“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me to preach the Good News to the Poor”

Our Patron

St. Vincent De Paul, born at Pouy in southern France in 1581, succeeded in giving concrete expression to the merciful love of the Lord.  “faith without deeds is useless” (Jas 2/20).  The vision he offers his followers is the vision of Christ not as a teacher, nor as a healer but as the evangelizer of the poor by proclaiming liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, release to the prisoners, and to announce a year of favour from the Lord – to work for the integral development of the human being.  That is why he became an inspiring presence of his time that awakened the conscience of humanity.  St. Vincent De Paul left indelible marks of Christian values in the history of 17^th century France.  He could command respect from even those who rose up in revolution against the Church and the state alike.

St. Vincent De Paul was declared the patron saint of charitable works in the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1833.  Pope John Paul II described him “a man of action and prayer; a man of administration and imagination; a man of leadership and humility; a man of yesterday and today.”

He inspired many generations to be effective witnesses to the merciful love of the Lord and continues to be so.  It was under the influence of this great saint that the Vincentian Congregation was started in Kerala, India in 1904, by Very Rev Fr. Varkey Kattarath of venerable memory.  The Congregation has more than 550 members in three different provinces.  The members focus their energy mainly in preaching the good news to the poor in the mission fields of India and East Africa. 

Five seminarians are doing their theology programs at Tangaza College, Karen, Nairobi, Kenya.  Local training will definitely stand them in good stead once they are in the field.  Four years of their stay here in East Africa along with other local students will help them pick up the local language and culture. All of them have already become quite proficient in handling the local language.  During long holidays, they conduct retreat programs for students in boarding schools.  Such renewal programs organized by our seminarians for youth and children are called “Jesus Mission”.  The late Father Bill was a great inspiration for them in this regard. Before, they begin their theology program, they have one year of a pastoral course which they do in one of our mission centers in East Africa. All our seminarians are from Kerala, South India.  They come here after seven years of formation that consists of three years of an orientation course, one year of the novitiate and a three-year degree course in philosophy.

There are three masses on Sundays and the church is packed to the maximum for each service.  The main cause of this spiritual renewal was the popular mission retreats started by Fr. Bill when he came to East Africa in the year 1992. Besides the main church, there are three outstations, each having about 200 to 300  Catholic families.  It is quite gratifying to note that about 15000 Catholics benefit from the service of  our missionaries at Katubuka, Kigoma, Tanzania.

The seed of the Popular Mission Retreat planted by Fr. Bill at Katubuka, Kigoma in East Africa in the year 1992 grew rapidly spreading its strong roots to every nook and corner of the world. After a long break of 26 years, he came to Kigoma in the first week of March, 2008 to rekindle in the hearts of the faithful the love for Jesus, perhaps not knowing that it was his last visit.

Jesus Town, Vikindu is the spiritual fruit of Fr. Bill's preaching ministry.  Vikindu is an underdeveloped village in Mukranga distrist on Kilwa Rd in the cost region of Tanzania. It is about 35 kms from the capital city Dar Es Salaam. Mr. Joseph Mtahangarwa, a retired captain, donated 8 acres of land at Vikindu to develop a retreat centre.  The name Jesus Town was chosen as Pope John Paul 11 proclaimed the year 1977 as Jesus Year in preparation for the great Jubilee year 2000.   The Vincentian House was canonically established in May 1998 and was formally blessed  on March 18, 1999 by His Eminence, Palycarp Cardinal Pengo, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dar Es Salaam.

The plan of starting a Renewal Centre for the spiritual upliftment of the people of Dar Es Salaam had been in his mind for a long time. The year 2008, being the sacerdotal golden jubilee of Fr. Bill, was proposed as the right year to fulfill his dream. After one week of a retreat for the priests and religious at Mbagala Spritual Centre, Dar Es Salaam, he came to Vikindu on 2^nd of March, 2008.  After the solemn mass in the parish church, he blessed the foundation stone for the proposed Renewal Centre at Vikindu in the presence of hundreds of well-wishers and friends.  He was quite verbose about the centre, giving full hope to the faithful that the centre will be ready by the end of the same year…But he left us, giving us the responsibility of fulfilling his dream.

This chapel can accommodate about 80 people.  The Blessed Sacrament is exposed for the public everyday from 7 am to 6pm.  People start coming for making adoration from as early as 6.30 am.  Afternoon service begins at 3 pm with Rosary.  One of the priests will give a talk on a relevant subject from 3.30 to 4.30 followed by confession.  The Holy Mass begins at 5.30.  Every day, about 250 to 300 people come for spiritual nourishment at this centre. Every Saturday, about 1500 people attend our one day prayer service.

This was the wish of the late Fr. Bill.

How it happened:

He was preaching a popular mission retreat at the Holy Rosary Parish in the Archdiocese of Gulu which is about 450 kms away from Entebbe.  He reached there by road along with Fr. Antony Vadakkemury as the flight to Gulu was cancelled on that day.  The retreat was supposed to be from 10 to 15, March 2008. Before going to Gulu, he was in Tanzania preaching two retreats, one at Mbagala Spiritual Centre and the other at Katubukka Parish.

103 kms away from the Kigoma Centre, Uvinza is situated in a salt mine industrial area. It was one of the outstations of Kasulu Parish and was declared a fully-fledged parish on Oct 22, 2004 and the centre with ten of its outstations was officially handed over to the Vincentians on the same day.  Most of the faithful of this parish are employed in the salt factories. But, work in the salt mine factory is seasonal.  Therefore, their income is seasonal too.   Present structures include a church hall and the rectory.  The rectory of the parish functions as the Vincentian House at Uvinza. 

Our Missionaries reached Uvinza in November 2004.  Being uneducated and unaware of modern developments, people here look to us for timely guidance for their daily problems at all levels. Their unfortunate inability to keep themselves abreast of modern developments keeps them emotionally and intellectually disadvantaged.

As a result of a feasibility study we made over these years, we came to understand that the pressing need of this area is a school (Primary English Medium) under the Catholic management. This has been the constant request from the people here. There is an insatiable thirst among the people for basic and quality education. Therefore, the idea of starting an English Medium School under our management emerged against the aforementioned background. Unfortunately, instruction in the English medium is not encouraged. At the same time, it has become the global language. Therefore, people in Tanzania are deprived of placements in foreign countries. Those who are well off, manage to send their children to prestigious institutions in neighboring countries. Others are left to their fate.

It was the wish of the late Fr. Bill that we have to work for the integral development of the human being as St. Vincent De Paul did during his time.  So the inspiration to start an English Medium school for the economically disadvantaged children came from him. Consequently, the foundation stone for the same was blessed by him on March 6, 2008 on a parcel of land given by the Tanzanian government to the Vincentian Congregation for the purpose mentioned above.

The archdiocese of Mbarara, was one of late Fr. Bill’s favourite places in Uganda. It was his wish and desire that Vincentian Missionaries would begin a retreat centre there. Though this plan did not work out while he was alive, the official invitation from His Grace, the Most Rev. Paul K Bakyenga, the Archbishop of Mabarara Diocese expressing his desire to have this shrine as a prayer centre with prolonged Eucharistic Adoration and instruction to deepen the faith of the people reached our provincial in September 2008. As the late Fr. Bill wished, this shrine will become the hub of our preaching ministry in the archdiocese of Mbarara.