A challenging ministry

WAYNE  More than 40 years ago, the jubilant voice of an old woman named Stella at a village prayer service inspired Maryknoll Father Mike Snyder, then a seminarian, to choose a challenging ministry as a missionary in Tanzania — enduring the heat and dust of the desert, austere living conditions and difficult-to-navigate roads by U.S. standards.

Held in a mud-brick school, the prayer service was attended by Stella — wearing a sour, wrinkled face — and about 30 other people. But after seminarian Snyder started the service, she began to change as her wrinkles seemed to fade away, her skin glowed and she began to smile and move to the faith-filled music. Stella “yelled out…a sound of joy that you have among women in Africa,” said Father , vocations director of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America — popularly known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers — since 2015.

“When she did that, the entire place started doing the same thing,” said Father Snyder — also a former parishioner of Our Lady of Consolation (OLC), and a 1968 graduate of DePaul Catholic High School, both in Wayne — who spoke about his 26 years of adventure and adversity, serving the poor as a missionary in Tanzania, in a new 36-minute podcast. It is part of a new series of podcasts by Maryknoll that features interviews of members of the order, who share their stories of insights about having served the sick, poor and marginalized around the world. “In Stella, I saw the face of Christ — all that I’ve been learning in theology about God within us. I saw God alive in that old woman. I saw Jesus take control of her with the Holy Spirit and give her that great sense of joy and fulfillment that she had. I said, ‘This is why I’m here. I want to be able to do things for people in any way that I can with whatever skills and wherewithal I have.’ I’m here to experience God alive within these people,” the priest said.

Named “Among the People,” the new series of interviews by Maryknoll marks the 100th anniversary of the order’s first mission sending of four priests who departed for China on Sept. 7, 1918. Maryknoll missioners “follow Jesus in serving people in need in more than 20 countries. They share God’s love and the Gospel in addressing poverty, providing healthcare, building communities and promoting human rights,” said Mike Virgintino, a spokesman for the religious order.

In the podcast — hosted by Maryknoll missioner Father Joseph Veneroso, reporter Megan Fleming and producer Adam Mitchell, Father Snyder recalled his first mission to Tanzania in 1976 as part of his seminary studies. He was assigned to a parish at that time.

“I fell in love with Tanzania and with the Swahili language. I had a great time,” said Father , who remembered, when he first rode in a pick-up truck through the picturesque yet rough landscape of Tanzania, which included a drive through the Serengeti. “I was in awe. I thought, ‘What in God’s name have I done?’ We came same to a paved road that was only 200 yards long. We went through a town, but I didn’t even know it. There were only a few buildings. I was shocked how different Tanzania was from New Jersey… It was the first time that I saw lions, tigers and buffalo. You could look out for miles and miles at beautiful country — dry but beautiful… I thought that I’m in a very different place for some reason and I’m very happy here,” he said.

The fruitful seeds of his priestly vocation and missionary spirit started while a student of St. Mary’s grammar school and high school, Rutherford, and later at DePaul. He remembered, when members of Maryknoll would visit his school, talking to students and showing “movies of exotic places, such as Peru and Hong Kong, with famous Hollywood stars, who would narrate them,” the priest said.

“That always stuck in my mind. When I was growing up, I thought about becoming a priest,” said Father Snyder, who credited former two priests at OLC — the late Msgr. Carl Wolsin, founding pastor, and the now-retired Father John Catoir — as “major influences” on his vocation. The priest also kept in contact with Maryknoll, headquartered in Ossining, N.Y. After his ordination as a priest in 1979, he requested to return to the east African nation — a ministry that lasted 26 years.

There, Father has served in mission parishes, as regional superior of Maryknolls in the Tanzania region and as chaplain of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. He also has served in various leadership positions with Maryknoll, including his first stint as vocations director from 1999 to 2006. Over the years, he returned periodically to the U.S., while serving in Tanzania. In the podcast, The priest pointed with pride to helping found a parish in a squatter community in the city of Dar es Salaam. There the Maryknolls gained the trust of the skeptical Muslim majority there through intense relationship-building.

“Tanzania is a developing country. They have come a long way but there is still a lot uncertainty in people’s lives. There is not enough rain, no irrigation, no electricity in the rural areas and electricity that gets cut in the urban areas,” Father told the interviewers. “Yet, they endured all these things, which is real love for life. [They] never lost that zest and never got dis­cour­aged. That taught me something. We in the United States can get so down, when things don’t work. They [the Tanzanians] don’t. They take care of it and move on,” he said.

Toward the end of the podcast, Father talked about what it takes to become Maryknoll missioners — people, who can come from a variety of backgrounds.

“They have that desire and faith to want to serve God’s people…You have to have that adventurous spirit to want to get out there on that motorcycle — get out on the road and take in the sights and smells — and not be intimidated by it but be attracted to it,” said Father Snyder, a guitar player, who ended his podcast by praying the Our Father and singing a native song, “God Bless Africa,” in Swahili.

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers have made the latest series of “Among the People” podcasts available on its website, MaryknollSociety.org/podcast, and on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud and Spreaker.