EDITOR’S NOTE: The original online version of this story and the one in print in The Dialog included the incorrect site of Dennis Stameza’s deacon ordination. The Mass is May 11 at 11 a.m. at St. John the Beloved Church, 907 Milltown Road, Wilmington.
Dennis Stameza has traveled more than 7,500 miles to get where he is today, and it’s a journey he has relished and that is ongoing.
Stameza, a native of the central African country of Tanzania, will be ordained a transitional deacon by Bishop Koenig for the Diocese of Wilmington on May 11 at 11 a.m. at St. John the Beloved in Wilmington. It is the final step before he becomes a priest, which is expected a year from now.
Becoming a priest is something Stameza has had in mind since his teens. He grew up in Tanzania in a devout Catholic family that included his mother, Sekunda, an older brother and three older sisters. His father, Joseph, died six days after he was born, and his death played a role in Stameza’s journey to the United States and the priesthood.
More on that later.
His mother had a huge influence on his life, then and now.
“I can tell you that my mother is my hero,” he said recently in Wilmington. “Not only because she raised five children alone, but also she worked very hard to make us inherit the Catholic faith, to know and love God.”
The family attended daily Mass, and when they were not in church, a young Stameza was slicing bananas, pretending they were Communion hosts. He recalled going to Mass as a teenager, and when the priest held up the host, Stameza felt an amazing presence in his heart.
“I was like, ‘I want to do this when I grow up,’” he said.
He entered seminary for the Diocese of Moshi, Tanzania, after graduating from high school. He did a formation year and a spiritual or discerning year, three years of college seminary and a year of theology before leaving for two years.
Stameza, 32, said there were issues with the rector of the seminary and he wondered if perhaps he was being called to married life. His pastor, Father Sixtus Kesi, advised him not to rush and to pray to find out if he was being called back to the seminary.
He knew that if he returned, it was not likely to be in the Diocese of Moshi. Once you leave formation there, he explained, it is very difficult to go back. That diocese does not have the vocations crisis that exists in the Western world.
Instead, in 2019 Stameza was accepted into a hospital chaplaincy program in Tennessee. He wanted to learn how to be with people who were sick and dying, so he called a friend from Tanzania who was working at that hospital. One of the benefits of the program was that it helped him process his father’s death. It also rekindled his desire to become a priest.
“It was amazing to journey with people in their suffering and pain and sadness, almost every day,” Stameza said. “At that moment, God showed me what he had made me for.”
He had decided to remain in the states, so the next step was finding a diocese to call home. He came across a homily by Bishop Francis Malooly, now retired, on YouTube. Bishop Malooly was speaking about the 150th anniversary of the Diocese of Wilmington.
“He said something which was very connected to my family back home, and I was like, ‘This is where God is calling me to be,’” Stameza said.
As Stameza recalled, Bishop Malooly said that as Christians, “We are passing through a difficult moment, but let us rejoice in God.” He remembered that after his father died, his mother would tell them they were passing through a difficult time.
“I was like, ‘This is where God is calling me to be,’” he said.
He contacted Father Norman Carroll, the diocesan director of vocations, and got to meet Bishop Malooly in the rectory at St. Elizabeth Parish in Wilmington. He has found American bishops to be welcoming and approachable, much more so than in his native land.
Three springs ago, he was sent to St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. Aside from studying there, he lived at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish during the summer of 2021 with Father Roger DiBuo, now the pastor at St. Elizabeth, and he spent his pastoral year at St. John the Beloved Parish in Wilmington with Father Joseph Piekarski.
Fathers DiBuo and Piekarski have influenced how Stameza sees the priesthood.
“These two priests, Father Roger and Father Joseph, they are also like my dad,” he said. “They are like my father to me. They are priests who are very holy and very pastoral. You see them everywhere. Every day, they’re working and busy.
“To love people and always be there for them is one among many things that I have learned from them.”
He wants to be the same way as a deacon, “just be there for people.”
Father Piekarski, now the pastor at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hockessin, said Stameza is very good with people, humble and pious. He believes Stameza will be an asset to the Diocese of Wilmington.
“He’s an authentic person. He’s very genuine. He’s filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit,” Father Piekarski said.
During Stameza’s year at St. John the Beloved, he was eager to work and very cooperative, he continued. The parishioners really took to him, Father Piekarski said, which is important.
“Everything he did was very, very kind,” the priest said.
Father DiBuo said Stameza immediately engaged with the various ethnic groups and cultures at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton during his summer there. He also wants to help others, the priest said.
“He has a very compassionate side to him. I think that comes innately to him, but also his hospital chaplaincy helped him,” Father DiBuo said.
Stameza said his road to the priesthood could serve as a roadmap for others, no matter what their vocation might be.
“When you find what God is calling you to do, that will be the greatest adventure in your life. You will be happy when you find what God is calling you to do in life.”
