Amarillo—Deacon Roy Kafula, a seminarian for the Diocese of Amarillo, will be ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Patrick J. Zurek during a Saturday, May 23 Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1200 South Washington.
The 10:30am Mass is open to the public. St. Valentine Catholic Radio, 1360AM, KDJW, (online @www.kdjw.org) will broadcast the Mass, beginning at 10:25am.
The newly-ordained Father Kafula will celebrate his First Mass, a Mass of Thanksgiving, on Sunday, May 24 at noon at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Deacon Kafula, 38, is a native of Lusaka, Zambia. He recently graduated from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology at St. Meinrad, Indiana.
Born Chilombe Kafula on Sept. 1, 1976, he is the fourth of eight children born to Ng’oma Kafula and Chilufya Bowa.
“My father graduated from university as an engineer in construction and my mother is a college graduate,” he said. “After high school, I entered university and trained to become an accountant and began working in that field.
“I discerned a call to the priesthood with a religious community, and after 14 years, that call discerned into diocesan priesthood, and earlier last year, I left religious life. I am so grateful to God that through those turns, I continued saying ‘yes’ to that call.”
Deacon Kafula was asked what goals he had after his ordination to the priesthood.
“My goal is to be a servant leader, one who is fulfilled and be able to share my happiness with the people,” he said. “To bring that hope—the Good News of the Gospel to the people I will be entrusted to serve.
“People are always wanting a reason to be hopeful—and that hope, is the Good News! The call to priesthood is an invitation to enter more fully into the life of God. Every call to the priesthood is unique and as distinctive and singular as the people who hear it."
The ordination of Deacon Kafula to the priesthood is the first ordination in the Diocese of Amarillo in nearly two years. Father Christopher Schwind was ordained by Bishop Zurek, also at St. Mary’s Cathedral, on May 24, 2013.
The ordination will be the sixth in the Diocese of Amarillo for Bishop Zurek, who is now in his eighth year as the eighth Bishop of Amarillo. In addition to Father Schwind, Bishop Zurek ordained Fathers Daniel Dreher and Nick Gerber on June 7, 2008 at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Amarillo; Father Barnabas Radke on Feb. 21, 2009 at St. Laurence Cathedral (now St. Laurence Church), Amarillo; and, Father Haider Quintero on May 13, 2011, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.