Youth Aspire to become Priests

The Diocese of Gizo is celebrating its golden anniversary remembering the gift of faith brought by the Marist Missionaries and established in its communities by the Dominican Order for the past fifty years.

A total of 20 young men aspiring to be priests in the diocese of Gizo are having a one month immersion program at Gizo as part of the celebration.

Seminarians At work......	...help constructing the youth center.

They include nine Holy Name Seminarians, five NAC Graduates incoming batch of Holy Name seminarians, and six candidates for pre-seminary in NAC lead by newly ordained Fr Stephen Te’e.

The program aims to help the candidates in identifying and acquiring the specified traits of the identity of the Catholic priest as specified in the Formation Program for PNG and SI seminarians.

In particular the seminarians will be trained on hard work and sacrifice as the best expression of their inner motivation to love and serve God and the community.
They were engaged in various work and development undertakings in Gizo as part of the program.

The youths will learn skills and values which will enable them to serve and train the youth of their communities.

This year’s batch has been described as more improved and committed than the previous years.

A statement from the group’s superiors say the group is among the first “diocesan secular priests” after the missionaries and the Dominican Order.

“They feel they have a responsibility of building a credible image for the diocesan priest, servant leader of the community, we are with them with our encouragement and support.

“We do not need “many” priests, we need “holy”, credible, sacrificed priests, close to God and close to the people they lead,  with humble, courageous and generous service.”