At the beginning of the period of this Report, there were very few candidates for the Priesthood for the Archdiocese of Bamenda. There were very few ordinations to the Priesthood. In fact, in 2008 and 2009 no candidate was ordained for the Archdiocese. In order to improve the situation, the Local Ordinary decided to hold the annual meetings with the Major Seminarians in a different Parish each year. In this way, both the Christian community, especially the youth, were able to have direct and personal contact with the seminarians as well as better knowledge about the Priestly Vocation and Priestly Formation. Together with the intensification of the vocations apostolate, the number of vocations to the Priesthood has been steadily increasing to the extent that we have had more ordinations to the Priesthood during the period of this Report and during the previous quinquennium. From the statistics given below, it can be said that the future is promising. This year, there are 12 candidates doing the Spiritual Year in John Mary Vianney Spiritual Formation, Bafut, 27 candidates doing Philosophy and 31 doing Theology in St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Bambui.
The statistics below show the number of priestly candidates for the Archdiocese of Bamenda and the number of Priests ordained each year during the period of this Report.
Priestly Candidates during the period of the Report
ACADEMIC YEAR | PHILOSOPHICUM | THEOLOGICUM | SPIRITUAL CENTRE |
2014/2015 | 26 | 8 | 12 |
2015/2016 | 31 | 4 | 5 |
2016/2017 | 30 | 5 | 12 |
2017/2018 | 25 | 8 | 6 |
2018/2019 | 21 | 20 | 3 |
2019/2020 | 22 | 27 | 14 |
2020/2021 | 23 | 28 | 18 |
2021/2022 | 36 | 35 | 12 |
Number of Priests Ordained during the period of this Quinquennial Report
2015 6
2016 11
2017 6
2018 –
2019 8
2020 14
2021 13
Total 58