Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, last year announced the period October 11, 2012 to November 24, 2013 as “The Year of Faith” to be observed by Catholics throughout the world.

Official Vatican documents, particularly “The Door of Faith”, issued by the Pope Emeritus explained that the period will enable Christ’s faithful re-discover and share with others the precious gift of faith entrusted to the Church.

This re-discovery and sharing of Catholic faith is expected to be facilitated by living out the teachings of the catechism of the Catholic Church, which is rich in the systematic presentation of our faith.  It is there that we see the wealth of teaching that the church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history.  The Catholic catechism provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the church has meditated on the faith and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of faith.

An important component of the year of faith therefore, involves a concerted effort by every Catholic to rediscover and study the fundamental content of the faith.  The urgency to rediscover our journey of faith cannot be over-emphasized, considering the way materialism has eroded spiritual values in many parts of the world, especially Europe and America, while syncretism and neo-paganism are fast eroding the very roots of many so-called baptized Christians in the developing countries, like Nigeria, including Igbo land.  We believe that It is only a firmer grip of our faith that can help the African/Igbo Christian to resist the corrupt Western culture ravaging our society and other ungodly lifestyles resulting from a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing.  The year of faith is also designed as an opportunity for each one of us to intensify the witness of charity, realizing that charity is faith in action.

Already, the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri has published in details the Action Plan for parishes, chaplaincies, special jurisdictions and Catholic centres for participation of the faithful in the Year of Faith.

Starting from June 1st to November 6th, 2013 activities that will feature include: Lectures/Talks on Year of Faith, Lectures on Vatican II selected documents, reflection on the Creed, Lecture on CCC, Study of Quiz materials and Quiz competitions at parish level.  There will be zonal quiz competitions, seminar for Catechetical Week, Retreat, Formation on New Evangelization, Seminar for professional bodies and Liturgy.

While some of these activities will hold at the Assumpta Cathedral, others will take place at the Pastoral Centre along Wetheral Road Owerri and the rest at parishes etc.  All these activities are aimed at arousing in the believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness, with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.  In this way, every committed Catholic will become a living sign of the risen Lord in the world.  This has become more urgent now than ever, because ours is a world in particular need of credible witnesses of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of God.  It is only such witnesses that are capable, in the words of the Pope Emeritus of “opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end”.

We therefore call on all Christ’s faithful to be part of the activities lined up for the ongoing programme of Action of the Year of Faith.

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