ASIA/PAKISTAN -- Bishop Shukardin: “It is essential to accompany young people in vocation discernment ”

Thursday, 5 April 2018 youth education formation priests consecrated life vocations synod of bishops

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Hyderabad (Agenzia Fides) – “Take your vocation seriously. Be ready to carry the Gospel of Christ to other young people”: this was the message addressed by Bishop Samson Shukardin, who leads the Catholic community in Hyderabad, Sindh province, Pakistan, to young boys and girls in his diocese. To accompany vocation discernment of young Catholics – regarding the priesthood, consecrated life and also a lay vocation to married and professional life– the Bishop had the idea of a “pre-seminary”, to help young people discover their own way to follow Christ and introduce them to the Minor Seminary.
Telling Fides about the initiative the Bishop said: “Three years ago it saddened me to see not one vocation to the priesthood in my diocese during my first year as Bishop of Hyderabad. It was the year 2015. This is why I decided that the following year I would work in this direction with the local priests and in 2016 we organised a vocation camp with 12 boys. We chose two of them for minor seminary while the other 10 continued to frequent the parish and grow at the human and spiritual level ”. “This – he continued– was a new beginning for the diocese of Hyderabad: we hope before long to have our own minor seminary”.
The Catholic diocese of Hyderabad was created with territory from the archdiocese of Karachi in 1958, and later divided to create the apostolic prefecture of Quetta in 2001. The diocese has an area of 137,386 kmq, 16 parishes and a territory of which half consists of tribal areas with ethnic groups of Kachi, Kholi and Parkari.
Bishop Samson Shukardin, of the Order of Friars Minor, previously Vicar general of the same diocese was appointed Bishop in December 2014 and installed 31 January 2015. Bishop Samson is also Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan and president of the national commission for the Clergy and the national commission for the Laity. He is deeply committed to young people and in preparation for Easter took part in a spiritual retreat with the Jesus Youth Movement, on which he reports: "I spent all my time telling the young Catholics that they are not alone, the Church is with them and cares about them”.
The Bishop has a deep desire to “help young people in the field of education and professional training”. To do this he invited 150 young people in his diocese to visit technical schools in and around Hyderabad and reports: “I plan to open a technical school in my diocese: I am confident that I will succeed by the end of 2018. In the past two years we opened five sewing centres for young women and two more centres are on the way”. "It is essential find and offer opportunities for education and professional training to young Christians, accompanying them to discover their own vocation” he concludes, “so they may contribute their own evangelical testimony for the common good of our society ”. (AG) (Agenzia Fides 5/4/2018)