Enroll Your Sons in Seminary for Integral Formation: Rector in South Sudan to Parents

The years of formation in the Minor Seminary will contribute to the growth of the enrolled Seminarians, and should they proceed to the Major Seminary for the formation to the Priesthood, they will be more mature at Ordination, the South Sudanese Catholic Priest said.

The benefits in the Minor Seminary are realized when one is already enrolled in the learning and formation institution, Fr Yugusuk said.

He added, “I am encouraging the parents to send their children to seminary because when you look at the situation outside, it's discouraging, especially the youth gang groups across Juba.”

“This is happening because they didn’t get the right person who will direct them to the right path of life,” the Minor Seminary Rector said about the youth who are associated with criminal activities in South Sudan’s capital city, Juba.

Some youth join the criminal gangs “without knowing what is happening in life,” he said, adding that the integral formation in the Minor Seminary makes those enrolled in it “know that when you do something wrong to your brother or sister it’s a sin.”

More in Africa

“We are in trouble”: Catholic Priests Lament as Less Known Jihadist Group Makes Inroads in Nigeria

Read the article

“Let the boys come to seminary so that we train them when they become Priests, we will send them outside to preach the word of God,” Fr. Yugusuk emphasized. 

The South Sudanese Priest said while missionaries from European countries and others were relied upon for evangelization in the East-Central African nation, they are no longer available and “it’s now time to evangelize ourselves.”

“If we don’t send our children to the Seminary, we will not have such Priests in the future,” he said, and continued, “Those who have been here have died” while others are serving in specific missions. 

“This is the right time for us to evangelize ourselves alone; that is the reason why we have set up Seminaries in the Archdiocese of Juba,” Fr. Yugusuk said, adding that through the Seminaries in South Sudan’s only Metropolitan See, the country has had its own Priests.

He went on to underscore the need to pray for vocations to Priesthood and Religious Life, saying, “Let’s not forget to mention the name of the Lord in our prayers; we should continue to pray hard as Jesus said the harvest is rich and harvest are few.”