Dominican Fathers and Brothers - Province of Nigeria
Scheduled to Visit:
Notre Dame du Mont Carmel Parish, Madawaska; Our Lady of the Valley Parish, St. Agatha; and St. Peter Chanel Parish, Van Buren
Peace by with you. My name is Fr. Raymond Nwabueze, OP, and I am Dominican Priest from Nigeria. I presently live and work here in the United States as the mission director for the Dominican Fathers and Brothers Province of Nigeria (we are also known as the Province of St. Joseph the Worker). I am also the main Catholic chaplain at the National Children’s Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The purpose of this short appeal letter to you is to ask for your financial, spiritual, and moral support to the missions in which the Dominicans Fathers of Nigeria promote in preaching and propagation of the faith. Because of this pandemic that has affected every country in the world, I am so sorry that I am not here in person to make this appeal. My prayer is that God may have mercy and heal our world. We will rise stronger from the ashes of this pandemic. Amen!
As a group, we are currently the largest province of our order on the African continent and the fastest growing entity of the Dominican order in the world. As Dominicans in Africa, our ministerial focus is evangelization through the preaching of the Gospel. For this purpose, we have our members working in the areas of promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life, formation of local clergy, primary and ongoing evangelization, dialogue with Islam, education of children in Catholic schools - elementary and high schools, colleges and universities - as well as hospital chaplaincies.
We are also involved in justice and peace ministries, including basic developmental ministries which help to concretely translate the Gospel into everyday life. These include youth development programs and primary health care delivery.
Our friars currently do mission work in six countries, including the United States of America, Ghana, Zambia, Grenada and St. Lucia (and Nigeria).
This year, we plan to dedicate the proceeds from the appeals to our formation programs for the priesthood and religious life. Our Dominican House of Studies in Nigeria presently has over 100 seminarians preparing for the priesthood, and maintaining that number is a huge task. We rely on support from good people like you to be able to keep the place going. It costs a minimum of $5,000 annually to take care of room and board, health. and tuition of a single seminarian in Nigeria. Vocations to the priesthood in Nigeria (have) seen a rise in recent years (such) that every year we get in excess of 400 applications, and we can only take a maximum of 15 men because we don’t have enough rooms and funding. We want to do more because the world needs us.
Your generosity towards providing good and holy priests to spread the Gospel and God’s goodness around the world will be much appreciated. We are aware that the present economic situation may affect your response but be assured of our constant prayers for you and your entire families. Together as a Christian people, we are stronger, and we will beat this pandemic with the help of God. Please, give in support of the mission of the Dominican Fathers of Nigeria and say a Hail Mary for us whether you are able to donate or not. You can make your checks out to your parish and indicate in the memo at the bottom of check it is for the Dominican Fathers. God bless you all.
If you would like to support the work of the Dominican Fathers and Brothers in the Province of Nigeria, please visit the St. John Valley Catholic Cluster online giving page.
To learn more about the Dominican Fathers and Brothers, visit their website.
