Petro Antony Chacha is from Tanzania and is 37 years old. He is the first of eight siblings: two girls and six boys. He went to baptized and received the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on December 24, 1995 with twelve years, at a fairly advanced age, before his mother's baptism in 1993, his family was not Catholic. Five years after his baptism he received the sacrament of confirmation, but due to lack of records in his parish, he had to do it again in 2010.
After his primary education, he wanted to enter the minor seminary and continue his secondary education there. Since he had known the priests and catechists working in his parish, he had always been very interested in serving as an altar boy and in the consecrated life. However, after high school, when he was supposed to enter the major seminary, he experienced a strong vocational crisis. This marked the beginning of seven years of spiritual dryness. "It was the most difficult moment of my life because I could not make a firm decision about my path.The priesthood and marriage. So, I gave myself a break to meditate and discern the life God was calling me to."
He enrolled at the University of Dar Es Salaam, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Education with a major in Chemistry and Biology. A year later, he was hired by the government to teach at Bwiru Secondary School. "But the Lord had not forgotten me and caused a new bright light to be kindled.I felt a call to a stronger call to the priesthood, which began to shine again in my heart during Lent 2012. Being with a group from a small Christian community, we went to visit the Poor Clare Sisters in their convent. Drawn by their simplicity and devotion to the Lord, the call to give myself completely to God through the priesthood welled up again in my soul, opening like a flower in the springtime. I was so happy: God had not left my soul, he had only remained hidden, discreet, waiting for my time.."
In September 2014 he began studying philosophy at Jordan University College in Morogoro, Tanzania. Three years later he earned his bachelor's degree and began studying theology at St. Charles Lwanga's Segerea Seminary in Dar es Salaam. While there, his bishop informed him that he wanted him to go to Rome to study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
