Sulpicians: Emmaus Spiritual Centre, Zambia

Emmaus Spiritual Centre, Zambia

Fr. Victor Mwanamwambwa

Fr. Victor Mwanamwambwa, is a priest of the Diocese of Mongu, Zambia. He was ordained on June 25, 2005, and accepted as a Sulpician Candidate on March 20, 2009.

A native of Zambia, Fr. Mwanamwambwa has worked for the Diocese of Mongu in various capacitates including: Vocation Director, Rector of the Minor Seminary, and Chaplain at a College of Education. He also served as secretary to the priests' council and chairperson for the association of the local diocesan clergy.

Fr. Mwanamwambwa has an obvious interest in formation and is familiar with the ministry of the Society in Zambia. As a young seminarian at Emmaus Spirituality Center, he was inspired by the zeal and commitment of the Zambian Sulpicians. He earned his B.D. at St. Dominic Major Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. His areas of specialization are philosophy and theology.

Among his hobbies, Fr. Mwanamwambwa numbers playing volleyball, badminton and basketball, as well as reading novels. His interests also include meeting new friends, learning about other people's cultures.

Fr. Mwanamwambwa brings to the Society a rich background of diocesan ministry, vocation discernment and formation experience. He eagerly began his first Sulpician assignment at the Emmaus Spirituality Centre in Lusaka.

One lapse of a bishop's memory changed his life
Fr. Ed Frazer, a former Sulpician Provincial and current spiritual director and advisor at Theological College, remembers being attracted to Africa long before he went to the seminary and was ordained in 1961. But he began his life in the priesthood in his diocese in Montana, far from the heat and challenges of Africa.

"My bishop was planning to send me to a Benedictine seminary," he recalls, "but he forgot to reserve my place, so I ended up with the Sulpicians, which has made all the difference. One lapse of the bishop's memory changed my life."

Fr. Frazer believes the 10 years he spent teaching and serving as a spiritual advisor at two of the three seminaries in Zambia changed his view of the world. "Zambia is one of the poorest countries in Africa and there are so many people dying of AIDS, leaving grandparents to raise many, many grandchildren," he explains. "I came away from my experience much more aware of poverty and our need to help those in its grasp. Now I am an active member of the social justice committee at Theological College." He also points to other changes in his day-to-day life. "I'm less materialistic then I was. I can't bring myself to waste money on a new car. That money can be put to better use helping people in need."

Helping men to become much-needed diocesan priests
Back in the mid 1980s, Fr. Frazer was asked to go on an exploratory trip to Africa to find out how the Sulpicians could support the African bishops. After visiting the three seminaries in Zambia and talking with the faculty there, he returned to the U.S. and recommended that the Sulpicians go to Zambia. "Working in the seminary in Zambia was a good way for us to start, not just filling a gap, but working toward the long term goal of welcoming Zambian priests into the Sulpicians so they can lead their own seminaries."

"In Zambia, they can't ordain priests fast enough to replace the missionaries who had served as parish priests and in many other capacities. They are a dying breed," he continues. One of Fr. Frazer's former students at Emmaus Spiritual Center posed the challenge succinctly: "There won't be good diocesan priests in Zambia until we have good diocesan priests on the seminary faculty." That transformation has begun.