Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
I express my heartfelt gratitude for my ordination to deaf Priestly ministry and entrusting me with the deaf Catholic community. My ordination is a landmark event highlighting the increasing inclusion of deaf individuals within the Catholic Church emphasizing Sign Language to communicate sacraments and faith to deaf Catholics, as well as schools and outreach programs ministry specifically for changing the lives of deaf children and impoverished girls in the Republic of the Congo.
“Leviticus 19:14 prohibits cursing the deaf and placing an obstacle before the blind.”
My vocation and mission as a priest are to provide all the Sacraments in the Sign Language to all deaf Catholics and support God’s call to them to the religious life. In Congo, the deaf Children are often isolated, even hidden, by their families, because they are considered worthless human beings amidst the extreme poverty. The unique needs of deaf communities are best met by deaf priests communicating directly by sign Language without the need for an interpreter creating a special bond between a deaf priest and a deaf Catholic community.
At St. Agnes Deaf School in Uvira Diocese, we have 300 Deaf and Dumb Students and we expect the number to rise up by 2026.We are beginning a Rainy Season here in DRC Congo and tirelessly doing our Parish School farming projects, spending 4 hours of the day in the Parish Gardens and poultry projects for self-sustaninency. At the beginning of last year, we were hampered to write to you about our complexities brought about by the water Shortage in the Deaf and Dumb School and we sought for financial assistance to enable us collect rain water from the Roof Gutters of our school Buildings to benefit the Deaf School Parish Projects but we never gotten a response from your Office, nevertheless our hopes are in the risen Lord and we continue ministering to the deaf and Dumb community with love and affection.
