Father Justus Musinguzi at the pulpit at Holy Cross. Originally from Uganda, Musinguzi has spent the last three years in Minneapolis. (Mark Peterson)
Holy Cross Vicar Justus Musinguzi got not one but three farewell celebrations in the month before his departure on July 1.
After Mass at Holy Cross, St. Hedwig and St. Clement on separate Sundays, parishioners gathered in the respective dining halls and chatted with Musinguzi about his three years in Minneapolis and what he foresees in his new assignments, as parochial vicar at St. Dominic Church in Northfield and as parochial administrator at Annunciation Church in Hazelwood.
Musinguzi was born in Kabale, Uganda, in 1971. He was one of 12 children born into what he described as “a very Catholic family, with my parents devout practicing Catholics who raised us accordingly.” Musinguzi said he felt called to the priesthood very early. He began meeting with the parish’s vocation group when he was ten years old.
When he was 17, Musinguzi joined an Apostles of Jesus seminary in northern Uganda. He continued with that congregation in their major seminary for philosophical studies, and went to Tangaza University in Nairobi, Kenya, to study at its School of Theology. Musinguzi said that during his philosophy studies he felt called to do missionary work as a diocesan priest. Diocesan priests are ordained to serve a particular geographic area under a bishop’s authority. He moved to study at the invitation of the then-bishop of the Diocese of Butare, Rwanda, spent a pastoral year there in 1997-1998, and was ordained a priest in 2001.
After his ordination, Musinguzi spent the next two decades as pastor, lecturer, administrator and parish priest in a number of places, including Rwanda and Italy. He returned to Butare in 2020 and moved to the United States in 2022 to serve as the Parochial Vicar at Holy Cross Parish.
Musinguzi holds a baccalaureate degree in sacred theology and licentiate degrees in sacred liturgy and dogmatic theology. He also has doctoral degrees in dogmatic theology and sacred liturgy from the Pontifical University of St. Anselm in Rome.
Father Musinguzi with one of his youngest parishioners.(Mark Peterson)
Musinguzi said that after his years as a priest, he has learned how to work and be effective in difficult conditions. “People love their priests and have a thirst for the Word of God and Sacraments. I learned and enjoyed working together with the laity (laypeople), ministry among the youths, visitation of families, the sick and in hospitals, dispensaries, caring homes and the homebound, and working with Catholic Action Movements.” He said he enjoyed educating and forming young people, seeing them become “good and illustrious” priests in the church, assisting couples for marriage and many other edifying moments, activities and events in good and bad conditions.
He said he has been enriched by being actively involved in the Sacramental life of the church, saying it “is and must be the joy of every priest and source of one’s spiritual growth.” About his time at Holy Cross, Musinguzi said, “My time spent in Minneapolis was a peaceful one. I enjoyed wonderful working conditions, and collaboration and acceptance by the people I encountered and lived with. The parishioners of Holy Cross have been good, caring and patient with me. I am just grateful to God for having given them to me. I felt loved, accepted and cared for.”
He added that one of his first challenges coming to the city was dealing with the winter, something he had never encountered. Of his new assignments, he said, “I am full of hope, and hope does not disappoint. I am going as a priest and that is enough for me. I am ready to give what I have — all I have.”