Ibadan, Saturday, August 16, 2025. The Claretian Missionaries, Delegation West Nigeria, joyfully congregated with the entire Claretian Family and friends at the Claretian House of Theology Chapel, Elerumoke, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Two of our serving Claretian Missionary Deacons: Rev. Anthony Adesola Adegoke and Rev. Andrew Oluwabusayo Falajiki were elevated to the office of the presbyterial priesthood by the Bishop of Abeokuta Diocese, Most Rev. Peter Olukayode Odetoyinbo. The Bishop has Claretians as trusted collaborators in his Diocese.
Present at the celebrative occasion were the Major Superior of the Delegation, VRFr Augustine Medaiyedu, CMF and VRFr Rowland Onuekwusi, CMF, the Prefect of Formation. Both flanked Bishop Odetoyinbo, the Ordaining Prelate, at the 10am Mass. Rev. Fr. Francis Awotoye, the Judicial Vicar of Ibadan Archdiocese, represented Archbishop Gabriel Abegunrin. Also in attendance were many Claretian Priests, a good number from the Ibadan Archdiocesan Clergy and a host of Female Religious from different Congregations. The parents and relatives of the brothers were visibly present.
The Bishop, who gave a very brilliant homily, delivered in erudite lively style, demonstrated his in-depth acquaintance with the relevant documents on which the life of the Claretian Congregation takes its breath. He deliberately, and rightly so, challenged the two young Ordinandis with pertinent extracts from the classic Autobiography of our Holy Father Founder, Saint Anthony Mary Claret and our hallowed Constitutions. Precisely, the Bishop Homilist reminded our confreres and, by extension all of us, Claretians present, the immortal Letters of the Constitution, paragraph 9, commonly known as the Pen Picture. That portion, not only describes a Claretian Missionary, but highlights, as it were, the core, or better, the fundamental elements in the vision and dream of our Father Founder. The relevant text says:
A Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes. He desires mightily and strives by all means possible to set everyone on fire with God’s love. Nothing daunts him: he delights in privations, welcomes work, embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, rejoices in all the torments and sorrows he suffers, and glories in the cross of Jesus Christ. His only concern is how he may follow Christ and imitate him in praying, working, enduring and striving constantly and solely for the greater glory of God and the salvation of humankind.
The Claretian must purpose to live in total accord with the Letter and Spirit of this definition. For that is who they are.
After the Mass there were photographs and sumptuous gastronomic service.
