The prestigious character of every inaugural ceremony in any institution or organization is indisputable as it marks the beginning of an important event or process. This presents the relevance of the inaugural ceremony for the 2017/2018 academic/formation session in the revered Seminary of Saints Peter and Paul Major, Bodija; an event that officially declared the session open for the formation of candidates for the Catholic Priesthood. Having had the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Lauds at the earlier hours of the day, all were gathered for the inaugural Mass; the Votive Mass to the Holy Spirit, which began at 8:00am, presided over by His Grace, Most Rev. Gabriel ‘Leke Abegunrin, the Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Ibadan, and concelebrated by the priest formators of the Seminary and of other Houses of formation within the metropolis. In his homily, the Archbishop emphasized the primacy of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in our seminary formation, encouraging all present to make exploit of the gifts bestowed on us all in their various capacities, especially as the new session commences. Immediately after the homily, the formators and lecturers were called to renew their faith and pledge their unfailing fidelity to the Sacred Magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church.

Immediately after the Mass came the other part of the ceremony which entailed the delivering of a lecture at the seminary auditorium by Rev. Fr. Dr. Eustache Ephrem Badou, CSJ, titled Dimensions and Challenges of Integral and Authentic Formation: The Seminary in Focus; a session moderated by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okorie SC. The guest speaker situated the relevance of the lecture within the atmosphere of the Church’s celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Conciliar documents, Optatam Totius and Presbyterorum Ordinis, and the birth of a new instrument for formation, Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis. In his address, he appreciated the gift of the priestly vocation as a gift from God, and further considered the challenges that ensue during the formation process of candidates for the Catholic Priesthood due to a lack of interaction between formators and formandi, priests and seminarians, etc. However, he presented the socio-economic situation of Africa, the shabby process of selecting candidates for seminary training, the increasing secularization of the present-day society, among other factors, as the causes of the defects experienced in the priesthood today. Such defects as: decline in pastoral commitment and moral probity, inordinate materialistic tendencies, sheer display of disobedience to Local Ordinaries and Superiors, to mention but a few. Nevertheless, he concluded with the position that even as we are called to a period of renewal by the Church, there is the need to properly appreciate and employ the directives of the new Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis that would aid an effective process of discernment.