Young men of Burkina Faso are not allowing the threat of terrorism to keep them from their vocation. A recent report from the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) found that despite the threat of violence, abduction, and even death, the number of seminarians has only grown in the last five years.
ACN highlighted this growth by pointing to St. Peter and St. Paul Seminary of Kossoghin, in Ouagadougou Archdiocese, where the number of seminarians has increased from 254 in the 2019-2020 academic year to 281 for 2024-2025. The increase in vocations over this period is particularly interesting, as it was during this time in which terrorists began to focus on targeting churches, priests, and catechists.
Many of these seminarians, about 40%, come from some of the regions most targeted by terrorists, known in the country as “red zones.” Because of the dangers of traveling through red zones, many seminarians were not able to make the trip home to celebrate Christmas with their families. Instead, they stayed in diocesan centers or with host family homes for the holiday.
A classmate gone
The real threat faced by Burkina Faso’s seminarians is best illustrated by the case of Marius, who was a third year philosophy student at Sts. Peter and Paul’s in 2022. The young man was abducted by terrorists while on a routine trip home to visit his father. His remains were never found, but his family is convinced that he was killed for his faith and pursuit of the priesthood.
Father Guy Moukassa Sanon, rector of Sts Peter and Paul’s Seminary, explained to ACN that the best a Burkina Faso seminarian can hope for when confronted by terrorists is a “narrow escape”:
“One of them, for example, went home to spend the holiday with his family. While he was outside the house, the terrorists arrived. Their initial target was his father, a catechist, who, fortunately, was away at the time,” Fr. Sanon recalled to ACN. “However, the terrorists, who were well-informed, then demanded the seminarian son. Hearing their threats, he climbed over a wall and fled into the fields under the cover of night. Although the terrorists went after him, they didn’t manage to find him. He hid for a whole day, waiting for the danger to pass before he returned home.”
As far as explaining how vocations can continue to rise in the face of such dangers, Fr. Sanon suggested that the Archdiocese is good at helping young men recognize their vocations. Furthermore, he suggested that the difference between vocations in Burkina Faso compared to Europe is materialism. He mused that the “materialist contexts” of the West create an atmosphere in which the faithful “don’t expect anything of God.”
When all is said and done, Sts. Peter and Paul Seminary have so many young men discerning their vocations that the seminary doesn’t have room for them all. The school has had to convert community rooms to temporary housing and even then, some of the seminarians have been transferred to a seminary in Mali to finish their education.
Read more about the hurdles faced by Burkina Faso’s growing body of seminarians at ACN.
