After residing in the Diocese of Madison for well more than a decade, Fr. Tafadzwa Kushamba said, “I can call Madison my home now.”
Late last year, Father Kushamba became a U.S. citizen.
“It’s exciting, but also [now] I work with people that I can call not just my fellow parishioners or Catholic members but also fellow citizens,” he continued.
Journey to Madison
Father Kushamba is originally from Zimbabwe, but it was in 2005 at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, where he met Msgr. James Bartylla, then Vocations Director of the Diocese of Madison.
Monsignor Bartylla, now the Vicar General, remembers the event vividly.
After arriving late for World Youth Day, he recalled traveling back to his hotel the first night and thought, “I’ll take a ‘left’ and go see the Cologne Cathedral.”
After exiting the train station, Monsignor Bartylla “saw a couple of people who looked like Americans. I stopped and chatted with them. There was somebody with them — it was Tafadzwa. I introduced myself as a vocations director and asked, ‘What’s your story? Why are you here?”
At the time, Father Kushamba was considering the priesthood but wasn’t connected to a diocese, seminary, or congregation.
Monsignor Bartylla said, “Before he could get the word ‘seminary’ out, I pulled out my business card and said, ‘You should think about the Diocese of Madison.’”
“I’m glad I walked that direction that day [in Cologne]. I’m glad I took the ‘left’,” Monsignor Bartylla added.
That unlikely meeting — the Cologne World Youth Day was attended by around 400,000 pilgrims during the week, and more than one million people journeyed to the city for Sunday Mass with Pope Benedict XVI — served as a way to connect Father Kushamba with a diocese and start his seminary formation.
After returning home from the end of World Youth Day and praying a family Novena to the Sacred Heart, the Kushamba family rejoiced, learning that the Diocese of Madison would accept Tafadzwa as a seminarian.
In 2007, Father Kushamba started his education at St. Joseph’s Theological Institute in South Africa for college seminary.
“Then, in 2010 I moved to Detroit for one year of college and four years of graduate school,” Father Kushamba continued.
Before ordination but after arriving in the diocese, Father Kushamba was assigned to different parishes.
He felt strongly that “St. John the Baptist [Parish] in Waunakee was my home away from home [where] I spent a couple of summers. Then, as a deacon, I was assigned to St. Joseph [Parish] in Baraboo.”
In 2015, Father Kushamba was ordained a priest and has been assigned to various parishes in the diocese since then.
His first assignment after ordination was at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison, then he spent time at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Green Lake.
After Green Lake, he was assigned to Dodgeville and served at St. Joseph Parish, and then moved to St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Monroe and Brodhead.
Now, Father Kushamba is back in Dodgeville, serving as the parochial administrator of Pastorate 5 which includes the parishes of Dodgeville, Highland, Mineral Point, and Montfort.
Citizenship and the diocese
Father Kushamba called U.S. citizenship “a blessing,” especially because he’s “able to participate fully in the life of America.”
He added, “[I am now] one with the people that I work with, with the people that support me, and the people that support the mission of the Church.”
Father Kushamba reflected on being a part of the Diocese of Madison and what God had in store for him.
He said, “It has been a blessing to work for the Lord in this diocese. It’s a reminder that God is not limited by geographical boundaries, wherever he calls us to serve him.
“I never thought this would come my way in the sense that I grew up in Zimbabwe, and one day I’ll be a priest in America or a citizen of this country. Of course, the mysteries of life lead us to see God’s work in different ways, but ultimately, what God does for us is always good.
“The Catholic Church offers so many opportunities to connect with God and to connect with His people. Being in America, I see another beauty, [that] of the universal Church. My experiences growing up in Africa and working in America are helping me in my vocation as a priest. Of course, this journey wouldn’t have been possible without God’s help but also the goodness of our Diocese of Madison.
“For that, I’m grateful to all the faithful in our diocese who continue to pray for me and my brother priests and who also continue to support us in different ways, so as to be effective in the work that God has called us to.”