirit of God uphold his Church in our age, as throughout all ages, and in the age(s) to come!

SPIEGEL special (international edition) 9/2006 vom 12.12.2006, Seite 38
Autor: Annette Bruhns
CHRISTIANITY
"Where does the Holy Spirit live?"
The Roman Catholic Church in Germany is running out of vocations. Who wants to be a priest in this day and age? A visit to St. Georgen Seminary in Frankfurt.
Adark passageway leads into the church of the St. Georgen Roman Catholic seminary, a roundhouse structure made of exposed concrete that could house a 3-D cinema. The corridor is navy blue and tapers as it approaches the church; halfway along is a heavy glass door with a massive handle, a cold metal cross grasped by all who enter here.
It is just after 6 p.m. Worshippers drift in to evening Mass, a few older nuns and priests; the petite woman who plays the organ. The congregation is made up mostly of seminarians.
The young candidates for the priesthood stride along the corridor in silence. As appearances go, they look just like their lay contemporaries. They are dressed in baggy black or khaki jeans with check shirts, sweatshirts with and without logos. Some have hair that's not more than a stubble; others have bangs grazing their eyelashes. Chains and rings sparkle here and there; one man is wearing a green cloth bracelet. There is the usual smattering of five o'clock shadow. And someone has gone overboard with the aftershave; a fleeting smell of Hugo Boss wafts down the hall.
The church opens up to the left, but the men pause a moment before entering to dab their foreheads with holy water. With a brief nod of respect toward the altar, each picks up a red hymnal from the stack and takes his seat in one of the gray pews.
This small, streamlined church was built for men like this. For men who renounce a worldly life to spread the gospel. Who have vowed to live a celibate life - in complete sexual abstinence.
Very few believe that such people still exist, even in the Church. German Catholics are running out of vocations. Being a priest is the opposite of cool.
It is cold in the church. The organist chants the liturgy in a crystal-clear voice. A visiting priest from Poland in an applegreen chasuble is presiding over the Mass. For the 16 new seminarians who hail from all over Germany, it is only the second such service here in Frankfurt. The homily centers around St. Paul, who wrote of his ministry: "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood." Have these men been chosen? How do they know who has been "calling" them? How do they know whose voices they have been hearing? In the end, maybe they just have problems with sex?
On this early fall day, an earthy smell permeates Nils Schellhaas' room through the open window. St. Georgen is situated in a sprawling park south of the Main River. In addition to the seminary for its 37 aspiring priests, the complex extends to a Jesuit community and a University of Philosophy and Theology with an enrollment of some 430 students.
The 24-year-old man with horn-rimmed glasses and dimples in his chin and cheeks is a convert, a former Protestant. When Schellhaas drove here at the beginning of September, he had very mixed feelings. Did a hothouse of homosexuals await him? A gay club in disguise, possibly even involving pedophiles - such as at St. Pölten in Austria, where a scandal temporarily shut down the seminary?
He has been here four weeks now. He has calluses on his hands from all the work. Along with the other newcomers, Schellhaas has graveled over a road and painted a wooden house; together they have sweated and cursed. And his fears have vanished. "Although some of them have never had a relationship," he has concluded, "none of them seem to be gay."
Schellhaas, a man with an honest face and a high, clear voice, left a good life behind. A university student, he lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Kiel with a view of the Baltic - until recently, with his girlfriend. He misses the space: His current abode, "a cell with a sink," measures just 100 square feet. He doesn't miss his girlfriend.
"She left me because I was devoting too much time to my faith and too little to our relationship," the theology student explains. The separation changed his life. "I was cycling home one evening and couldn't wait to see if I would feel lonely in the apartment without her." When he opened the door, a miracle happened. He felt less alone than ever before.
Schellhaas rubs the blond stubble on his chin. "Having a partner requires time and devotion. I'm someone who thrives on God's devotion, and if I give myself to a girlfriend, then I lack the time to receive this love from God." Coming from this devout young man, the reasoning sounds credible.
Schellhaas did not inherit this religious fervor. His parents had left the church. The man from Hesse first encountered the Savior when, as a young boy, he first saw crucifixes during a trip to Italy. The sevenyear-old had watched in fascination as people knelt before images of a man nailed to a cross.
Later, Sunday mornings at home were stressful: he wanted to watch religious programs on TV, his brother preferred cartoons. Schellhaas fished his first Bible out of a recycling bin.
In seventh grade he heard his calling. "Up to then, I was set on becoming a journalist, a television reporter or something like that. But after a discussion with my parents, it suddenly came to me: I am going to become a priest. At the time, I didn't even know what that meant."
His parents - Schellhaas' father sells software - hoped that their son would eventually grow out of this quirky phase. But in high school Schellhaas chose Latin as his foreign language and started going to church. "They said OK, but then you have to become a Protestant. That seemed less weird to them."
Protestantism proved a convenient choice. "Although I never liked the overintellectual and anti-ritualistic ethos of the Lutheran Church, back then I definitely did not want to live a celibate life."
He decided to become a Lutheran priest with a Catholic habitus. Even in his first semester studying theology at Frankfurt University, he prayed every evening with the Capuchin monks. He switched to Kiel University to be near his girlfriend.
The decision to convert came last summer in Erfurt. Schellhaas had gone to the Augustinian monastery to say the rosary. As he left the chapel, he noticed a sign on the door commemorating the day Martin Luther had entered this very monastery: July 17, 1505 - "500 years ago to the day." A sign from heaven: it was time to put an end to the farce, time for the church rebel to make an about-face - and turn to Catholicism.
Once he finishes his degree in theology, Schellhaas will attend a seminary in Hamburg for the subsequent one-year course in pastoral care - and then be ordained a deacon. If all goes well, after another year, he will be a priest in the Archdiocese of Hamburg.
Schellhaas' parents seem to have gotten religion as well. Originally married in a civil service, they have now renewed their vows in church to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. During the family's trip to Italy afterwards, Schellhaas espied his mother secretly lighting a candle in Assisi and his father crossing himself.
Schellhaas has not kissed a woman for more than a year now. The devoted organist says, "I'm glad I've already had girlfriends. Otherwise, I don't know if I might not have tried to find out sometime if anyone would have me."
But Schellhaas won't swear that he'll never fall in love again - and he is not the only one. They all say it here, even 47year-old Jesuit priest Stephan Kessler, the rector of St. Georgen - a big man in a shapeless fleece shirt whose facial profile recalls Mr. Bean. Kessler's office is spacious and comfortable; icons line the walls and the scent of fresh coffee and cookies fills the air. The rector is famous for his cookies.
Kessler is a garrulous man whose language is flavored by more than Latinisms. "Of course priests fall in love too," the Jesuit says. "It's been the causa efficiens for more than one seminarian whom I've shown the door - and sometimes welcomed back."
They all had to learn to "integrate" their sexuality and emotions into the celibate way of life, he says. He himself had fallen in love too, as a chaplain in his early thirties. Today the former object of his secret desires is a mother of three; Kessler is friends with her and her husband.
Was abstinence a sacrifice that one made to God, like Jesus dying on the cross to save mankind? The priest briskly dismisses this idea. "You won't get far with a sacrificial mindset. This way of life means no greater sacrifice than does the responsible interaction with one's partner in a relationship. You fall in love sometimes when you're married too, and you have to resist the temptation."
All the St. Georgen students have heard this argument - that celibacy is no more difficult than marital fidelity. Kessler talks on as the tables are cleared after the communal meal. The dining room is an inviting place to gather. Far from a bare refectory, it has more in common with a youth hostel cafeteria. The students hovering nearby are hanging on Kessler's every word. The priest tells how, just recently, his faith in the resurrection had abandoned him after 30 days of silent retreat. He thought, "OK, that's it. Time to look for a new job." For months he wrestled with his conscience - and then happened to meet a monk who helped him overcome his doubts.
One very young, handsome fellow stands out from the crowd. A moment before he was complaining that the long, lofty corridors of the seminary, where every footstep reverberates, make him feel he's at Harry Potter's Hogwarts School. With Albus Dumbledore as the rector. Now the boy is standing close, his shoulders slumped forward, his luminous green eyes burning in concentration. Lapses of faith, celibacy issues - now those are intriguing subjects!
Is this the right path for someone like him, who always saw himself as a "family man"? The 20-year-old comes from a sheltered background. He was raised Catholic and has two siblings: A gifted student, he had set his sights on becoming a religion teacher. But when he confessed to his father, a carpenter, that he really wanted to become a priest, his father had surprised him by saying: "I've always known that."
All the trees in St. Georgen bear name plates in German and Latin. Christian Fahl is waiting outside among the oaks, ashes and beeches. The 28-year-old is beaming. "Champion" is emblazoned across his lilywhite sweatshirt. Fahl's skin is the same shade and looks unhealthy. But the cramming has paid off: The seminarian passed his church history examination with flying colors.
"I can begin my fourth semester now," Fahl says, "and I'll be very happy to do so!" The man is virtually bubbling over, rolling his eyes and smiling from ear to ear. He's been "very happy" throughout his life, whether he's been singing in the children's choir, going to school or training as a bank teller. Fahl has always been happy.
Youth work is particularly close to his heart. He became aware of his calling because "so many young people came to me with questions," he says.
Maybe they didn't have a choice. Fahl was class president at school, youth spokesperson on the parish council, regional director of the Hochtaunus Catholic Youth Organization; he belonged to the diocesan committee, the parish letter's editorial staff, a One World committee and the "Charismatic Home Circle."
Fahl was enrolled at St. Georgen without being a seminarian. After five years as a bank clerk, he had wanted to take the next step to test his sense of vocation first. Moreover, he had realized that, with his level of community and church commitment, he had no time left for a girlfriend anyway. Contemplation was "very important," Fahl says hastily; prayer the only way to find answers to the questions that were important to him: "What does God want? Where does the Holy Spirit live?"
Fahl does not have to stop to think. He strings his life impressions like beads on a chain that connects him to God: starting with his grandma, who - thanks to divine intervention - survived childbed fever delivering Fahl's mother during a bombing raid, and extending through his devout teachers at high school to his boss at the bank, who supported him on his chosen path.
People like Fahl are no surprise in a place like St. Georgen. The surprise is that Fahl does not appear to be the rule, but the exception. On the other hand, everyone is an exception here, in their own way. The youngest seminarian is 20, the oldest 42. Some came directly from school; many have already worked - as geriatric nurses, lawyers, biologists. They hail from different backgrounds, from intact and broken homes, from Christian and atheist families. Some grew up in mansions, others in orphanages.
Unlike Fahl, most of them understand outsiders' amazement at their lifestyle choice. Perhaps because they are still amazed themselves.
Take Mathias Mütel, a 23-year-old seminarian from Blankenese, an elegant riverside suburb of Hamburg. At 14 he had vowed to prove to his confirmation instruction teacher that God did not exist. Until then, the adolescent had alternately defined himself as an anarchist, Marxist and nihilist.
"But it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be," says the broad-shouldered man with the somber mien. His parents, both architects, were not thrilled upon hearing he wanted to study theology. "In Hamburg, it's better to say you want to be an astronaut than a priest."
Hendrik Klentze (35) needed two attempts before he had become acclimated to the seminary. The first time, five years ago, he harbored high expectations. But the seminarians were always fighting, there was "mobbing the same as anywhere else." And as a recent convert to Catholicism, much was completely incomprehensible: for example, the hours spent praying to the host in the monstrance. The disk of unleavened bread reminded him of the wafer used to make German Lebkuchen. "I kept thinking: They're worshipping a cookie."
But Klentze remained obstinate. He had given up his career as an archaeologist and separated from his girlfriend. His parents - the father was a gynecologist, his mother a therapist - had brought him up in the antiauthoritarian spirit of 1968 and thought he was mad anyway. At that time, Klentze evaded the issue by going to study theology in Münster. Now he feels ready for St. Georgen.
Polish seminarian Michal Swiatkowski is preparing to serve as a priest in a German diocese. The 26-year-old with mesmerizing eyes had previously attended a Polish seminary. He held out for two years before becoming a journalist; later he had a girlfriend as well. The lack of priests in Germany enabled him to start afresh here. "There are enough candidates in Poland. You can't just take a sabbatical in the middle of your studies."
The budding priest regards celibacy as important, although he knows it will be difficult. The certainty of knowing he has met that challenge may come very late, as an old priest once revealed to him: on his deathbed. ANNETTE BRUHNS
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Catholics in Nigerian Society

Catholics in Nigerian Society

Is the Catholic Church in NIgeria for the Highest Bidder?

I have been tied down with the news of the tragedy in Nigeria. First, was the Bellview Flight 210 Boeing 737 Plane crash en route from Lagos to Abuja, on Saturday night, October 22nd, 2005. On that plane were some people that I have known in this life that are no more. These are my very close friend and a brother, John Moru, a former Seminarian of Saints Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan, erstwhile of Benin Diocese. He left the seminary in 1995 or thereabout to pursue other causes which he actually excelled at doing magnificently until the tidings of death cut him short on the wings of the big human-made bird. Up on stairy heights, the Lord lifted John home to himself. John was, though he left ever before becoming a Catholic priest, was a priest-in-the-world, the kind that our baptism made us. He cut an image for himself saddling himself with the issues of human suffering, of which he made his own being and life an altar, upon which he was eventually sacrificed.

News of John's death ran my nerves down. Frozen, iced, my eye's mind felt it was like a phatom, a dream that was not true, but in fact was actually true. Real to the teeth. My entire being has not come alive since then, but I know his life was not wasted, he did something about the human condition that he was passionate about. One of the things that John noted to me when last I saw him in the Fall of 1995 (September) shortly before leaving the major seminary, was his low appetite for swallowing the kind of politics and witch hunting that was becoming the bane in the Archdiocese of Benin, prior to the creation of Auchi diocese. I tried to help him see that the Church, our Catholic Church was both divine and human, hence it was its human side that was actually manifesting, while its divine mission, ideal, and ministry was real and untainted. I believed it then, and so do I still do even now. However, I had understood that injustice in the Church is not often a palatable thing when you are at the receiving end.

My experiences with the Archdiocese of Detroit, with their racist ways of discrimination and dehumanization, the cowardize of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, regarding the same racism and noxious discriminatory practices at the Daughter of Charity's owned Seton Healthcare Network, Austin, Texas, that were directed at Nigerian priests (including myself) working within its Spiritual Care department, as a result of the manipulations and machinations of an American Baptist Female Chaplain, a Rev. Gina Bethune, director of their Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programe enables me to understand that subleity in the face of injustice is a farce. I have learnt that while the Church is human, to be denigrated and degradated by elements and institutions of the same Church resembles being snowfrosted and sore.

Now, I fully understood one of the significant reasons that led my friend to leave the seminary. But given who he was, an hardworking and intelligent personality, he completed his graduate (post) studies and channelled his energies to become a priest-in-the-world fighting the poverty of Africa and Nigeria in full glare and placed his intellect, imagination, skills, creativity, charm, wit, and energy at the disposal of this goal. He died a sacrificial lamb with others of like mind, while returning from a workshop or promotion concerned about the issues of alleviating and eradicating global poverty. He died a man of faith and hope in the course of his life-work and in the causes he fervently believed. He continued to utilize even his acquisition within the seminary and placed it at the service of humanity and his immediate Nigerian society. He was true to self, to duty, to the empowerment of his community, and to humanity. He was courageous and upfront, and did not engage in manipulations. He died a martyr in the service of humanity, especially in service of the poor, suffering, and marginal of humanity, especially his immediate Nigerian ambient. He was, in spite of having left the seminary, marrying and becoming a father of a charming daughter, a witness to some golden ideal, driven not just by nostalgia and impulse, but by reflexive contemplation and examined action.

Yes, John loved his Church but had issues with his Church. He had issues with some of us, priests of his beloved Church, friends and brothers. His issue was that many of us are not fervent to the spirit and ideal of the gospel. John had many friends who were priests and he connected with them deeply. John's death also happened about the same time of a fellow Edo indigene. John we must note is a citizen of Edo State, but resident and was working in Abuja, with Action Aid International. The fellow Edo citizen, was First Lady, Stella Obasanjo, wife of the Nigerian President who died early Sunday morning of October 23rd, in Spain, following complications from what was assumed to be cosmetic surgery to her face. John and Stella might never had shared the same banquet table in life because, politics elevated Stella over and above John, as Stella's husband being also a former military leader of Nigeria, helped to shell her within the cocoon of the Nigerian who is who, the power estate. John was an activist whose concern was not the accoutrement of power, but in resolving issues of social imbalances and injustice. One commonality both shared interestingly was that they were both Catholics, brother and sister through their common baptism.

Stella's catholicity only emerged publicly after her death (truly faith is a private affairs) and it was a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah preaching a sermon at her interdenominational funeral service in Abeokuta, on Friday, October 29th, 2005, that made this all the more apparent. Kukah, a Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Kaduna, and former Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (the clearing house of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria), and Secretary to Nigeria's version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Oputa panel) and recent Secretary to the Nigerian Political Reformed Conference convoked by President Obasanjo earlier this year, would have us believe that Stella had a premonition of her death. Yes, Kukah painted a portrait of Stella as a 'Prodigal daughter', who returned to her father's house; the Catholic Church, following her recent marriage (regularization) ceremonies to President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Baptist, acclaimed Pastor, but a reputed polygamist. According to him, Stella had approached him to enable her get wedded to the First Nigerian so that she can receive communion. In conclusion, of this tale, Kukah concluded that Stella died a true Catholic, meaning she was in good standing in terms of the tenets of her Catholic faith and beliefs, because she received Holy Communion, hence his theory that she had a premonition of her death.

Well, if Kukah was an attorney trying to format a smart theory, his theoretical assumptions would have all easily and readily come crashing in the face of a rebuttal. But he is not, he is a man of the cloth. He is a high ranking Church official, who has been hanging too much around the corridor of power, so much that the incense of power has also filled his lungs, maybe with nostalgia. However, the point is a man of the cloth, a man called by God to act on His behalf and in behalf of God's people, he has a right to his opinion and to his functioning. But, certain things need to be filled in here to make the picture all the more clearer. There is a certain gap that his tale has created in terms of the time honored Catholic theology of our Catholic Church. This will enable us to know that the norms and tenets of our faith was not slabbed on the ignonymous altar of power.

First, I was wondering, under which diocese does the Aso Rock Chaplaincy belong? Are we witnessing a replay of Imelda Marcos phenomenon in using priests to further some noxious agenda? Is Fr. Kukah now the officially appointed Chaplain to the Presidency's Chapel? Has the theology and sacrament of marriage been toned down to satisfy the first family, because of their social influence and standing? I relate this because these were the issues that my friend John Moru struggled with that led him out the twin gates of the Bodija seminary, on his own volition. Was John to be substituted with the First Nigerian, known to have other women (married to other wives) in his life, would he easily have had his way to the altar to receive the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, without first the usual advice for him to get rid of his remaining wives (or concubines), before being wedded in the Catholic Church? However, John did not have to go through that. He married decently, marrying a woman he was in love with, honorably in the Catholic Church.

However, there are questions that are now of public interests, given the questionable wedding of our late Stella to the First Nigerian in the interest of public probity and ecclesiastical honor. Did Obasanjo get rid of his other wives in favor of Stella? When did he do so? Or was a compromised reach for him to just cage them outside of public view? Secondly, was the Archdiocese of Abuja involved in all these arrangements? Else, was Fr. Kukah transcending ecclesiastical juridical territories to carry out actions that are actually embarrassing to the Abuja archdiocese, and the entire Nigerian Catholic Church? Were and when was the President's and Stella's band of marriage publicized? Or was this an act of favor for the first citizens, to favor the President to have his ways at all times, even in things religious, hence watering down the tennets of our cherished and beloved faith? Which ecclesiastical authorities permitted Fr. Kukah to act under an ecclesial jurisdiction that is foreign to him?

The clear danger here is that once people in power are able to carve chaplains and ecclesiastics for themselves, outside the alloted juridical prescint of our Church, then they cheapen the divide between Church and State, and water down the sacred role of the faith, as they align it with purely secular interests. Therefore, political and secular authority, begins to devalue the Church and her social inputs, as defined by her divine mission and role as the conscience of society. My believe is that Fr. Kukah is a decent man and would sanction the requirements of our Church, and actually performed a valid pastoral function, as any conscientious priest would do, to try to bring home the lost sheep.

But I hope that this was not done at the expense of self-aggrandizing motives, in the interests of the coercing interests of hegemonic orders. I hope that the Nigerian Catholic Church has not become an entity for sale to the highest bidder. If so I am ready to be at the auction house, where it would be put up for sale by the power that be, at least to pay my last homages. I hope not. Rather, I hope that, in spite of all its human limitations, it would courageously remains an eternal embodiment of Christ's teaching and those of the Church's magisterium, and a non-discriminatory institution that validates the rights of all equally, without prejudice. Else, I know that my friend John would turn and twist wherever he's now lying. Should this be true, I would imagine John desperately trying to point to this in validating his postulation regarding his perceived imagery of ecclesial double standard to me. I hope such act does not desecrate the spirit of the dead, especially that of my beloved friend, John. Though, I mourn with the First family, I also hope that ecclesiastical protocols were followed appropriately in this matter.

Tribute of service to the Nigerian Catholic Faith

The Nigerian Catholic Church is a product of intrepid missionaries, who committed their lives in sacrifice, leaving their homes in France, Ireland, Italy, Canada, and all over to carry on the ministry of transplantation of the Church on Nigerian soil. Many of them died, some barely managed to return to Europe, but in all of these they were fervent in their mission to evangelize, to civilize, and to nurture the faith until they raised the sons and daughters of the land to carry on their ministry as "scions" of the gospel. Today, we are grateful for the ministry of these committed men and women, who in spite of their human suffering and deprivation planted an ethics of hardwork and courageous spirit for evangelizing souls. True to the mission of these intrepid and valliant souls, upon their labor the Nigerian Church has become self-generating, at least in terms of personnel, and are trying in terms of maintaining their ecclessial structures, within their best possible means. Today, within few years, Nigerian missionaries, especially priests and nuns are all over the world, following in the footsteps of their missionary progenitors. Within the womb of time, they are adding to the spirit of faith and vitality of mission fields and even offering their support to the pastoral needs of older Churches. Today, we recognize the fact that the Nigerian Catholic Church is growing, but yet challenged by the existential contours of the society that encase it. Living out her witness to Christ, her savior, the Church presents Christ as a glowing and resplendent treasure to the faithful, while also calling the faithful, as God's people, on pilgrimage to preserve the gospel values and the teachings of Christ through the teaching magisterium within the template of their bodies and daily activities. The Church is energizing the faithful to live out their calling in the world courageously, without regrets, but full of joy. It is no wonder, however, that the vitality and convivality of the Nigerian laity is simply amazing. Nonetheless, in spite of these commendation and awesome development, we nuance certain elements within the Nigerian Catholic Church that needs urgent redressing. We note, first and foremost, the issue of the equation of magic with the tennets of our faith. The aspiration to seek wonders, acts more associated with magic than faith, has begulfed the imagination of many Catholics, that they are neglecting the sacramental pedestal upon which the Church's ministry is predicated. They are equally, neglecting the agents of these faith, through certain ascriptions that demarcate "holy" priests from the ones thought as "profane" "polluted", or "sinful" simply through the norm of possession of magical qualities. Such arbitary distillation is harmful to the existential hinges upon which the Catholic faith hangs. We also note sadly about the overtly materialistic attitudes of the priests, who running from the reality of the ideal of poverty, an ideal that has its expressions even in the life of Christ, are into all source of Machiavelli charades, trying to outwit each other, through unnecessary competition, creating spiritual farce to win popular sympathy, and above all alienating themselves from the fountain of grace and constitutive spirituality that is essential to priestly poverty. These are decriable and pitiful facts that has afflicted our Church, and inflicted massive injury to the identity of our faith, built by Christ upon rocks, and cemented through the ages by the bodily and mental sacrifices of the saints and loyal followers, who committed prefered death to live. Tertullian, notes that the "blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity." Yes, the sacrifices of our founder and forebears constitute the very foundation of our faith. This webblog therefore, is a testimony to that living faith as expressed by Christ through the ages. It is committed to expousing and expounding the tennets of our beloved faith, within its truest understanding, within the constructions of the teaching magisterium of the Church. We owe absolute and undivided allegiance to the Holy Father, as the representative of Christ on earth. However, we would because and in spite of our allegiance, call attention to any element and instrumentality that attempt to dent the faith from within and from without. We shall in this commitment, not sanction blind obedience, but call for constructive dialogue, given that even within the history of our Church, while the reformation reins, another vital aspiration, the counterreformation, without being blind, reformulated the vitality of the Church from within. In this sense, we call on the intercession of some great persons, Blessed Cyprian Tansi, our own blood, a tireless man of faith, St. Charles Borromeo, and also the saintly intercession of a true worker and sufferer for the faith, our immediate Pope John II in sanctioning this unique experience. May these saintly icons of our faith guide our weak hands and feable self to help the Church of Christ and the community of grace for his people.