Priestly Example Never Left His Memory

Father Jean-Marie Vianney Uzabakiriho

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In the north of Rwanda, a Belgian missionary priest named Father Rene Duchamps was assigned to the Nyakinama Parish where a young Jean-Marie Vianney Uzabakiriho lived and attended Mass.

Each Sunday, he would serve as an altar boy for Father Duchamps, who became the model of priesthood for him, as well as a role model for life. 

“What amazed me was the way he lived. He was like one of us. He knew the culture and the language,” said Father Uzabakiriho, 41, and a native of Muzanze, Rwanda, with admiration.

“Deep down myself, I wanted to be like that man,” he said in a soft-spoken manner.

He entered the minor seminary in Rwanda knowing he wanted to become a priest, but where he wanted to serve was still unclear.

However, one thing was readily apparent—his deepening devotion to the Virgin Mary. During one prayer time in minor seminary, the men were scattered through the fields of Rwanda under the shining sun as the wind blew gently around them as they individually prayed the Rosary. Father Uzabakiriho said he felt peace in that moment.

“There is no single day that can pass without praying the Rosary, or at least a couple of Hail Marys,” he said.

Before coming to the United States, Father Uzabakiriho first entered the Vincentians in Colombia where he learned to speak Spanish. There he quickly learned that life as a member of a religious congregation was not for him. “I felt I could serve better as a diocesan priest,” he said.

Like anyone would do, he spoke of how he was doing and what he was thinking with family and friends. Father Uzabakiriho is one of five boys born to Felicien Bukiranye, now deceased, and Pascasie Nyirashereza and has remained close with family and friends. One family friend from Rwanda who moved and lived in Ohio told him about the beauty of the United States. She also told him of the shortage of priests in many dioceses.

He held onto that thought and in 2010 entered the Neumann Seminary and College for pre-theology at Dunwoodie. A year later, he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary.

He chose New York, he said, because of the variety of cultures here.

“I always trust in Divine Providence,” he said, adding that he knows he is where he is meant to be because, “I have no doubt that someone was governing where I was going.”

As a priest, he said, “I can’t wait to say Mass. That’s my biggest desire. That’s what drew me to all of this—how the priest from Belgium was sanctifying us by the Eucharist and how I was near him as an altar boy.”

Father Jean-Marie Vianney Uzabakiriho will celebrate his first Mass at Holy Cross Church in the Bronx on Sunday, May 24 at 12:30 p.m. Father Robert Ginel will be the homilist. Father Ginel was a parochial vicar at the parish during Father Uzabakiriho’s first summer assignment as a seminarian.