Balliguda: Six dioceses in Odisha, eastern India, found various ways to recruit candidates for priesthood during the coronavirus pandemic.
While the minor seminary of Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar has no seminarian this year, other dioceses adopted new methods to candidates.
“I am sad that we have no seminarians in the current academic year because of the pandemic,” Father Rajiv Kumar Balliarsingh, prefect and treasurer of St Paul’s Minor Seminary of the archidiocese, told Matters India.
Seminary rector Father Sushant Kanhar says they could not organize the annual vacation camp or recruit new candidates as they had to follow the state government’s pandemic guidelines.
The seminary, which has chosen “Seeking God” as its motto, is situated at Balliguda in Kandhamal district.
Father Kanhar, who is also the vocation director of the archdiocese, says they have lost candidates who would have become priests one day.
The training in the minor seminary lasts three years. In the first year, new students learn English and then attend intermediate or senior high school for two years.
At present, the seminary has 19 students, who attend the local Adivasi College.
Besides academic excellence, the seminary makes special efforts to ensure the student’s personal growth through regular spiritual activities the rector told Matters India September 28.
The seminary also aims at psychosocial, intellectual, pastoral, and human formation of the students by providing them ample opportunities, the priest claimed.
“All learning and formation in the seminary are oriented towards becoming men of God and men for others so that they may, in turn, lead others to seek God through learning, teaching, and missionary activities,” the rector said.
The seminary was established in 1977 by the then Archbishop Henry D’Souza of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar at Phulbani, the district headquarters of Kandhamal district with the cooperation of Father Cassian Parichha.
After Father Parichha’s transfer in 1980, late Father Louis Sabhasundar took over and in 1986 the seminary was shifted to Balliguda, a sub-divisional town in the same district.
At Balliguda, the candidates stayed with other students in St. Paul’s College Hostel. Divine Word Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who succeeded Archbishop D’Souza, built a two-story building under the supervision of Father Mathew Puthyadom.
In 1989; the hostel was rechristened “St Paul’s Minor Seminary” and used exclusively for the seminarians.
Other five dioceses in Odisha found a way to recruit candidates for their minor seminaries.
Berhampur and Rayagada dioceses jointly organized a virtual vocation camp in 11 parishes from August 3 to 14. “Around 410 boys and girls attended the virtual vocation camp. Various congregations sent video clips of their charisms,” Father Valentine Uthansingh, vocation director of Berhampur diocese, told Matters India.
According to him, Saint Peter’s Minor Seminary that caters to Berhampur and Rayagada dioceses has 36 new candidates. The seminary already has 21 studying in a collage.
Jyoti Bhavan (house of light) Minor Seminary of Sambalpur diocese conducted a vocation camp in the first week of March. “We recruited 14 candidates for the English orientation course. There are 15 students for the college study,” said Father Johny Antony, the rector.
Rourkela diocese informed its four high schools the criteria for selecting candidates for priestly formation. “The candidates this year were recruited only for the congregations working in Rourkela diocese,” said Father Sunith Lakra, rector of Divya Nilaya, Minor Seminary, Beldih, Rourkela.