Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Obeng Cudjoe has drawn the attention of seminarians to the need to build and continuously maintain positive human relations with their colleague seminarians and the lay faithful.
According to him, human formation, which is one of the four pillars of priestly formation, and since it lies at the heart of formation, must be vigorously pursued by seminarians. This is because, all said and done, they will be working with and among people and as such must know how to relate well with them so as to foster unity and love in their pastoral work.
He pointed out that the inability of priests to show concern for the needs of parishioners and colleague priests sometimes generate the challenges that confront our various Catholic communities.
Rev Fr. Obeng Cudjoe made these remarks when he took his turn to address seminarians of the Archdiocese of Accra during their ongoing formation at the Youth Formation Center, Lashibi.
Addressing participants on the theme, “The Sociology of human formation in Priestly formation”, the Parish Priest of St. James Catholic Church, Osu, stated that human formation aims at the development of a good human being who can coexist well with others in society.
Quoting the Apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, Fr. Cudjoe emphasized that human formation is the basis of priestly formation.
Touching on the importance of human formation, Fr. Cudjoe mentioned that the focus of human formation is for priests to become “living images of Christ,” hence it is not so much about the priest who is serving the people, but rather about Christ.
He admonished the “future priests” to beware the perception they create about themselves, because the priest is not a “Superman”, hence he should not be arrogant but rather be hospitable, affable, sincere and generous, among other qualities.
Present during the seminar was the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, Very Rev. Fr. John Louis. He brought greetings and good wishes from the Archbishop, Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, CSSp.
He also encouraged seminarians to remain faithful to the call to be priests and admonished them to persevere to the end trusting in the Lord who has called them into his vineyard.
He also advised seminarians to take active interest in pastoral activities by making the best of their holidays to learn a couple of things that will help them in their pastoral journey.
Source: Radio Angelus
