Msgr. Roger J. Landry
National Director, The Pontifical Mission Societies
Journey to Nigeria Day 7
March 11, 2026
Here is the video for today’s stop in Nigeria.
The YouTube generated transcript for today’s video:
It’s day seven of our missionary pilgrimage to Nigeria. We are here at the world’s largest seminary, Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu. And I have the honor to be here with the director of this seminary which has 714 seminarians, 82 faculty members. Father Albert, thank you for joining us on this little missionary pilgrimage we have. Tell us about this seminary visited by St. John Paul II 102 years old. What makes this such an inspiring place for Catholics across the globe? It makes it a very inspiring uh place for Cal in the world because here we train priests after the mind of Christ. And um uh since its inception in 1924, Bigard has continued to train priests in different areas of formation uh from the point of view of spirituality, from the point of view of intellectual formation, from the point of view of human formation and also from the point of view of pastoral formation that these have been our cardinal uh points. the world the way the the areas that we we train candidates and uh it’s it’s it’s wonderful when you see these products of big working in many parts of the world not only in Africa but also in uh United States of America and Europe. So uh here we form students after the mind of Christ and uh that has continued to be the motivating factor and uh with the spirit of evangelization inculcated in them they stand out actually the moto of big is it make testing you shall be my witnesses so that has been uh the way we form our for our candidate for the president earlier today when we arrived here we had mass at 7:30 in the morning. The chapel was filled. It was so vital. The music was some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. Uh afterward, we had a tour of the seminary grounds. We were able to meet with the seminarian, see their incredible talents on full display. This is a sacred spot full of hope. And I am so edified that the Catholics in the United States have a big role in making Bigard Seminary what it is today. Through the generosity at the time of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen and his successors, American Catholics through the Society of St. Peter the Apostle have donated generously to help build up the many buildings on this property so that seminarians are able to eat, so that they’re able to sleep, so that they’re able to be warm, so that they’re able to pray. What would you like to say to American Catholics? Um, Father Albert, for the generosity which continues, we cannot thank you enough for your generosity. Without the help we have gotten from you, it would have been difficult uh to run a seminary of this nation. it would have been difficult to to give them feed them to accommodate them and also provide the enabling enabling environment. So we are very grateful for your generosity and then this generosity has been you know have been on for years and uh that is what also helped to keep us here uh as uh as we work for the uh the future priest. So we we thank the the American uh uh citizens, American Catholics and all those who help us in one way or the other uh from the bottom of our hearts. Our seminarians re very excited uh to receive Monsignor Landry and also uh um other delegates from America that here we can express our gratitude to you in person in person not just through letter writing but also in person so that we also go back and convey our gratitude to the people of America. We thank you so much. This has been a wonderful day. This visit to Bigard Seminary is really the highlight of our seven days up until now. Stay tuned for the next station.
I’m Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. We’re coming to the end of day seven of our missionary pilgrimage to Nigeria. You’ve already seen what we did this morning. We spent about eight hours at Bigard Seminary with a beautiful mass with a tour of the property with uh two-hour series of presentations with the extraordinary talents of the seminarians and then an opportunity at mass and then at that auditorium to be able to address these seminarians who bear so much hope. After we left beard seminary, then we went to a parish that the Pontifical Mission Societies has helped to build, holy trinity parish in a place called Emene in Enugu state. It was a beautiful um experience of faith where the whole parish was there from the youngest to the oldest with so much enthusiasm and so much gratitude. Then we went to visit a hospital run by the daughters of divine love. One of the sisters on our staff in New York is a member of that Nigerian congregation. She helps us so much and it was a great joy to meet her fellow sisters and to see their beautiful work there among patients who basically need everything. The sisters made a special appeal to see if anybody would be able to help them get an MRI machine. If you happen to have those types of connections, I’d love to hear from you. And then we went to visit the place where the various religious sisters throughout the country have a joint commission in order to be able to coordinate their various activities as well as to receive the funds of the society of St. Peter the Apostle to help them train their novices, their young sisters who are preparing for their first vows. It’s been an extraordinary day in which we’ve seen both the beautiful present of the church and the hopeful future here in Nigeria. Can’t wait for day eight. See you tomorrow.
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