Out of Africa

Yes. That's the map of Uganda.

Today, myself, my sister Meg, her two youngest children Maeve and Jack, and Fr. Michael Mukasa met for lunch at Burger King. Yep. Burger King. Not for the kids, but for Fr. Michael. He loves it.



Fr. Michael teaches theology at the seminary in Kampala, Uganda and "vacations" in Omaha (as odd as that might seem). He's been coming to Nebraska for years now and earned his doctorate here in town. He's the favorite visiting priest at both St. Margaret Mary's Parish (Meg's parish) and mine (St. Wenceslaus). He is simply adored.



And, he loves Burger King. I was happy to get him a chicken sandwich, thinking of all the times and all the clergy I've entertained over the years. This was a far cry from the regular "wine and dine." I was respectful of his simple tastes.


The most interesting part of this "lunch and learn" was listening to his stories of Africa. We discussed the "vocations crisis" here in the United States and listened to him tell of the 150 seminarians at the bulging archdiocesan seminary in Kampala. I bought up the familiar issue of the search for stability as the reason for the surge in vocations. He believes that young men are not seeking stability (the old "three hots and a cot" draw) but are truly prompted by the Holy Spirit.

We cannot dismiss the vocations boom in Africa as being shallow. Would we ever have said that the full seminaries of the 1940's and 1950's in this country were crowded simply because young people were seeking a stable life and the call was not really genuine? Did God not call them too, when life was harder, families were poorer and opportunites fewer? Of course He did! Seemingly, our noisy modern culture makes the call harder to hear. It was noisy in Burger King, but I heard Fr. Michael's admonition loud and clear.

Here's his website: http://www.frmichaelschildren.com/