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For instance, the Diocese of Richmond, Va., makes “covenants” with bishops: It will send $5,000 for seminary education and $6,000 for priest health care in exchange for priests, said Msgr. Mark Richard Lane, vicar for clergy. This method started five years ago, and about four bishops from Uganda and the Philippines have signed on.
The Camden Diocese — which gets three to five letters a week from foreign priests — now looks for applicants willing to visit parishioners in the hospital and help them find ways to pay their bills.
“We need to invite them to tell us more than just ‘I speak Spanish,’” Father Odien said. “It’s really about being a bridge between the church and the people.”
In Uganda, priests report monthly to outposts, where parents wait to have their children baptized, Father Odien said. They come to America thinking their role will be to provide sacraments.
Other cultural differences can be disconcerting for an international priest. Ugandan Father Onyutha is used to dancing and singing at three-hour, community-oriented Masses in Africa.
“It was like, what’s happening here?” he said of his first Mass in America, which he described as more individualistic.
Two weeks into his stay, he attended a two-week crash course in American culture, and the culture shock began to subside. Parishioners welcomed him as a man of God and began to feel like family to him, he said.
“I felt at home away from home,” said Father Onyutha, whose five-year commitment was recently extended by another six years. He goes home once a year.
About half of U.S. dioceses have an orientation program, according to the book “International Priests in America.” Fifty-four percent have a program for English training.