ALOKULU, Uganda (Zenit): The rector of a Ugandan seminary says it will not leave the refugee camp where it operates.
Despite the dangers, the seminary has more applicants than it can accept.
Fr Cosmas Alule, who is rector of the seminary in Alokulu, told the group Aid to the Church in Need that they have 126 candidates for the priesthood.
Another 25 are expected for next year, while others are being turned away due to a lack of space and other resources.
Many have suggested that the seminary find a new site outside of the refugee camp for security reasons.
Fr Alule said it was good both for the camp and the seminarians that they stayed where they were.
Future priests, Fr Alule believes, should share the lives of the ordinary people and “bear witness for Christ in the existing situation”.
Fr Alule said the people from the camp came into the seminary to collect water or to use the football field, while also protecting it against rebels or soldiers.
“Through their immediate contact with those who have been affected by the war,” Fr Alule said, “these future priests learn more about what it has truly meant to them, and then take this knowledge back into the wider Ugandan society.”
