Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Dear Venerable Benefactors and Benefactresses,
My full name is Father Raphael Okitafumba Lokola. I am a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Tshumbe, which is located in the central part of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. My diocese is a very poor rural diocese. Its annual budget remains in deficit. Still, it managed to find sponsors who helped me get higher education in the USA. Thus, in October 2018, I returned to my diocese with a few masters of art and a Ph.D. degree. I am now a full-time professor at our local seminary called Saint John Paul II Seminary.
In addition to this academic ministry, my diocese asked me, through the seminary’s authority, to take care of the spiritual needs of the people of the villages around the seminary. I am thus the chaplain of this faith community made up of a few villages. I celebrate the sacraments for this community, especially the Sunday Eucharist and Penance services during Advent and Lent. Moreover, I celebrate mass in their homes on Monday afternoon. I also visit the sick and I receive people for pastoral counseling after mass on Sunday. In addition, every Friday of Lent, I lead the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) on the streets of these villages. We also do the procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The youth and young adults have their procession on the solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. It is their feast day. For these Catholics, this way of praying in public is their way of witnessing to their Catholic faith solemnly and publicly. The rationale behind this approach is the fact that our area is invaded by multiple awakening (evangelical and Pentecostal) sects. My faith community is not afraid of bearing witness to its Catholic faith.
As a proverb of my culture says, “the fisherman is motivated to fish when fish jump around.” I am really humbled and encouraged by the faith of this community. However, I face a great challenge that really frustrates this noble ministry that I am joyfully doing. This challenge is the absence of a chapel where I can celebrate the Holy Eucharist, have the Eucharist Adoration and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and many other devotions with my faith community.
Since my arrival from the USA at the end of October 2018, I celebrate mass for this community in the open, outdoor. The most challenging experience that I have during such celebrations is the issue of rain and wind. Here, we don’t have weather forecast. As a result, rain surprises us even while we are celebrating the Holy Eucharist. This issue sometimes makes me insecure and restless when I see dark clouds during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. With a torrential rain, anything can be wet in a matter of a few minutes. You can reckon the intensity of my insecurity and restlessness if you consider the fact that the rainy season is longer (nine months) than the dry season (three months) here.
To overcome this challenge, I managed, with the contributions of the members of this faith community, to buy a piece of land where we can build the chapel. The remaining challenge is the funds for the construction of the chapel. I pray God to give us generous benefactors and benefactresses for this noble project. Actually, this chapel will be built at a strategic crossroads. My people and I want our Catholic chapel to be the majestic landmark of the village. Its Patron Saint will be Saint John Paul the Great.
As I mentioned above, my diocese is very poor, so I cannot expect any financial help from it for this project. Likewise, apart from giving me the chance to be the chaplain of this community, my seminary cannot assist me financially for the construction of the chapel because it is facing itself serious financial challenges. Its annual budget is about $75,000. In the past, the Vatican used to cover this whole budget. Now, it supports the seminary with a budget less than $25,000. This sad situation frustrates the formation of seminarians. The decision to cope with this challenge has involved sharing the cost of the seminarians’ formation by the diocese, the seminary faculty, and the families of seminarians. Unfortunately, their efforts do not cover all the costs of the formation. For example, my diocese’s annual budget is always showing a deficit. Likewise, faculty members make the sacrifice of teaching full-time without any salary and health insurance. I joined this great team of professors since October 2018; and, like them, I do not earn any income despite a few university degrees that I got in the US. Lastly, because almost all of the seminarians come from extremely poor families, they cannot afford their formation. Under these circumstances, I can only rely on donors from overseas, namely the USA.
In fact, despite its goodwill, my community cannot afford the cost of the chapel’s construction. It is unrealistic to ask people who live with less than one US dollar a day to fund a chapel that will cost at least $45,000 or $50.000. It would take them more time than the Israelites who built their Temple over forty-six years (John 2:19). However, notwithstanding their financial poverty, I see a bright future in their spiritual life. Their faith is growing slowly but surely. I am expecting more than fifty baptisms in Easter. In addition, this community has already one son who is in major seminary and two sons in college seminary. It has a daughter who is at the Diocesan Franciscan nuns’ novitiate. Many boys and girls in this community are discerning vocations to the priesthood or religious life. From this perspective, a good and nice chapel with the capacity of 300 people can be an appropriate place where these boys and girls can encounter Jesus and deepen their friendship with Him. The chapel remains the place that can mature their desire to embrace priesthood or religious life. As for the other members of the community, their encounter with Jesus in His Word and sacraments in the prospective chapel will transform and shape their lives.
From my perspective, taking at face value my double ministry, that is, at the seminary and in the village can be overwhelming. However, I have found it very rewarding in many ways. On the one hand, as I spiritually journey with the believers, I learn their struggles which I share with the seminarians when I teach them. On the other hand, I often have a few seminarians who do their apostolate (internship or field education) in this community during the academic year. This exchange thus benefits both groups. By working with the local community, the seminarians learn how to become good shepherds like their Master Jesus Christ (John 10: 1-18). Likewise, their presence with their white cassocks in the community promotes prayer life and vocations to the priesthood. Indeed, it is a great blessing that we have many vocations here. For example, my diocese had the ordination of seven priests last October 30. After their ordination at the Cathedral parish, the newly ordained priests came to celebrate their first mass at our seminary chapel. They came to bless us. During mass, they prayed for our seminary’s benefactors and benefactresses. For me, it was a very fulfilling experience to see my students become my brother priests. I thus hope that many boys from my community will choose this path of becoming priests.
In a nutshell, I am consumed by the zeal for God’s house (Psalm 69, 10; John 2:17). Accordingly, I believe that the sole purpose for which the chapel is intended consists in becoming the house of prayer. I draw this conviction from the account of all the four evangelists (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46; John 2:16). It is in this house of prayer that the Holy Eucharist, the highest prayer in the Church or “the source and summit of the Christian life”, is to be celebrated in a devout and reverent atmosphere. The chapel is meant to be a place of prayer free from disturbance. My community and I want to have a place where people come together in the house of God to celebrate the mystery of salvation. We need to have a decent space for worship devoid of any hindrances such as bad weather. This place will become a space where the spiritually blind and lame will be healed by Jesus’ mercy (Matthew 21, 14).
For this reason, I eagerly ask you to prayerfully consider how you can financially support this project for the construction of a chapel in my community. Thank you for your prayers! Thank you for your generosity and your willingness to make a difference in an issue that frustrates my priestly ministry! May God always bless you and your families +
Fraternally in Christ,
Fr. Raphael Okitafumba
Saint John Paul II Seminary
Diocese of Tshumbe
Democratic Republic of Congo