Cape Coast, April 21, GNA - The Reverend Father Simon Kofi Appiah, a priest of the Catholic diocese of Jasikan, on Saturday stated that the moral formation of Catholic priests to become servants of God would not be complete if their years of formation in the seminary were not linked up with that of their family values and virtues.

He therefore suggested that future priests should be trained in sincerity, constant love of justice, fidelity to their promise, courtesy, and modesty, clarity in speech and in prudence. Rev. Appiah was delivering a lecture on: "the formation of the future priest in personal integrity for an effective promotion of justice and reconciliation" to end a series of lectures organized by the St Peter's regional seminary in Cape Coast to mark its seventh theology week.

Lectures which were under the theme "Priestly formation and the promotion of justice and reconciliation: challenges and perspectives" were

also to herald the golden jubilee of the seminary. Rev. Fr Appiah said a good family background was good for the moral priestly formation and stressed that if the two were properly harnessed, the Catholic Church would be producing men of integrity who can commend themselves to the conscience of others in the sight of God.

He said the importance of moral formation of priest cannot be overemphasized given the fact they occupy public offices and that these offices by their very nature have a religious-moral character and functions, as a result a future priest cannot afford to be indifferent in matters of moral formation.

He explained that the church has an extended role to play in the formation of the conscience of many through the teaching and preaching of the church's ministers and that it was for this reason that the formation of priest in integrity could be an effective tool for the promotion of justice and reconciliation. "A priest trained in personal integrity will have much influence on many people's choices and decisions about life, decisions that directly affect their relations with others, stressing that, if a priest is morally ignorant he is likely not to behave wrongly alone as an individual but lead many others in a morally unproductive style," he added. He, in this regard, called on them to seek good counsel and build on their spiritual lives so as to become good priests and servants of God.