New priest in diocese is a missionary who hails from the Congo

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Fr. Sébastien Sasa Nganomo Babisayone

OGDEN — Fr. Sébastien Sasa Nganomo Babisayone arrived in Utah last month and is serving at Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden as a parochial vicar.

He was ordained a priest on Nov. 30, 1997 in the Diocese of Mbujimayi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Bishop Tharcisse Tshibangu Tshishiku, and belongs to the Secular Institute of St. Jean-Baptist.

Fr. Sasa heard a call to the priesthood when he was 9 years old, he said.

“I said to my mom, ‘I will become priest,’ and my mom said, ‘OK, but you have to study a lot; you have to pray, too.’ … So I began to serve at Mass,” Fr. Sasa said.

After finishing elementary school, he was given permission to enter the seminary. However, after finishing his high school-level education there, he faced a dilemma.

“In my thoughts I thought how much I loved philosophy and how much I wanted to be in the seminary, but in the Congo if you take a degree in the seminary you cannot teach in the schools,” said Fr. Sasa, who also was very passionate about being able to teach.

Rather than continuing at the seminary, he decided to enroll at the university, even though his bishop told him that he might lose his priesthood vocation by doing so. However, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the university, he returned to the seminary to begin theology studies. He was granted a scholarship to study in Canada, but then war erupted in the Congo and the embassy in Canada closed its doors. Instead, Fr. Sasa was sent to the DRC’s capital city of Kinshasa, and in 1999 he went to Rome to study.  

“I did my PhD in missiology in the Pontifical Universitá Urbaniana,” said Fr. Sasa.

As he was wrapping up his studies, Bishop Tshibangu Tshishiku told him that as a priest he needed experience and knowledge in administration, so Fr. Sasa obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the Guglielmo Marconi University in Rome.

His dream of teaching became a reality when he became an elementary religion professor while serving as a missionary priest in the Diocese of Naples, Italy.

In 2013 Fr. Sasa came to Utah for the first time to visit his brother, Richard, who was studying at Snow College. During that visit, Fr. Rafael Murillo invited him to celebrate Mass in Ephraim. He also was invited to a dinner organized by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, then Bishop of Salt Lake City, now Archbishop of Santa Fe.

“There Bishop John told me, ‘You know, Fr. Sebastian, our diocese is a mission diocese, and as a missionary you’ll fit right in,’” Fr. Sasa said, narrating how Fr. Oscar Picos, pastor of St. George Parish, heard the conversation and immediately told the bishop he could take Fr. Sebastian to Saint George, but Bishop Wester said that first they should ask permission from Fr. Sasa’s bishop.

In 2016 Fr. Sasa returned to Utah for his brother’s graduation, and shortly thereafter the invitation to join the Diocese of Salt Lake City became a reality.

In Utah, Fr. Sasa is offering as a missionary his experience in Africa and in Europe, he said. “I want to work side by side with all my brothers and sisters in Christ.”

The hundreds of people at the first Mass he concelebrated at Saint Joseph Parish impressed him.

“I was shocked and thinking, ‘What a beautiful community!’ I am really happy to be here and to have the opportunity to live this experience,” he said.

Fr. Sasa is a very well-educated priest, said Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, the diocese’s vicar general and vicar for clergy.

“He has worked in pastoral ministry in parishes in Italy, most recently in Naples, so has demonstrated an ability to adapt to other cultures. He is well educated, with advanced degrees, especially in missiology – so he is familiar with the needs of missionary dioceses,” said Monsignor Bircumshaw.

In August, Fr. Sasa will transfer from St. Joseph Parish to Saint Ambrose Parish in Salt Lake City, and will minister as hospital chaplain at the University of Utah Medical Center, Primary Children’s Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“He speaks several languages, including French, English, Spanish, Italian and his native African languages,” Msgr. Bircumshaw said. “This will be especially helpful as a chaplain to the hospitals in Salt Lake City. And he brings a very positive and friendly personality to his ministry.”

Fr. Sasa is looking forward to hospital ministry.

“To work in the world of the sick is very interesting because you have to grow spiritually in your heart. This is another opportunity to give my life for our friends, for our sisters and our brothers. Now I am here. God sent me here and I will give my life,” said Fr. Sasa, who despite all his joy has a pain in his heart.

“The situation of my country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, that for 21 years has been at war, is very sad and painful for me,” he said. “There have been thousands and thousands of deaths. Every day I pray for the situation in my country. It makes my heart hurt, and I hope people can join me with their prayers.”