Bishop Martín Lasarte Topolansky, of the Diocese of Angola, Africa, warned seminarians: “Avoid excessive use of social networks in order to concentrate on the essentials of your vocation.”
Newsroom (23/09/2023 21:00, Gaudium Press) At the opening Mass for the 2023/2024 academic year of the St. Joseph and St. John Mary Vianney Major Seminary, a propaedeutic seminary in the Diocese of Lwena in Angola, Africa, Bishop Martín Lasarte Topolansky warned the seminarians: “Avoid excessive use of social networks in order to concentrate on the essentials of your vocation”.
“A seminarian who is on social media every day with his cell phone, sending WhatsApp to everyone, loses concentration,” the bishop stressed during the Eucharistic Celebration last Tuesday, September 19.
Bishop Lasarte, a Salesian born in Uruguay, whose episcopal appointment was published on July 1, recommended “sobriety in the use of the media and sobriety in the faith”.
“We need to transmit a word of hope to those who are suffering. We want seminarians with a big heart for the people,” continued Msgr. Lasarte, and who have “that inner fire that leads them to love all those who need to be loved, who live in contempt, who suffer, who live far from the Lord, who live in ignorance, and who live in suffering, […] and who “need a word of hope so that they can rise like Jesus”.
Lasarte explained that plans are underway to open new seminaries with the aim of encouraging new vocations to the priestly life.”
“The lack of financial means to cover the fixed costs of the seminaries has prompted the launch of an appeal for help for hundreds of seminarians to return to their houses of formation,” said Fr. Amilton Camuele, coordinator of Studies and Discipline at the seminary.
With information from aciafrica.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
