Supporting the seminarians of the Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo

Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa, on the southern edge of the Sahara. Its surface area is almost 1.3 million square kilometres (by comparison, Quebec is 1.7 million km²), but with just over 16 million inhabitants, the country is relatively sparsely populated. The majority of the population is Muslim.

The Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo lies in the south of the country and serves an area of approximately 540,000 km², or almost the size of France. But there are only around 10,000 Catholics here. The majority of the 17 priests in the vicariate are from abroad, but there are several home-grown vocations now as well.

There are two Catholic seminaries in Chad, in two of the larger cities, which serve the seminarians from all over the country. In Sarh, future priests attend the preparatory course and study theology for their propaedeutic year, then continue on to the capital of N’Djamena, where they study philosophy. Over the holidays, they are able to visit their families, but they also spend time working in the parishes in order to gain experience for their future work and to get accustomed to the responsibilities they will one day assume.

At present, there are five young men from the Vicariate of Mongo undergoing this formation. For Bishop Philippe Abbo Chen, himself a native of Chad, this priestly formation is one of the most important priorities for the local Church. However, it is a heavy financial burden. The families of these young men are all poor and cannot contribute anything towards their training. And while the parishes do organize special collections for the seminarians, the people of this arid and drought-prone region, where the desert is advancing ever further, can barely even support themselves by their agriculture and livestock rearing and are in no position to offer more than the traditional “widow’s mite.” Meanwhile, the study fees, teaching materials, board and lodging, and medical care and all the other things the seminarians require—including the cost of travelling, sometimes hundreds of kilometres, to their parishes and places of study—continue to mount up.

At the same time, refugees from war-torn neighbouring Sudan, who are also supported by the Catholic Church, continue to flood into the vicariate.

That’s why we’d like to support the training of future priests in the Vicariate of Mongo again this year and have promised the sum of $7,350. Thank you for supporting their training!