The workshop which was sponsored by Kirche in Not, (Church –in-Need), Germany took place in Nairobi Kenya from 30th November to 3rd December, 2015 was based on a baseline survey which was carried out by Research Department of Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in collaboration with AMECEA Secretariat, which assessed the effectiveness of the performance of Priests in Kenya Uganda and Tanzania.
According Rev. Dr. John Lukwata, who was among the facilitators of the workshop, 89.5% of the lay faithful perceive the performance of the Priests to be excellent. However, there is lack of concrete strategic planning and policies in some of the dioceses in the AMECEA Region and National Episcopal Conferences to secure and ensure Priests' livelihood and finances in order to adequately carry out their pastoral programs.
Dr. Lukwata, who is also a lecturer at CUEA and among the people who conducted the survey
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said that the workshop was a good forum to deliberate on the findings of the survey and a reflection of the realities in the whole AMECEA Region despite the fact that only the three AMECEA Countries were captured.
Among the issues that the workshop deliberated on in depth included the identity of the African Priest, where it emerged that there is a feeling among Catholics on the identity of secular and religious Priests and therefore, there is a need to define the real identity of the diocesan priests.
The diocesan priests were challenged to consider having specific charism, understand it, as well as embrace it. This will help them to identify areas where they are weak and work towards improving them, hence making their pastoral work effective.
The issue of Priestly Formation and Ongoing Formation for Priests was also discussed in depth. Since prospective seminarians come from different backgrounds including orphans, single parentage, polygamous families and other faiths it was proposed that dioceses need to put in place mechanisms to thoroughly scrutinize the candidates before admitting them in the
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seminaries. The recruitment process should be thoroughly examined and Vocation Directors in the Dioceses must scrutinize the family, the background and their faith before a candidate is accepted in the seminary. SCCs, Parish Priests and families should be involved in the selection, preparation and entry into seminary formation.
It was proposed that the Ongoing Formation for priests is necessary and clear guidelines on how to go about it, should be put in place. Sabbatical programs, retreats and seminars for the diocesan priests from time to time should be facilitated. This can be organized to happen after serving for a certain period of time.
The workshop was attended by over 32 participants that included three Bishops, from Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania each, Rectors/representatives of Seminaries, National Pastoral Coordinators as well as National Chairpersons of Priests Associations.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News