Associate begins assignment in St. Henry

By David Eck

ST. MARYS DEANERY — Parishioners in the St. Henry cluster will have a unique opportunity to learn about another culture as they welcome their new associate pastor, Missionary of the Precious Blood Father Benedict Shango Magabe from Tanzania.

Father Magabe arrived in February and expects to serve in the cluster for four years. The priest, who was ordained in 2006, is becoming acquainted with the cluster’s parishes and the people in the rural communities.

CT/DAVID ECK

Missionary of the Precious Blood Father Benedict Shango Magabe

The order encourages its members to serve in different provinces and be cross-cultural, said Missionary of the Precious Blood Father Tony Fortman, who also serves as associate pastor for the cluster and is helping Father Magabe learn the area.

Serving in St. Henry will allow Father Magabe to learn American culture while sharing some African aspects of the Mass and his own experiences, he said.

In the mid-1990s, Father Magabe worked for CARE International at a Rwandan refugee camp.

At the urging of his order, he wrote about an article about the experience.

"Despite the efforts of the aid organizations, the refugees suffered from malnutrition, constipation due to the change in diet and an inadequate food supply," he wrote. "The loss of relatives and parents as well as of children left many refugees crying endlessly. Poor sanitation led to diseases such as malaria and cholera that killed many of the young."

Though he had been in the seminary before leaving to work with CARE, it was the suffering that led him back to the seminary and the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, he said.

"This suffering of the people . . . has modeled me, has modeled my vocation," he said. "From this suffering of the people . . . something came in my mind to let me go and serve the people."

He is already starting to make a strong impression on parishioners.

"The people have been very interested in his stories and especially his work in the refugee camps," said Father Fortman. "It allows the people here to get outside of themselves in their daily work, to see a more international experience."

Father Magabe has bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology from the Salvatorian Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Morogoro, Tanzania. He was an assistant parish priest at Itigi Parish in Tanzania where he worked with youths.