ZAMBIA: Archbishop Chama Praises CWO for Supporting Seminarians
Archbishop Chama receiving gift from a member of CWO
Part IV and the last of the Serialization of the Archdiocese of Kasama
As priestly vocation continues to flourish in the Archdiocese of Kasama, the challenge of sustainability becomes a big headache to the Archbishop who have to find ways of raising funds to support the education of the diocesan seminarians. Thankfully the Catholic Women Organization (CWO) in the Archdiocese has come up strongly to support their sons.
“For Kasama, being an Archdiocese in the rural setting where the majority of residents are just small subsistence farmers, raising enough resources from the people to support the seminarians has been a thorn on the flesh. However, I am glad that the women in the Archdiocese took up the challenge to support the Archdiocese annually,” Most Rev. Ignatius Chama Archbishop of Kasama explained.
“Annually the women, under the umbrella of Catholic Women Organizations, bring to me what they have raised from all the parishes in the course of the year to support the seminarians,” the Archbishop disclosed, adding that this year 2018 alone, they supported with Zambian Kwacha (ZMW) 403,000. an equivalent of US Dollars US$ 34,136.62, which was a big jump that has enabled the Archdiocese to pay fees for more than half the Archdiocese’s seminarians who are currently spread around the various seminaries in the country.
There are many priestly vocations in the Archdiocese as at the moment there are 32 seminarians in Major Seminary spread from the first year philosophy up to Diaconate. The demand for school fees is high and cannot be relegated owing to the enormous need for pastoral agents in the Archdiocese.
“At the moment the Archdiocese has 74 active Diocesan priests; these include those working in National offices and diocesan institutions. Therefore, looking into the distribution of priests in the Archdiocese, you discover that there are only two in a community,” Archbishop Chama lamented the situation.
The Archdiocese still has the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) but they are only in one parish as the Society has been pulling out slowly. There are also Marian Hill Priests who are working in the three parishes and one sub parish in the Archdiocese, but the rest of parishes are looked after by the few Archdiocesan priests.
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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
