Silver Jubilee celebration of “Our Lady of Lourdes Minor Seminary, Rawalpindi”
Rawalpindi (Fr. Nasir William): On Tuesday 11th February 2020 Our Lady of Lourdes Minor Seminary, Rawalpindi Celebrated its Silver Jubilee.
Our Lady of Lourdes Minor Seminary is the preparatory seminary in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi. It is one of only 5 minor seminaries in Pakistan.
The Seminary is located on 22 hectares of wooded, rolling hills in Rawalpindi. It was built on land donated to the Church in 1961 for educational purposes by Field Marshal Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan. A pastoral center has already been based in the same premises since October 1996. Initially, part of the 24-room pastoral center was used for the seminary, with 24 seminarians and the rector, Father J.J. Edwards of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate living on the premises. The Seminary was started by Bishop Anthony Lobo in 1995 and Father J. J. Edward OMI was appointed the first rector. The first rector served the seminary only for two year. The first local rector of the seminary was Rev. Father Philip Joseph. He was assisted by Rev. Father Michael Sullivan.
This seminary is the heart of Roman Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi and mother of local candidates to the priesthood. Many years the diocese had been sending the Candidates to the Priesthood in St. Mary’s Minor Seminary Lahore.
Formation period was four years where seminarians go through the study of introductory course of the English language, Liturgy, Spirituality, Sacred Scripture, Catechism, Church History and are promoted to Major Seminary for Philosophical Studies and for further priestly training.
The Seminary has a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and Bernadette . This grotto was gift to the seminary by Mrs. Carol A. Mc Nulty in memory of her husband James W.Mc Nulty.
His Grace Archbishop Dr. Joseph Arshad Bishop of the Diocese is seeing through the general formation of the Seminarian and the general evaluation of teachers and Staff. The current rector of the seminary is Rev. Fr. Jacob Joseph Dogra.
Here are the some pictures of the Silver Jubilee celebrations.
