Fr. Sasa celebrates 25th jubilee

Friday, Dec. 09, 2022

WEST VALLEY CITY — Father Sebastien Sasa Nganomo Babisayone was ordained a priest for his hometown diocese in Mbujimayi, Democratic Republic of the Congo on Nov. 30, 1997. Exactly 25 years later, Fr. Sasa, now the administrator of Saints Peter and Paul Parish in West Valley City, celebrated his ordination anniversary.

For the Thanksgiving Mass, which concluded five days of celebrations, the Sts. Peter and Paul community welcomed people from all the parishes that Fr. Sasa has served in the diocese, from St. George to Ogden. 

Bishop Oscar A. Solis presided at the Mass; concelebrating were Fr. Jose Barrera-Hernandez, administrator of St. Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale; Fr. Sebastian Chacko, chaplain to the local Samoan community, who is in residence at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Kearns; Fr. Eugenio Yarce, pastor of St. Francis Xavier; and  Fr. Oscar Picos, pastor of St. Mary Parish in West Heaven.

Fr. Sasa has given his life to the parish, “and we are very grateful for it,” said Martina Herrera, coordinator of the parish’s faith formation program, at the beginning of the celebration, adding that the priest “has taught us to say yes to the Lord in each of the ministries that he has developed in our parish.” 

The celebration fell on the feast of St, Andrew, Bishop Solis noted in his first remarks. 

“At his ordination Fr. Sasa to was called to be a fisherman, to preach the good news and to live a holy life in service to God like the Apostle Andrew, to trust in God and in eternal life,” Bishop Solis said.

The people present in the church that day were joining Fr. Sasa in his celebration, the bishop said during his homily, adding that they were gathered “to give thanks for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for the Eucharist and for the vocation of priesthood of Fr. Sasa. … Twenty-five years of faithful dedicated ministry is about God’s grace and about God’s mystery.”

Love for Jesus made the apostles follow him, and “tonight we reflect on the apostles and the anniversary of Father Sasa, and on how they lived their mission, their callings as beacons of light in our world,” the bishop said. “The silver anniversary of his ordination, as I have indicated before, is by God’s grace and mystery.”

Comparing Fr. Sasa to the lives of the apostles, Bishop Solis said that the priest “answered God’s call and left behind everything, even his family in Congo,” and offered his entire life to the people of Utah.

“Fr. Sasa continued to carry on the work of Christ in his ministry as priest. In the name of my brother priests here in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, we say ‘Thank you, Fr. Sasa, for the generosity of your heart, for the love for God and for the service to God’s people,’” Bishop Solis said.

 Before concluding the Mass, the bishop and the community offered a special blessing for Fr. Sasa.

In his comments, Fr. Sasa thanked those present for coming that evening to celebrate with him. He also thanked Bishop Solis, saying that since the bishop arrived in the diocese in 2017, “with these words, ‘springtime of the new evangelization in Utah,’ these words are always present in my life, in my ministry, in all the parishes that you have sent me to.”

“A Springtime of the New Evangelization” is the name of the pastoral letter that Bishop Solis released in April 2017, six weeks after he was installed in the diocese.

Fr. Sasa also arrived in Utah in 2017, about a month before the bishop. Previous to his current assignment, he served in the parishes of St. Joseph in Ogden, St. Ambrose in Salt Lake City and St. George in St. George. He speaks Lingala, Kikongo, French, Italian, Spanish and English. 

He attended the Catholic University of the Congo in Kinshasa, the Theological Institute of Kintambo, and then went on to the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. He holds bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology, a master’s degree in public administration (from Guglielmo Marconi University-Rome), and a doctoral degree in missiology. 

“We thank Fr. Sasa for being here at our parish,” Herrera said.

After the Mass a dinner was served in the parish’s social hall.