Many of the Catholic
parishes around Fordham University in the Bronx, New York have priest students
from around the world staying in them.  These students cover weekend masses and
in return the parishes give them room and board at the rectory. From time to
time parishes are assigned to Maryknoll to receive mission appeals. One year I
was assigned to one of these parishes. I don’t remember the year or the parish’s
name or the name of the African priest from Tanzania who is the focus of the
following story…

    The morning mass was
said by a Tanzanian priest and I did the preaching.  Finding out I was a
Maryknoller, the priest said he wanted to talk to me over a cup of coffee and
breakfast so we did. He told me how he had arrived in the States only a few
weeks before at Kennedy Airport. There was nobody there to meet him and he was
nervous and confused and scared.  One of the workers in the airport noticed him
and asked what the problem was. The priest told the story of nobody being there
to give him a ride.  “Why don’t you call them?” asked the worker.  “I can’t
because I don’t have any money,” said the priest.  “You don’t need money to use
the phone,” said the worker.  “What a great country,” said the priest, “not only
do the phones work, but you don’t even need money!”

    He called and found
out the people who were to pick him up were stuck in traffic.

They
arrived and he got to the rectory safe and sound. The pastor sat him down and
they talked about the Sunday mass schedule.  He was told that he had to say mass
within 40 minutes because of the parking lot crunch after masses.

    The Tanzanian priest
was shocked because, as he explained to me, in Africa masses start whenever most
of the people get there and consist of singing all the verses to all the songs,
a shared homily where everybody is expected to give opinions on the readings, a
true offertory dance to bring up the gifts, a kiss of peace that lasts 15
minutes or more, and a communion dance. After mass everybody stays around to
socialize and eat.  The whole affair may take up to five or six hours! After
these comments the Tanzanian priest went on to say that if the Eucharist is the
central part of our Catholic Faith, how do we teach and celebrate that in 40
minutes?

    My comment was that
he and other international priests are needed here in America not as
Rent-a-Priests to be sacramental machines, but to be here as missionaries to
show and challenge us to get a deeper understanding of our faith and how to live
it out in these changing times.

    His last comments
were how his stomach was so upset because of all the different foods especially
the Italian foods of the Italian pastor!  He knew that as a Maryknoller I
probably had similar experiences with different foods when I lived overseas. And
I did! When the pastor returned from saying the last mass we had a nice, big
lunch.  We started off with pasta and the pastor urged me to eat more. But I
knew more was coming so I told him truthfully of my long term intestinal trouble
from my times in Central America and that I couldn’t eat a lot. After the pasta
came the chicken, potatoes and vegetables followed by coffee and dessert.

   
It was a great conversation and a great meal after preaching at all the masses
and being on my feet most of the morning. I went to the parish as a missionary
to share my experiences and I was pleasantly surprised to receive the missionary
insights of this Tanzanian priest.