By Fr. Anthony Adetayo

The 12th day of January 2021 is a day the faithful of Catholic Diocese of Ijebu-Ode gathered at St. Sebastian Catholic Cathedral Ijebu-Ode to officially open the 2021 pastoral year.

Priests, religious; both male and female and representatives of laity from parishes and institutions gathered to witness this first Holy Mass of the Diocese for the year. congregants were spread to maintain good social distancing and ensure the use of their nose mask in accordance with the safety measures against the Corona pandemic.

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The Bishop in his remark said “I am happy we are able to gather as a diocese to jointly express our profound gratitude to God for sustaining our lives and vocations throughout 2020 into 2021. It is good that we also Express our appreciation to one another as you received a lot of support from both laity and clerics for the good of our ministry.”

The bishop after appreciating the efforts of his priests and religious together with the laity since he has arrived into the Diocese charged them to do more in the new year of 2021. In his words, he said “I appeal to all of you assigned to pastoral ministry in the Diocese to do all that is needed for the success of the mission not thinking first about self but about Jesus who will never fail us.” The bishop insisted that everybody is to be included in the successful execution of our pastoral plan going forward he added, “on my part as your shepherd and servant I renew my commitment to sanctify govern and teach the flock handed over to me.

As a shepherd conscious of the global and national situation of the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted with emphasis, “We have been told that there is a new wave of coronavirus in town let us elevate the standard of precautions that were earlier established in our parishes schools and hospitals. We must keep ourselves safe and keep others safe in return.”

The program ended with a discussion session after the Holy Mass. The discussion is on the new pastoral letter released by the Bishop in December 2020 titled “The Word of God: A light in our path beyond the golden jubilee year celebrations”.
The pastoral letter was comprehensively reviewed for implementation.