Ever since the end of 2015 the North and East of Burkina Faso have been the focus of violent Islamist terrorism. Today two thirds of this West African nation is suffering from this terrorism, and two million people have been forced to flee their homes. In 2019 these attacks began deliberately targeting the Christian faithful and their churches. And the violence of the jihadist attackers against priests, religious and ordinary Christian faithful has been steadily increasing in intensity ever since.
Yet despite this threat to life and limb, young men are still responding to the call of the Lord, and indeed the number of vocations has even increased since then. Father Christian Tankoano is a young priest from the diocese of Fada N’Gourma who was ordained just two years ago. The day of his ordination was tinged with sorrow amid the joy, because his parents were unable to attend the ceremony, since the roads had been blocked by the terrorists. For Christian it was a heavy blow. „I accepted it in faith, but humanly speaking it felt like a stab in the heart. Up until the Gloria there were tears in my eyes.“ And yet, he adds with joy in his face, „For me it is a great gift of God that, with all my weaknesses and strengths, and my faults and qualities, I am nevertheless permitted to serve his people.“
Currently there are nine young men from the diocese of Fada N’Gourma training for the priesthood. They have left everything to follow the call of God. And they are urgently needed, because their spiritually traumatised Catholic faithful desperately need the healing power of the sacraments and the Gospel. They need shepherds to accompany them on their way of the cross and renew their strength and hope in the resurrection. Whenever Bishop Pierre Claver Malgo visits the faithful in the far-flung parishes of his diocese, they beg him to send priests. And so, he tells us, „The growing number of young men entering the seminary fills me with great confidence and hope.“
However, financing the training of these future priests is a colossal challenge for him. Their parents can offer nothing more than their prayers towards the formation of their sons. And some of their families are still holding out in the so-called „red zones“, where the violence is worst, so that the seminarians cannot even visit their parents. The families of some of the other young seminarians have already been expelled from their homes and are themselves living from day to day on whatever divine providence and the kind hearts of others can supply them. And all of them are from poor families with numerous children to support. Needless to say, the local Church is as poor as the faithful.
Yet within the Church nobody is alone, as the bishop reminds us, „A vocation is always a grace of God and the work of the whole Church.“ And so, wherever you may be as you read these lines, you can still help, through your prayers and your material donations, so that these vocations can grow and bear fruit.
Young Father Christian, whom you have already helped in the past, is now celebrating Holy Mass for you all. And, God willing, Pascal, Ulrich, Geoffroy, Loucien, François, Thierry, Irinée, Vincent and Leopold will also be ordained in a year or two. Already today they are praying for you in gratitude for your support. They will need another 6830 Euros in order to be able to continue their studies for another year. Can they count on your help?
