The tranquillity of regional Victoria is sonorously appreciated by a man who has lived all his years in societies working through the aftermath of violence and conflict, yet whose main desire is to serve where he is needed most.

After three months as Priest in Residence at Rutherglen and Chiltern, Fr Boniface Kamulegeya has returned to Rwanda. He says he is enriched by his experience and takes home many lessons learned. Fr Boniface will be missed by people in his Sandhurst parishes, who no doubt, are reflecting on the lessons and blessings this dynamic priest brought and left with them.

Fr Boniface Kamulegeya was born in Uganda in 1982, three years after the ousting of dictator, Idi Amin in 1979. He moved to Rwanda as a seminarian in 2010, six years after the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Butare, Rwanda in 2015.

Fr Boniface had a peaceful and happy childhood in Uganda where he and his six siblings were raised in parish life. “I’m from a staunch Catholic family. I don’t know anybody in my family who is not a Catholic,” said Fr Boniface. “My great-great-grandparents were Catholics; they lived at a time when missionaries had a lot of influence in their lives.”

As a child Fr Boniface attended Mass with his family and became an altar server, but never considered the priesthood until his Bishop made a direct suggestion to him. “Our Bishop would say Mass at my parish every Tuesday at 5.00 p.m. I remember the moment he asked if I’d ever thought of becoming a priest. That sowed a seed, and eventually I joined the seminary. Even though my Bishop suggested it to me, I believe it was the Holy Spirit working through him,” said Fr Boniface.

“This Bishop passed away in 2020 due to COVID-19, he accompanied me through much of my priesthood and I will remember him as the person who allowed me to see myself as someone who could possibly become a priest,” said Fr Boniface.

Fr Boniface is incardinated to the Diocese of Butare in Rwanda. He explained how this came about:

“After the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, so many Rwandan priests had died. Their Bishop started looking to other countries for priests. So, I went to Rwanda as a seminarian and became a priest there because I felt my services were more needed there. I don’t regret the decision; it has been amazing!”

“The majority of people in Rwanda are Christian or Catholic, so for priests there is a lot of work to do,” says Fr Boniface.

“Rwanda, its developing,” explains Fr Boniface. “So many things were destroyed during the genocide. The new regime is doing everything possible to take back students to the schools; they have free education almost up to university level; they are trying to fight poverty; what little resources they have they manage very well for the development of the country.”

“The best thing the new regime did was fight corruption. In Africa, Rwanda is among the countries that is fighting corruption,” says Fr Boniface.

Fr Boniface says that Rwanda now feels more like home than Uganda. “I have been in Rwanda for thirteen years, and while in Australia, I missed Rwanda more than Uganda mainly because of the parishioners and my brother priests,” he says.

Rwanda is one of the few African nations which has only one official national language, which is the mother tongue of almost every Rwandan. “When I first moved to Rwanda, I had to learn Kinyarwanda, but this was easy compared to priests in Uganda who have to learn different languages for different parishes,” says Fr Boniface.

Uganda, unlike Rwanda, is a multilingual country with over 56 languages which fall into four main families. English and Swahili are the official languages, but Fr Boniface’s mother tongue Luganda is the most spoken language in country. Fr Boniface himself speaks eight local languages as well as English and Kinyarwanda.

Reflecting on colonialism and its impact on Africa, Fr Boniface is surprisingly positive. “There are negative elements – we know this. So many resources were taken – and there was the slave trade,” he says. “There are also many positive things about colonialism, and we focus more on the positives than negatives. Christianity was brought to us by colonials and schools and hospitals were built by colonial leaders. I think now we are at peace.”

When asked what people in his parish of Kansi can learn from people in Rutherglen and Chiltern, Fr Boniface suggests, it’s supporting the Church. “In Australia people support their Church, they don’t come asking for something. The parishioners in Australia support their parish,” says Fr Boniface.

When asked what lessons we can learn from the Parish of Kansi and people in Rwanda, Fr Bonfiace elaborates:

“The people in Kansi are very active in Church activities, in big numbers. There’s a sense of solidarity, if something happens to a Catholic in Kansi, they take it as if it has happened to all of them. So that solidarity, that is the major difference, the coming together. If someone misses Mass, they look for them, are they ok? They have to look for him.”

During his time at Rutherglen Fr Boniface says he had to get used to the different way people interact. “As a priest in Rwanda there are Christians around me all the time. In Rutherglen they are there, but not all the time. In Rwanda people don’t make an appointment, they just turn up. There is always a crowd to pray the rosary with, someone spontaneously asking for a blessing … In Africa, a priest is there for the people; if you don’t see the people around you, your priesthood lacks something. Without people in your life, priesthood doesn’t make sense.”

Fr Boniface says he is very grateful to the people of Rutherglen and Chiltern for their hospitality. “I was so well received there. People would call for an appointment, respect my time; things were orderly. I’m going to miss that! I’m also grateful to my fellow priests in Sandhurst”.

For Fr Boniface, who has also worked as a supply priest in the United Kingdom on two separate occasions, working in different cultures enriches his priesthood:

“Wherever I go, I learn new things, and I am enriched. That’s the beauty of the Catholic Church. As a priest, we can go anywhere, and we work and do what Jesus Christ sent us to do – go and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I think that’s when, as a priest, you feel that you have given service. I’m happy to celebrate Mass for the Christians in Rutherglen and Chiltern. I think when my time will be ending, I will boast about it, ‘Lord, at least I did what I could, I preached in Uganda, I preached in Rwanda’. I think that gives you joy as a priest, to know that you are doing God’s work everywhere. That’s what I love most.

For me personally, I don’t think I work for the Church in Rwanda, or Uganda; this Church belongs to Christ. If I’m given a chance, I’m happy to do God’s work to help the people in coming back to the Church and God’s work is everywhere.

I want one day to be like St Paul in his second letter to Timothy [4:6-8]. The guy was proud, he said, ‘I did what I could’. I want to say, ‘I fought the good fight.’ Of course, I’m still fighting. The Church did so many things for me, and this is the time I’m now doing things for the Church.”

 

NOTES:

Fr Boniface is incardinated to the Diocese of Butare, Rwanda, in 2015, where he has been a parish priest since 2016. Since his ordination, he has completed a postgraduate diploma in Human Resource Management and commenced an online course in parish administration through Villanova University (USA). He has also undertaken two periods as a supply priest in Southwark, London.

Prior to serving as Priest in Residence at Rutherglen and Chiltern, Fr Boniface is stayed at St Kilian’s Presbytery and completed a program of welcome and induction. He also attended this year’s clergy celebrations for the ordination Jubilees in Wangaratta, and joined Sandhurst priests at the Priest’s Inservice.

   Fr Boniface in his Parish of Kansi in the Diocese of Butare, Rwanda.