Dear friends,

We had a beautiful day today with the Confirmations of the members of the community here in Nigeria. It was followed by tonsure and the minor orders of Porter and Lector. Sister Mary-Angela prepared a nice meal. I think she put her whole heart in it. They bought some wine. I know they are doing a lot for me that they would not do usually because they cannot afford it. They are poor but so happy to receive the visit of a bishop. The sisters were crying when Father said that I would leave tomorrow.

Life is hard here in Africa for people. Everything they do requires, I believe, more efforts than elsewhere. It is life in the tropics. Every small work means a lot of sweat. Imagine working in the hottest days of the year in Canada. It looks like that but with more humidity, and it is the coolest month. One would think that they are used to it, but actually Father and the seminarians seem to be sweating more than me.

This place here was evangelized shortly by the French and then mostly by the Irish. Because it was an English colony, the Irish clergy replaced the French. They worked hard in establishing the Faith.

This Faith is very much threatened today. Priests are very worldly. They work as businessmen besides their priesthood. Father explained to me that the NO Church owns gaz stations and some priests are working there as managers. Very bad! We were in the plane just besides a NO relatively young priest. It was very shocking to see him. We are used to see our NO elderly priests dressed with civilian cloths. But to see a young man in the world, wearing blue jeans, behaving with other people as if he were nothing different than them is very sad. One wonders how can a man of this age live a life of chastity without wearing his habit…

I am sure very few clergy members live a life of prayer, silence, hard work and dedication to their vocation, here in Nigeria. I commend very much Father Mbadugha for what he does. Very edifying. I never thought I would go to Africa. If it depended only of me, I would stay in Canada. But it is a good feeling to bring to other people what Bp da Silva brought to us when he visited us : the comforting presence of a successor of the Apostles. These travels will be mainly summer travels. The rest of the year, I need to be home to take care of seminarians. But even if I am far away, my heart remains in Eastern Canada. Just share your bishop for a few weeks.

Tomorrow, we are going to head out of Oko Town to the city of Nnewi. It is one of the Mass centers that Father serves. We will have Confirmation there. We will then drive to Enugu, where we will spend the night at Father’s parents.

God bless you! Have a blessed Sunday!

Mgr Roy