Qualified priests, parishes top priorities for Lahore Archbishop Shaw

Lahore (UCANEWS): Lahore Archdiocese made history on Sept. 7 with the ordination of seven deacons. That’s the largest number of ordinations at a single Mass in the oldest diocese in Pakistan.

But Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore has bigger plans.




“As the number of vocations increase every year in the minor seminary, we are looking beyond our diocese and trying to produce priests for national needs. Students have been recently sent to Rome to study philosophy, scripture, theology and canon law,” he told ucanews.com.

Also Read: ‘A day of joy’ Seven new priests ordained to serve Archdiocese of Lahore

Ever since his appointment as the archbishop of Lahore in 2013, the 59-year-old Franciscan has been focusing on increasing the number of parishes and reaching out to Catholics who number 377,000 in this eastern Pakistani archdiocese.

Two new parishes were added during five-year diocesan plan of 2011-2016. A third is to be started soon.

Established as the Vicariate Apostolic of Punjab in 1880, Lahore Archdiocese now has 29 parishes, more than 200 chapels and churches, and nearly 300 catechists. It also houses 31 houses of formation — the largest number in the country.

“The seed of faith kept growing and Lahore Archdiocese gave birth to the Islamabad-Rawalpindi Diocese and Multan Diocese,” said the archbishop who led a trip of 15 priests to India last year to observe 130 years since Lahore first became a diocese. Source: UCANEWS
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