The Viatorian Community recently celebrated the ordination to the diaconate of two Viatorian brothers in the Ivory Coast, and welcomed a new novice in Chile.
Br. Sylvanus is now a newly ordained deacon.
Brothers Sylvanus Agah and Désiré Legma were both ordained deacons on April 23 by Monsignor Paolo Borgia, Apostolic Nuncio in Ivory Coast. The ordinations took place in the chapel of the Theological Institute of the Society of Jesus, run by the Jesuits, in Abidjan, where the two brothers are third-year theology students.
Br. Sylvanus DJAMA AGAH was born and raised in the Ivory Coast while Br. Désiré was born and raised in Burkina Faso and belongs to the Viatorian Foundation in that country.
Br. Sylvanus took his first vows in 2009 and his perpetual vows in 2016, in the church of Our Lady of Nazareth in Bouaké. After his first vows, he taught philosophy and was chaplain at Saint Viateur College in Bouaké.
Br. Sylvanus has served as master of novices in the Ivory Coast Foundation since 2016. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Sciences and a Master’s degree in Political and Social Philosophy and is currently preparing his Bachelor’s degree in Theology with Br. Désiré.
Br. Desire professing obedience.
Br. Désiré LEGMA also brings an impressive academic background to his vocation. He is originally from Burkina Faso and made his novitiate in Ouagadougou in 2004-2005, with Fr. Jean-Marc Provost as novice master. Br. Désiré holds a degree in electrical engineering and has been a teacher at “Etablissement Louis Querbes” in Banfora.
From 2006 to 2009, he was assigned to Abidjan, where he did religious and pedagogical studies at the Centre Lassallien Africain, or CELAF. For the past five years, he has studied philosophy and theology.
In the Province of Chile, the Viatorian Community welcomed its most recent novice: Brother Octavio Césped Dorich. The ceremony took place on March 26, presided over by Fr. Marcelo Lamas, Provincial Superior, and in the presence of Fr. Eduardo Millán, master of Novices.
Fr. Marcelo Lamas blesses Br. Octavio Dorich.
Br. Octavio is a former student of the Liceo Parroquial San Antonio de Viña del Mar and a physiologist by profession. He gave thanks to God for all that he had experienced in the previous year and expressed his gratitude to those who had accompanied him to this day.
In expressing his joy, he said, “I want to love in a radical way and I know in my heart that the Lord expects this of me, that I want to be happy, that I praise him throughout my life and that I love all those he will put on my path.”
“It was here that religious life presented itself to me as a real possibility,” he added; “as a gift that I want to welcome generously. I am aware that this is a new beginning among many others, and I ask you to pray for me.”