SMA SEMINARY FOCUS –
FR BERNARD WEIGGERS HOUSE OF FORMATION –
KABWE, ZAMBIA

Your donations to the International Development Fund are used to help the SMA, in various formation houses or seminaries throughout the world, to prepare students for their missions in Africa. One of these centers is the Fr Bernard Weiggers House of Formation in Kabwe, Zambia:

The Fr Bernard Weiggers House of Formation is situated in the Dallas area of Kabwe on the Great North Road in Zambia about 9km from the National Philosophical Seminary at Mpima. The house was blessed and opened on SMA Foundation Day (8th December) 1995 by Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, Papal Nuncio to Zambia , and Fr Daniel Cardot, Superior General of the SMA.

SMA presence in Zambia dates from 1973 when Bishop Nicholas de Jong of Ndola invited the Society to work in his Diocese. The first SMA missionaries were from the Irish Province and they worked mainly in the Copperbelt area. In 1992 the Zambian Episcopal Conference gave the SMA permission to accept young men from the local Church to train as missionary priests and the following year the house in Kabwe was started. The first two priests in the formation house were Fr Bernard Weiggers (the house was given his name when he died) and Fr William Jansmann – both from the Dutch Province.

The purpose of the SMA house in Kabwe is to begin the formation of Zambian students who wish to be missionary priests with the Society of African Missions. At present (2007) there are ten students in residence (all from Zambia ) with two SMA priests (one from Ghana and one from Kenya) running the formation program. The program lasts for three years and is made up of a one-year Aspirants' Program and a two-year Philosophy Course, both done in conjunction with other male religious communities nearby. The students travel 9km by bicycle to the Seminary every morning for lectures and return at lunchtime.

There are already 6 ordained SMA missionary priests from Zambia, as well as 3 deacons and 14 seminarians studying Philosophy and Theology.

The SMA house of formation in Kabwe gives young Zambian men a good beginning on their path to missionary priesthood. There is an ongoing effort to find the necessary funds each year to pay the seminary fees as well as for the constant maintenance work around the campus. A bore-hole has to be sunk to provide water during the dry season – but this is on hold until the money is available.