Michael Kanwale Lusato is 30 years old and comes from Mwanza, an area near Lake Victoria in Tanzania. He is the fourth in a family of seven siblings: four boys and three girls, in which they all acquired responsibilities very early as they lost their mother when Michael was 9 years old.
Michael felt his call to the priesthood in high school and quickly decided to make God's will his own and follow his vocation, leaving his studies at that time to enter the seminary. A year later, he was studying at the Sedes Sapientiae Seminary in Rome.
He was ordained a deacon on May 24, 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, along with two other seminarians. Their families were unable to accompany them and only their seminary companions, who remained together for more than three months, attended the celebration.
His diocese, Bunda, was recently created in 2011. It is currently made up of 19 parishes with 37 priests in charge of evangelizing this rural area of the African country.
He is trained in Canon Law because "in our diocese we have few canonical priests and so the service needed by the faithful is not given in the right way and at the right time. Another reason is because in the main theological seminaries (in Tanzania) there are not enough canonists (professors) to teach this subject. That is why my bishop asked me to study for a degree in Canon Law.
I am happy to study this subject believing that it is God's will for service in His Church."
"Thank you very much for your help as I know that without you I would not be able to study theology and canon law here in Rome. What you do for me and for other seminarians, deacons and priests is very good in the eyes of God.
I need you so that God's will may be fulfilled in me. I assure you of my prayer and ask God to bless you and all that you do in your daily life and give you all that you need in your earthly life and ultimately in eternal life."
