CHOOSING a spiritual director is not easy. Often, one has reservations to the person he is expected to open both the general and most ‘private’ part of life. It takes, however, no time to realize one would fit for a spiritual confidante, when you come across them.

When knew Fr Domenico Mario Andriollo, I hardly comprehended what spiritual direction is all about. It just came naturally, as I volunteered my heart inside out to him. Like a book, I am sure he would tell my life from the hair on my head to the sole of my feet.

 A curate of Mbuya, I just found this very jolly Comboni missionary easy to talk to. His was a burly body. Children loved to run their little hands in the hairs on his arms, as he smiled his eyes to slits. He commonly flung spread on his slightly bent back, a grey open sweater, without necessarily wearing it, whenever he came for talks or Mass at the Lydia Macchi Youth Centre in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

We commonly called him Fr Dommie and loved to mimic his singing. He had a lovely soprano that intoned better than any trained singer I knew. Mbuya Parish youth animator Sr Maria Jose Alves often laughed to hear us imitate our chaplain singing ‘Mu naku za Kalema,’ a Lenten Luganda hymn.

Fr Dominic encouraged me to join the seminary. From his collection of saint books, he often got me role models to read about, for inspiration. I read founders of different congregations, one after the other and enjoyed the charism of the Consolata Missionaries, provided by Blessed Giuseppe Allamano. I learnt about [St] Daniel Comboni’s “a thousand lives for Africa,” and the zeal to ‘evangelize Africa by Africans’ from Dominic.

When the founder of the Comboni Missionaries was headed for beatification in March 1996, I was among the cast that acted a play on his life at the youth centre. It was shot on video, which won very many admirers for us at Lydia Macchi.

Then Dominic was transferred to Kasaala Parish in Kasana-Luweero Diocese, as curate. We also moved on to other callings and only met once in a while. But, each time we did, he inquired after my parents and siblings, but also other families he used to visit when he still was at Mbuya.

Unknown to me, he returned to Italy in 2006, to nurse a cancer. I only confirmed his definite departure from Uganda, in a snail-mail he wrote from Verona, congratulating me as Leadership Editor. His words were of the old counsel. First, inquiring about my family, he went on to state his own deteriorating health and asked for my prayers. Then he wrote that as editor, I had accepted a responsibility as big as the vocation to priesthood!

That was the last I learnt from my friend. Though I replied him, in turn beseeching his prayers for my new task, I only remained longing for another word from him. But, news of his death on July 30, 2008 filtered in before that would happen.  

His long time community superior Fr George Previdi, parish priest of Kasaala, says, “He died so unexpectedly. I had just been with him and he showed no sign of fatalness. Only the doctors had said the illness was very advanced. But, he did not show pain.”

To Fr Antonio Mario Imperial, who also spent some years with him at Mbuya, “Fr Domenico was the faithful servant, quite rigorous in observing the Rule of Life.” Parishioners remember the priest during the years of difficulty, when he would provide them support like food and shelter. But, the stress of the Idi Amin days undermined his already fragile health.

Fr Giuseppe Filippi the current Comboni Provincial Superior in Uganda says their confrere had great familiarity with suffering. “As soon as Fr Domenico arrived in Uganda, his father fell sick and he had to go home just to see him dying in 1971. He was a man fully identified with his vocation, aware of his limitations and only concerned to serve the parish community and the coming of God’s Kingdom.

“The continuous shooting and lack of sleep had a toll on his psychological fragility. He took a long period off in Kenya that helped him to regain his serenity and his good sense of humour,” the provincial says.

Fr Andriollo was born at Borso del Grappa, diocese of Padova on November 13, 1939. He did his Novitiate in Monroe, Michigan, USA where he made his first profession in 1961. He continued his theological studies in San Diego and was ordained priest in 1965. After a brief assignment in Italy, as formator in the minor seminary of Carraia, he came to Uganda in 1969.

He was assigned to the community of Katikamu, where he learned the Luganda language and served in the Parish until his return to Italy, due to health reasons, in 1974. There, however, Dommie would work in the field of missionary animation and formation for four years. In 1978, he was assigned to Uganda, at Mbuya, for twenty years and later to Kasaala for another ten.

In 1995, he went home to assist his paralyzed mother till she died. “He lived also this moment trusting in the providential design of the Lord. The holidays he took in 1997 turned out to be a nightmare because of the wrong medicine he was given. It took several months to find the right dosage that helped him to recover.”

Fr Filippi says that Dominic, in 2001, experienced other physical problems while in Italy. In 2003, he returned to Verona for a medical check up and an operation, which required future regular check ups. He came back to Kasaala at the beginning of 2004, only to fall ill again in 2006, when he was diagnosed with a tumour, in the Holy Week of that year. He failed to recover since then.

He Had Multiple Talents

IN Africa, fruits are harvested in different ways. Some are plucked off branches, others are collected from the ground after falling off trees. But, the most common, at least to children, is shooting down the delicacies, ripe or otherwise. From that is a Kiganda saying that when a tree suffers such shooting, it is because it bears sweet fruits.

It is a proverb Fr Simon Peter Magandaazi often used to console persons who approached him with complaining of rumours. “Be not afraid, for you must be having some good you are doing,” he would say. And indeed, this reflected in his life. He allowed no one to pull him down or distract his duties.

A celebrated playwright, author and musician, Magandaazi bore a spring in his gait, as if to state “I am in control”. Perhaps, he was, even though he lost it to death on August 14, 2008 only hours away from the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, a figure he held in high esteem.

I first saw a young Fr Magandaazi when he was a lecturer at the Gaba National Major Seminary. He was this smart priest whom the then Mbuya Parish youth animator Sr Maria Jose Alves da Silva often called to teach us bible. His accent quite exotic, he would give captivating examples and his love for the young people seemed undying.

After those bible sessions, we would escort him to the taxi stage to catch a cab. One of us would rush for his briefcase, others would hold his hand, while the rest would just tug along in the body of youths with an equally youthful priest.

Later on, I would come to see Magandaazi in another capacity. He was chaplain at the Uganda Martyrs Senior Secondary School, Namugongo and I, coordinator of the Young Christian Students (YCS) movement in the Archdiocese of Kampala. Our interaction continued to another level when he was appointed Administrative Secretary of the Archdiocese. Serving as youth leader of Kampala, I sat with him on the diocesan  pastoral executive committee.

Full of eloquence and zeal to perform – any task, provided it presented itself – Fr Magandaazi exhibited great acumen. For any document the pastoral executive sought to come up with, Fr Magandaazi often had a big contribution to it. He was balanced and concerned with affairs affecting laypeople, as those challenging the priests and religious.

Little wonder, he became the first priest to author a novel ‘A Priest on Trial’, highlighting challenges of sexuality. He immediately followed up the volume with another, ‘Phantom of Ssesse Island’. When he asked, I remember making him a promise of writing one (book) myself, a pledge whose fulfillment he passed on before seeing.

Eng Aloysius Kaganda, a member of the Archdiocesan Land Board says he first knew Magandaazi when then Archbishop Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala appointed us to the 2006 Synod Preparatory Committee chaired by Fr Dr Lawrence Ssemusu and his deputy, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, under the leadership of Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Kakooza.

“He is a man who talked with practical contribution. He was astute,” Kaganda adds. As a young man, Magandaazi loved playing soccer. Like so many priests, he also served as an altar boy at Lubaga Cathedral, where he developed the desire to enter the seminary.

Speaking at the St Peter’s Church Nsambya during his funeral, a long time friend of the priest, Chris Ssenabulya, described him as a man who was committed to his priestly calling. “One day he found me near a mangoe tree at Lubaga and encouraged me to join, Nyenga Minor Seminary. I had been at the Uganda Martyrs High School, Lubaga, but I immediately applied and joined him at the seminary, where we sang in the school band and strengthened our friendship.”

The two did not separate even when Ssenabulya did not make it to priesthood. “I married Magandaazi’s sister and further fortified our friendship. Actually, we became brothers.” When Magandaazi wrote his novels, he took them to Ssenabulya’s Christian Graphics Printing Press, for publication.

In March 2008, when Magandaazi was admitted to Lubaga Hospital with an unusual headache, the Ssenabulya family looked after him, till his death. According to the Archdiocesan Chancellor Fr Joseph Kazibwe Ntuuwa, Magandaazi died on August 14, of multiple organ failure at Mulago Hospital, where he had been transferred from Lubaga.

Bishop Kakooza described Fr Magandaazi as a very strong person. He said the priest did not under look his several talents, neither did he pride in his laurels. Before calling on Bishop-elect Paul Ssemogerere with whom Magandaazi studied in the US, to conduct commendation prayers, Bishop Kakooza asked mourners to emulate the good works of the priest.

Born to Ssalongo Peter Kasozi and Nalongo Rose Nassuuna on August 2, 1956, Magandaazi attended primary education at Lubaga Boys, before joining Nyenga in 1969. He did his high school at St Henry’s College Kitovu between 1974 and 1975, from whence he entered Katigondo National Seminary in 1976.

Two years later, the late Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala sent him to St Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, USA, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Divinity. Between 1986 and 1989, he attended the Universita Salesiana, in Rome for a Master of Education degree.

Magandaazi was ordained deacon in Milwaukee on November 21, 1981. Cardinal Nsubuga ordained him priest on September 12, 1982 at Lubaga Cathedral. He worked as curate in Bulo Parish, Mpigi District and was later private secretary to the then Kampala Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Mukwaya (now emeritus of Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese).

He taught different courses in major seminaries and in 1991, acted as rector of Katigondo. At the time of his death, he had just served for over four years as chairman of the Kampala Archdiocese Priests’ Association (KAPA), and was the Wakiso Ecclesiastical Zone education secretary.