Three days residential vocation camp was organised at St Lawrence Minor Basilica, Attur. Around 45 enthusiastic participants from 14 parishes participated and gained immense knowledge about the life of a priest. The camp began at 5:45 P.M on 7th of April with the lighting of the lamp followed by the message of Most Rev. Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo, the Bishop of Udupi diocese. He stated that since the Udupi is a new diocese, we are in need of priests. His main thrust was that ‘a priest should be spiritually rooted in Christ and should be a humane and loving person.’
The next day, Fr. Sunil D’Silva, the parish priest, Ajekar, gave the necessary information about the signs of vocation with his life experience. And later Fr Stephan D’ Souza, Rector of the minor seminary, gave them the exclusive insights about the life in the minor seminary. In the evening, Fr. Anil Cornelio, the vocation promoter of the Udupi diocese, gave them brief information with regard to the Spirituality of the diocesan priest.
Various group games, cricket match and other creative activities filled with values were conducted by Br. Oswald Vaz, Br. Leevan Mathias and Br. Rohan Mascarenhasof St. Joseph's inter-diocesan Seminary, Jeppu, Mangalore. They inspired the participants with their enriching vocation stories.
Fr. Baptist, professor at St Joseph's Seminary, and Fr. Baptist Menezes, the vicar general of the Udupi Diocese gave short talks to the students and shared their life experience with them. This time the participants were high in number, and there are a few promising candidates for the minor seminary, stated Fr. Baptist.
