Chairperson for Pastoral Council at Our Lady of Consolations Parish in Lafon, Liwaya David Ukoo, complained that lack of parish priest hinders evangelization in the area.
Speaking during the pastoral visit of Bishop Stephen Ameyu Mulla to the parish, he said the parish also lacks trained catechists to render pastoral services to people at grassroots, Radio Emmanuel reported.
David said the parish lacks Sunday missals and Baptism cards and that the Catholic Diocese of Torit should train and support catchiest in the area.
‘We have lack of parish priest to run the activities, also many chapels are in far distances from the main parish which makes it difficult to mobilize them and also to go and visit them. Also we lack trained catechists to lead, the catechist should attend training. Again there is no incentives for the catechists or no support offered to the catechists except one year when Father Afore called me to go and collect some incentives for one year. Also few Sunday missals and order of the mass lack of the catechisms, Chasmal registrar book and baptism cards since 2009’, he regretted.
Meanwhile the Vicar-General Father John Sebit disclosed Diocesan plan to train Catchiest across the diocese the Catholic Church of Torit.
He called on the faithful to take part in translating the English Missal into their local languages to address the issue of Sunday missals.
‘The issue of liturgy is a bit difficult all over the diocese like books, Sunday missals for English is easy, but for dialect is difficult, so it is not easy to write books, it needs you people to write and bring to the bishop so that it will be published especially the catechism of Kampala I will bring, I hope it is there, that one is easy’ he said.
He added that the training of catechists, those who have no knowledge of writing they are to be trained locally here, except those who have knowledge of writing can be sent to Uganda and elsewhere’, he revealed.
Torit Catholic Bishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla advised the faithful in the area to support their catechists.
He called on catechists across the Diocese to commits themselves to serving God saying the Diocese is working hard to support them.
‘The work of the catechist is like the work of priest it is like the work of bishop also you should not disperse your catechist even your bishop was baptized by catechists even though the lack the tools for their work as catechist still they are trying to help by themselves with whatever is available in their hands I know that they lack incentive to encourage their work when I became a bishop on the third of March 2019 I started working at least to get some incentives for the catechists, we have got little money now for the catechists, but the problem is that we would like to re-organize the system how we can help the catechists with their incentives’, he explained.
The speakers were talking during the pastoral meeting which brought together parish councilors, elders and youth at Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Lafon.