His Eminence Cardinal Wilfred Fox Napier, OFM, Special Envoy of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to Ghana and Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, has urged seminarians at St. Paul’s Catholic Seminary in Sowutuom to become an “evangelizing community” rooted in the Trinity and dedicated to serving humanity, particularly the marginalized.
Delivering the homily at the closing Mass of his visit to Ghana, Cardinal Napier emphasized the importance of a community as the foundation of Church life.
He said, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When you are saying that, what are you saying? We are addressing God as a community. So that’s the first idea that we must work towards as a church, that we become a community. But it’s not just any kind of community, not a political community or whatever. It’s going to be a community that is based on the Trinity, a history of community.”
Cardinal Napier highlighted the Church’s mission as a “community serving humanity,” growing to be an “evangelizing community” that puts the Gospel first in evangelization.
“Your primary purpose is to bring the gospel into the community and evangelize. The gospel must be the driving force behind who you are and what you do, and then the community is serving humanity”, he stated.
Quoting Pope Francis, he described true discipleship as walking with Jesus, witnessing to others, and reaching those who do not know Him.
He said, “Pope Francis said, when you see a good disciple, a true disciple does, he witnesses to others about this Jesus that he’s walking with. So he builds up the church by witnessing, by sharing his experience of Jesus, and sharing it with others so that they, in turn, learn how to walk with Jesus, and shape their life with him.”
Addressing the seminarians, he challenged them to embody this vision in their formation, adding, “That’s my idea of how we make a pastor plan that’s going to make a difference in our lives. Ultimately, we’re going to reach a point where we say our real pastor plan is to promote Jesus and make him the center of our lives.”
By: Veronica Sena Amenya
