By Fr. Henry Charles Umelechi
St. Paul’s Junior Seminary, Igbariam began on Saturday September 16, 2023, with Rev. Fr. Hilary Obi Nweke as the pioneer rector. Fr. Obi was announced as the rector of the maiden seminary before the end of the mass for the canonical erection of Aguleri Diocese and for the installation of Bishop Dennis Isizor, the pioneer Bishop of Aguleri Diocese on Friday 17 March ,2023.
By virtue of that announcement, Fr. Obi who hails from Ifite Ogwari in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State, automatically became the youngest rector in the Nigerian Catholic Seminary.
The commencement of the new seminary was greeted with the arrival of Master Victor who made history as the first seminarian to pack his bags like Blessed Iwene Tansi to the seminary, with the afired desire to be a catholic priest for the Diocese of Aguleri. Ceteris Paribus, Victor and his pioneer set are expected to be ordained a Catholic priest in the next 17 years, 2040.
Also, we should recall that on February 12, 2023, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, carved out the Diocese of Aguleri, with land a mass of 1,388 Square Kilometers (536 Square Miles), from the Archdiocese of Onitsha. Aguleri Diocese covers four local governments of Anambra State: Anambra West, Anambra East, Oyi, and Ayamelum.
But on this September 16, 2023, in the year of our Lord, the new diocese with a new bishop, begot a new seminary with a new rector, in Nigeria. What a chronicle of novelty!!!
Congratulations to the Catholic Diocese of Aguleri!
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam ( Psalm 115: 1).
Read Also: The STATISTICS of the newly created Diocese, AGULERI as released by Vatican.