YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A Ugandan priest has warned seminaries in Africa against embracing “the ideology of revisionism.”
Father Callisto Locheng, a formator at the Uganda Martyrs National Major Seminary, was speaking July 19 during the seventh session of the seminary’s ongoing “Synodal Conversations” as part of Pope Francis’s long-running Synod of Bishops on synodality.
“In our seminaries and formation places, we have a lot of misleading ideologies that come as well-researched ideas. We are witnessing the ideology of revisionism whereby people intentionally, deliberately revise facts and misrepresent them,” Locheng told his online audience of over 200 people.
The Ugandan priest, who serves as dean of the faculty of arts and social sciences at the University of the Sacred Heart Gulu in Uganda, urged seminarians to stick to the truth.
The online event was held under the theme, “The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a missionary synodal perspective.”
It was based on a December 2015 document of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy translated as “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation”.
Participants engaged in discussions centered on the Synthesis Report on the Synod on Synodality, which emphasizes that “seminaries or other courses of formation for candidates for the ministry be linked to the daily life of the communities.”
The Synod on Synodality also suggests that candidates for the ministry should have a genuine, albeit initial, experience of Christian community.
The report highlights that the formation path should not create “an artificial environment, separate from the common life of the faithful.” In accordance with the synthesis report, seminary formation must be synodal in nature, meaning it should be integrated and embedded within the community.
“Formation for a synodal Church needs to be undertaken synodally: the entire People of God being formed together as they journey together. There is a need to overcome the ‘delegation’ mindset found in so many areas of pastoral ministry,” the document says.
“Formation in a synodal way is meant to enable the People of God to live out their baptismal vocation fully, in the family, in the workplace, in ecclesial, social, and intellectual spheres. It is meant to enable each person to participate actively in the Church’s mission according to his or her own charisms and vocation,” it states.
The Ugandan priest lauded the effort of the Church in Africa in training priests fitted for every situation.
“There is a lot of effort by the church through our bishops to make sure we train young men dedicated to God, and young men who are aware of the task that the Lord has called them to do,” Locheng said.
He underscored the need to train priests to apply what they are taught for the betterment of society.
“There is something lacking in our formation that we must face. Unfortunately, there is very little application of the subjects we teach in formation to the concrete life of the people,” he said.
“I teach some subjects which look too theoretical and very isolated. Our philosophy must be taught in such a way that it is not just about learning how to think correctly, but also how to apply what we learn to the real situations of life,” Locheng said.
He said well-formed priests must exercise a sense of self-sacrifice, saying it is an important ingredient for effective priesthood in a world bedeviled by materialism.
“This is an aspect that is rarely insisted upon in formation. We must insist on the virtue of detachment from materialism; detachment from places and detachment from people,” the priest said.
He insisted that formation centers should insist on the virtue of humility, saying that in an Africa with an assortment of ethnicities and tribes, priests need to be trained to be able to live with everyone.
Father Nicholaus Segeja M’hela, a member of the Vatican’s Theological Commission of the Synod who also spoke at the event, said priestly formation must have a direct bearing on the daily lives of communities.
“Formation should help candidates mature in the skills of conducting palavers,” he said. The Tanzanian priest said priestly formation should enable seminarians to become faith influencers.
He said Africa’s way of being Church, that is, through Small Christian Communities (SCCs) has been helpful, because not only do those communities help in selecting those for formation, they also facilitate background checks used to determine how suitable candidates for formation are.
