Diocese of Salt Lake City welcomes new priest

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Father Franklin Minzaki

SALT LAKE CITY — Father Franklin Minzaki, who is from Danbankunu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, began serving in the Diocese of Salt Lake City the first week of June. Currently he is assigned to Saint James the Greater Parish in Vernal to fill the opening left by Father Edward Leondhas, who had to return to India due to visa issues. 

Fr. Minzaki first discerned his calling to the priesthood at the age of 8, he said.

“Every day, when we’d go to the morning Mass, Mom would take us, and then the priest would say the Mass. And then I said, ‘Mom, when I grow up, I will become like this priest. I will become a priest like him, OK?’’” Fr. Minzaki said.

His mother would reply “OK,” and that she would pray for him as he grew, he said.

Fr. Minzaki, a cradle Catholic and the seventh child in a family of eight children, attended Catholic schools in the Congo. His family was very active in the faith; his mother Manda was a leader in the Legion of Mary in the Congo.

After high school, he taught in his alma mater for two years before attending college, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and African culture. Following college, he taught for a year before entering Central Eastern Seminary, where he earned his Master of Divinity. He served in various roles, including teaching and chaplaincy, and was ordained for the Congregation of the Josephite Fathers on June 6, 2010, by Bishop John Curry at Saint Louis de Montfort Parish in Santa Maria, Calif.  

In his years with the Josephite Fathers, Fr. Minzaki served as a chaplain at Montfort Elementary School and as a parochial vicar in the Diocese of Saint George’s in Grenada and in the Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica, where he was in charge of two Church communities, Saint Francis Xavier and Atonement.     

After several years as a Josephite Father, he determined that his calling was to diocesan pastoral work and asked for permission to leave the religious order, which was granted by his superior general. Fr. Minzaki came to Utah from Texas in 2013; the state was recommended to him as a beautiful place to serve by some friends, he said.

He served temporarily at the Cathedral of the Madeleine for two months before applying in 2020 to be incardinated into the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Since then he has been waiting; it has been a lengthy process to separate from the Josephites and for his application to be approved. 

During that time the late Monsignor Michael Winterer was his spiritual director; and Father Kenneth Vialpando, now vicar for clergy, kept in close touch with him. 

While he waited, Fr. Minzaki supported himself by working at the University of Utah, and has borne the wait patiently, Fr. Vialpando said.

“His dismissal from the religious order and his acceptance into the Diocese of Salt Lake City took a few years, but during that time Fr. Minzaki waited patiently throughout the whole process by staying connected to the Church and by remaining faithful to his vows,” Fr. Vialpando said.  “As one of his spiritual directors, I often heard him say, ‘I left the religious order, but I never left the Catholic Church or abandoned my faith.’”  

For his part, Fr. Minzaki said, “Waiting is hard, I can [still] feel the pain, but I’m so happy to have [had] Msgr. Winterer and Fr. Ken. They are really my angels, both of them, Fr. Ken and Msgr. Winterer. Now this was not easy for to wait for five years, I’m telling you, especially through the pandemic.”

In May Bishop Oscar A. Solis gave his approval for Fr. Minzaki to be incardinated into the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Beginning Aug. 1, which is when this year’s official priest assignments take effect, he will be the parochial vicar of St. George Parish in St. George.

“I feel happy; wherever they send me, I will go,” Fr. Minzaki said of his new assignment. 

A citizen of the United States since 2018, Fr. Minzaki now considers Utah his home and looks forward to a long life of service in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, he said.

He has continued his studies by completing Clinical Pastoral Education training online.

“I said, ‘Let me take that class to take care of people,’” he said. “The priest is a priest of everybody, all the denominations, the people of God. Jesus didn’t die for a specific denomination; he died for all of us sinners. I’m there for everybody.”

Fr. Minzaki is proficient in English and French, and speaks eight African dialects. Although he can celebrate the Mass in Spanish, he is studying to be more proficient in the language to be able to further help his parishioners, he said.

“In St. George, the Hispanic community is big; that’s why I have to speed up to speak Spanish,” he said.

Fr. Minzaki has a particular devotion to healing Masses, after his mother told him as a youth that she felt he had the gift of healing, he said. He also finds joy in fasting, one of the Church’s penitential practices. An outgoing individual, Fr. Minzaki loves jokes and interacting with his parishioners, he said. 

“Because of Fr. Minzaki’s connection to the Vine, to the Church, and to the people of God during that waiting period, I believe that Fr. Franklin, who has been accepted into the Diocese of Salt Lake City, is going to serve the people well,” Fr. Vialpando said.