‘Survival mentality’ is impeding authentic formation in Africa’s seminaries, priest says

Seminarians and their teachers at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Nigeria. / Credit: Father Peter Hassan

ACI Africa, Jul 27, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Seminarians in Africa are not allowed “to be themselves” and must find ways “to get by,” a Catholic priest from Nigeria has said, challenging institutions that form future priests to encourage better communication between seminarians and those who form them. 

In his presentation at the seventh session of the ongoing synodal conversations being held ahead of the October session in Rome, Father Augustine Anwuchie, a Fidei Donum priest serving in Niger, decried the “lack of authenticity” in priestly formation in Africa, noting that some seminarians are forced to adopt a “survival mentality” in their interactions with their superiors. 

“During my formation, I had the opportunity to study in two seminaries in Nigeria. I saw ‘survival mentality’ where seminarians, because of how formation is structured, adopt ways to survive around their formators — how to survive around bishops, around Christians and in Christian communities,” Anwuchie said.

“I have been a vice rector at a seminary and I saw a lack of openness. You see lack of authenticity,” he said during the July 19 meeting that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network organized in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar.

The Nigerian-born priest, who serves as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Niger’s Diocese of Maradi, continued: “I am not saying that we should copy everything that is done in Europe. But there are aspects of formation that formators in Africa can borrow from other places, including encouraging openness, communication, and authenticity with seminarians.”

According to Anwuchie, priests who are not formed “to be authentic” experience difficulties when relating to other Christians. “Instead of becoming men, we continue to live as boys and this is not helping in our pastoral work,” he said.

He lamented that in many major seminaries in Africa, aspects of human formation and the expansion of emotional intelligence are neglected while what seminarians “ought to do” and how they “ought to behave” is emphasized.

Seminarians become reactive to situations, he said, which continues when they become priests.

Anwuchie expressed concern that most parishes in his native country of Nigeria, and in Africa generally, are experiencing crises between clergy and laity because priests are not imparted with “emotional intelligence” during their formation.

The July 19 meeting was the latest in a series of digital meetings that theologians and other experts in Africa have organized to deepen their understanding of the synthesis report that came out of the October 2023 session of the multiyear Synod on Synodality. 

Participants in the virtual event explored the theme “The Revision of Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a Missionary Synodal Perspective” based on the December 2015 document of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy translated as “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation.”

The online discussions, also known as “palavers,” were structured around present-day seminary formation in Africa, with participants reflecting on what is working and what is not working based on experiences from different parts of the continent. 

In her presentation, Sister Dominica Dipio pointed out the disconnect and said she had observed it in seminaries and in the life of priests in parishes and in communities.

The Ugandan-born member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church and consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture expressed concern that many priests do not continue with formation, which participants at the July 19 palaver agreed should be ongoing.

“Most of the priests are overwhelmed by their assignments and they quickly burn out. They hardly have time to engage in their own formation, which is supposed to be ongoing,” said Dipio, who is also a professor of literature at Uganda’s Makerere University.

“I have met priests in retreats who have for years not had the experience of retreat. The involvement in mission takes all their time and burns them out,” Dipio said, appealing to bishops to allow priests “to reconnect with God as the center.”

“For our priests, ongoing formation is quite a challenge and we need to support them, especially the young ones,” Dipio said.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin from the Archdiocese of Cape Town in South Africa reminded participants at the palaver that the ongoing formation of priests is a responsibility of each episcopal see and religious order.

Brislin noted that seminaries in Africa are already doing “an excellent job” in terms of academic formation, intellectual stimulation, and teaching students discipline and routine.

However, Brislin said that seminarians should be involved in the joys and struggles of ordinary people, adding: “To the extent that seminaries are not providing that, I think it is incumbent that dioceses supplement it during holidays, to put them in communities and situations where they can be with people and people can take some responsibility as well in this formation.”

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.