St. Stephen Catholic Church Welcomes 2 New Pastors

At a time when priests are in short supply, St. Stephen Catholic Church in Valrico was fortunate to have two new priests assigned to the parish.

The Rev. Emery Longanga and the Rev. Jose George began their duties as parochial vicars at the parish at 5049 Bell Shoals Road, Valrico, last month.

Growing up in a family of eight children in the French-speaking Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, Longanga was only 9 years old when he decided to become a priest.

“It was a very Catholic area, a very Christian environment where I grew up,” said Longanga. “I attended Catholic school and went to Mass every Sunday.

In his diocese, there were three Masses on Sundays – a 6 a.m. Mass for adults, an 8:30 a.m. Mass for children and a 10:30 Mass for teens.

“One day I went to the 6 a.m. Mass with my mother. There was a visiting priest there that day who was presiding, and he sang very well and had such a holy attitude. I was really impressed and told myself, ‘I want to sing like that man at the altar.’ That manifested the desire in me to become a priest. It was in seeing this priest that my vocation was revealed.”

After that, he said he was consumed with the desire to enter the priesthood. He recalls playing “church” with his brother and sister.

“I’d be the priest and I’d put on one of my father’s shirts and pretend it was an alb. My brother would be the altar server and my sister the choir,” he recalled. “I would try to sing like that priest all the time.”

But making his dream a reality would mean his brothers and sisters would have to sacrifice their dreams of a higher education.

“We were not a wealthy family. My mother and father were teachers,” said Longanga. Sending him to the seminary would tax all of their resources. “It would mean my siblings would stay home.”

Nevertheless, Longanga said he continued to feel a calling toward the priesthood. Finally, his mother took him to the local pastor and told him of her son's desire. The pastor asked about his grades and, when he was told that Longanga was a top student, he agreed to have the parish supplement his education in junior seminary.

At the age of 11, Longanga left home to attend the seminary. In between his studies, he would perform chores around the seminary, minister at prisons and hospitals, and learn the value of self-denial and self-sacrifice.

“I was in the junior seminary for six years and then I went on to the senior seminary to study philosophy and theology,” he said. He spent eight more years in the seminary before he was ordained a priest.

His first few years as a priest were spent working with youth in his diocese. Then, in 2007, he came to the United States to study for his master’s degrees in theology and divinity at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He is currently working on his doctorate in theology, specializing in religious education.

Like Longanga, George said he knew at a young age that he was destined to become a priest. He was born and raised in Kerala in southern India with five sisters and one brother. This is the same part of India where St. Thomas once preached the gospel.

“It became a very Catholic area,” said George. “I descend from generations of Catholics.”

George attended Catholic schools as a youngster and came to the conclusion at the age of 15 that he wanted to be a priest.

“It wasn’t one thing that led to the decision,” he said. “It was just the way I was raised and the values instilled in me by the Franciscan nuns and Carmelite priests who taught me.”

He promptly entered the seminary. “After two years, you have the choice to leave, but I wanted to stay,” he said.

He studied philosophy and theology, completing his studies in 1977 and becoming an ordained priest at the age of 25.

From there, he served in the Diocese of Pallottine in India for 10 years, doing pastoral and missionary work.

Then he and three other priests were sent to St. Lucia, an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea, where George was put in charge of two different parishes for five years.

“Luckily they spoke mostly English, but I learned a bit of the Patois they spoke there,” he said. “Then I was asked to go to Brooklyn, N.Y., to cover for a priest there. Initially, I was a little afraid of New York. Back in 1993, there were 2,500 killings in the city. But the area I was in was mostly Italian and Hasidic Jew, and I liked it very much.”

He remained in Brooklyn for five years. Then he learned that the bishop of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, was looking for priests to help establish parishes in the fledgling diocese.

“Some classmates of mine were going there and I decided to join them,” said George. He jokes that he learned to speak with a Texas drawl and wear a cowboy hat to protect himself from the blazing Texas sun.

He remained in Tyler for 10 years. But the diocese was changing. Where once it was 80 percent white, it had become 70 percent Hispanic.

“I speak a little Spanish but not enough to minister to such a large Hispanic population,” he said. “I spoke to the bishop and he agreed. I have friends in Florida, so I decided to come here.”

For the past three years, George has served as parochial vicar of Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa.

“It was a big change,” he said. “In Texas, the parishes had 300 to 400 families and were very spread out. Here, the parishes have thousands and are close together.”

Both priests say they’re delighted to be at St. Stephen Catholic Church.

“It is a large, vibrant parish with a lot of exciting things going on,” said George, who said he iis especially looking forward to becoming involved in St. Stephen’s ministries of mercy.

“That’s where my heart is, ministering to the poor and needy,” he said.

Longanga's specialty is working with youth. He plans to spend a great deal of his time at St. Stephen Catholic School.

“I’ve really been impressed with the youth of St. Stephen,” he said. “That was my ministry in the diocese for the first years of my priesthood, and this is where I realize my calling is. In our world today, there are so many challenges for kids. Being able to offer them a witness to God’s love and helping them discover God’s purpose for them is really important to me.”