By Susan Gallagher

Father Joseph Nomhwange had not been in the United States before spending July and August in Montana, and Father Andrzej Grch’s U.S. experience five years ago was mostly in New Jersey.

This summer, the two priests in the Society of African Missions got a close-up look at life in a slice of Big Sky Country: Butte. Father Joseph, who is from Nigeria, and Father Andrzej, from Poland and known stateside as Father Andrew, were in Butte through Society of African Missions, or SMA, internships. Present in Africa for more than 150 years, SMA is a religious order of missionaries from around the world.

In Butte, Father Joseph assisted at St. John the Evangelist Parish and Father Andrew at Butte Catholic Community North. Their service gave parishioners the opportunity to learn about the two priests’ mission work in Africa, and about work undertaken there by others in SMA. They were among 15 SMA priests with U.S. internships, most in the Archdiocese of Boston. Fathers Joseph and Andrew were not the only members of their order in Butte. Father Frank Wright, for 14 years a missionary in the East Africa country of Kenya, arrived in 2008 “on loan” from SMA. He is the sacramental minister at St. John the Evangelist Parish and councillor for the SMA American Province, which is based in Tenafly, N.J.

Father Joseph is a Nigerian national who planned to resume his mission work in the West Africa country of Togo after leaving Butte. Father Andrew does SMA administrative and formation work in his home country of Poland and previously served in Kenya. For three years, he and Father Frank were at the same parish there.

The summer was a time of extreme contrast compared to life as the priests have known it.

In Togo, Father Joseph and another priest say Mass six times on Sundays— during the dry season. During the rainy season spanning six months or so there are locales they sometimes cannot reach as road conditions deteriorate and impede travel by motorcycle.

Father Joseph works in a rural area where there are many subsistence farmers, Catholic schools provide a level of education rare in the public schools and Mass throbs with music—heavy on the drums— and dancing. His Togo parish is divided into communities of 25-30 people to foster communication and strengthen parishioners’ sense of connection.

In Montana, Father Joseph celebrated Mass in Sheridan, Ennis and Deer Lodge, and spoke to a men’s prayer group in Deer Lodge. He also visited Dillon with Father Frank when he was there to say Mass in Spanish.

Father Andrew, whose work in Poland is near Warsaw, said he was “impressed by the way people live in Butte. There is a feeling of closeness here; people know each other. The bonds of the family are very important to people.”

On a return trip from Glacier National Park, where Father Andrew observed two bear cubs, he was at Legendary Lodge, the diocesan camp. There he heard confessions and met Bishop George Leo Thomas. Father Andrew’s background includes seminary studies in Kenya as well as missionary work there, and he said that eventually he wants to work in Africa again.

The visitors’ time in Butte spanned the city’s string of summer festivals. One of them, the An Ri Ra celebration of Irish culture, included distribution of SMA literature and sale of African craft items. Also during the summer, priests in the area were invited to a Nigerian meal, and a Polish meal was served to staff from Butte parishes.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 10, October 15, 2010.