The SOS Africa association was created to assist the missions in Africa. First and foremost, the Association has decided to help St. Michael’s Mission in the South of Nigeria.
The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X being to respond to Catholics requesting the traditional liturgy and all that is connected with it (catechism, etc.), the installation in Nigeria does not depart from this rule, and so there are different groups of the faithful who have come together to make an appeal for this ministry.
The priory of the St. Michael the Archangel Mission was opened on August 26, 2012 in Enugu in the south of the country. Since December 2013, three priests have been working together in this magnificent apostolate. The current missionaries are: Fr. Peter Chrissement, prior; Fr. Nanthambwe, a Malawite missionary, and Fr. Peter Scott.
The Fathers go out in turns to bring the ministry to these groups. So, it is necessary to travel by airplane, going away for three or four days, to do as much as possible in a short amount of time. As for Enugu itself, it is principally catechism, confessions, choir and the liturgy, and the formation of the pre-seminarians, which occupy the schedule. The priory is currently located in a rather dilapidated rented house, the largest room of which is not large enough to accommodate all the faithful during the Sunday Mass, which is thus celebrated in the inner courtyard, outside. It is a Mission full of future promise and the faithful are of good will. What needs to be done is to provide a true priory for them to help with the Fathers’ expansion of the apostolic mission.
For all that, the three Fathers are able to visit a rural village from time to time and it is there that they may feel closest to the former missionaries! Very simple people, living in poverty, without running water or electricity, they gather together in a makeshift chapel made of bamboo and corrugated sheet metal.
What is the most remarkable in the exercise of these diverse ministries, wherever they are, is the profound faith and fervor of the Catholics (as well as, incidentally, the natural religiosity of the people; those who claim to be atheists are very rare, and it is possible to speak about religion from the first conversation with someone you don’t know).
