Ouidah (Fides Service) - Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, is in Benin, as papal envoy to the closing celebration of Benin's 1st National Eucharistic Congress, which has the theme "The Eucharist, supreme manifestation of the love of the Father in the Spirit". The closing Mass will be celebrated on Sunday November 24 Feast of Christ the King, at Dassa-Zoume. On Saturday 23 November the Cardinal presided Mass at the major inter-diocesan seminary in Ouidah where he also had a meeting with the Bishops' Conference. Speaking to seminarians the Cardinal said "to be a priest means put off our old selves and put on the apron of service, renouncing everything. In your faces I see your churches, who have invested in you. How many projects, expectations, hopes! Be faithful to God and to the flock which one day he will entrust to you." The Cardinal told the Bishops that he is happy to see the Church in Benin is living a particularly good moment and he stressed some priorities demanding attention: formation of clergy, advance of Islam, threat of religious sects, missionary commitment, sharing with the poor and the excluded. See addresses in French and Italian (Fides Service 23/11/2002)