Florida Catholic | Father Callist Nyambo is no longer alone

Father Callist Nyambo is no longer alone

The Tanzanian priest receives the USCCB’s Archbishop Silvano Tomasi Award for his work helping others feel at home in United States.

JANET SHELTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 08.15.08

Father Callist Nyambo stands at the altar as he receives applause from the congregation at All Saints Parish during his installation as pastor in 2003. Deacon Jack Lyons describes Father Nyambo as a humble man who doesn’t make a big fuss over his work, even when it garners national attention.

ED FOSTER JR. | FC FILE
Father Callist Nyambo stands at the altar as he receives applause from the congregation at All Saints Parish during his installation as pastor in 2003. Deacon Jack Lyons describes Father Nyambo as a humble man who doesn’t make a big fuss over his work, even when it garners national attention.

ST. PETERSBURG | Father Callist Nyambo is no stranger to being a stranger.

When he came to the St. Petersburg Diocese in the 1980s, he was its first African priest.

“I knew no one from Tanzania here,” said the pastor of All Saints Parish, Clearwater. “You miss home. You miss the company (of others from your culture).”

If he wanted to converse in his language, Father Nyambo had to make a long-distance call.

It was not an easy existence, but through his experiences the priest took on a personal mission in addition to his parish duties. That mission – helping African and Indian priests, and religious brothers and sisters assimilate to life in the United States – recently earned him a national honor from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity.

The Archbishop Silvano Tomasi Award was presented to Father Nyambo in Washington July 30, during the National Migration Conference. It was given in recognition of the priest’s “many years of dedicated service to migrants and people on the move.”

For more than two decades, Father Nyambo has invited and supported, through the building of community, numerous priests and religious brothers and sisters from Africa who are serving in the St. Petersburg Diocese. He has made certain they are not as alone and overwhelmed, as he was in those early days.

Sister Jane Therese Njoku, a sister of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, Nigeria, serves at Bishop Larkin Interparochial School. She said Father Nyambo was instrumental in bringing the sisters to the United States and keeping them here.

“It’s a different culture. You need people to help you out, help you settle down,” she said. “He was very helpful to our community.”

Father Nyambo said people from African cultures face a huge culture shock when coming to the United States.

“The foods are different, the language, all those kinds of things,” he said.

Even things that seem the same are often different in practice. During one of his early trips to the United States, he stopped at a Berkeley, Calif., café for some tea, which in Africa is served English style: hot and sitting at a table.

“The man said, “For here or to go?’” the priest said. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t understand. I simply walked out. I didn’t get my tea.”

Today, Father Nyambo travels throughout the United States to meet with African and Indian priests and religious. He even schedules visits during his vacation. His travels remind him again and again of how important his mission is to others. In Washington, he met an African student who went hungry at night even though she had money for food.

“She had money. She didn’t know how to order,” he said.

Deacon Jack Lyons, who serves at All Saints, said the Sisters of Kilimanjaro who work out of St. Patrick Parish in Largo, affectionately refer to Father Nyambo as “chief” because of all he has done for them.

The deacon said Father Nyambo is a humble man who doesn’t make a big fuss over his work, even when it garners national attention. The priest even tried to keep his award quiet around the parish, although it clearly it meant a great deal to him.

“His eyes actually welled up,” Deacon Lyons said. “He said something like, ‘Can you believe they’re honoring this old man?’”

Deacon Lyons called Father Nyambo “one of the hardest working priests” he has ever known. He said the priest’s African background has enriched All Saints Parish. One example: He shows great respect toward older people, including Deacon Lyons.

“A lot of the time (because I’m a year older), he makes it a point of saying ‘good morning’ to me before I can say ‘good morning’ to him.”

“He’s a wonderful role model for African priests,” the deacon said. “He’s also a neat guy.”

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