PASTORAL CHARITY OF CHRIST IN PRIESTLY FORMATION: THE KEY REMEDY TO PASTORAL PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Pastoral problems facing the Catholic Church in Nigeria today, amongst which are the rise in neopaganism, materialistic lifestyle among the clergy, social media addiction and proliferation of private and unorthodox prayer ministries, pose challenges to pastoral ministry in the country. Being aware of their obligation to be effective and fruitful in their pastoral work, Catholic priests ought to seek for a way to address such problems regularly. Recently, Pope Leo XIV, in his Apostolic Letter, ‘A Fidelity that Generates the Future,’ no. 24, admonishes priests to embrace pastoral charity as the paradigm for remaining faithful to the mission of Christ. In the light of this admonition and from pastoral-theological perspective, this paper argues that greater emphasis on the centrality of pastoral charity of Christ in priestly formation, both at seminary and ongoing formation, would help priests to consciously form in themselves the pastoral charity of Christ through which they can mitigate the pastoral problems in the country and be effective and fruitful in pastoral ministry, in fidelity to the mission of Christ.