Ordination 2019: Deacon Raymond Kalema

Raymond Kalema was born in Entebbe, Uganda, and had a fairly normal childhood. He enjoyed school and learning with all the other kids his age, and he loved spending time with their school chaplain, Father Miner. Father Miner was a big presence, a larger-than-life man of God. He would spend as much time with the students as possible, so that they would know the love of Christ in their lives not only in the Eucharist, but in the presence and lives of others. Raymond saw just how Father Miner loved his job, and that what he was doing made such a positive impact in people's lives. He said, "Father Miner, I want to be like you" and become a priest. Father Miner promised him that he would pray for Raymond.

When Raymond was 9, Father Miner, the larger-than-life man of God, passed away in a car accident. “Deep within me, I felt this loss, but I thought I should be like him — somebody needs to replace him.”

Raymond was devastated, as was the rest of the school community. After he realized that there was no priest or chaplain to help guide the community, Raymond decided then and there that someone needed to replace Father Miner and someone needed to be there to love the students. He resolved that it would be his job. A few years later, Raymond entered high school seminary, excited to become the one who would fill the gap created by Father Miner's death. "As a young kid, I only thought about replacing Father [Miner], because he loved us so much. Somebody needs to keep on his legacy." Little did Raymond know that God didn't plan for him to serve in his hometown, nor on his home continent. Instead he would serve in Spokane.

In 2014, Raymond boarded a plane for Spokane. After speaking to a professor at his seminary in Uganda and corresponding with then-Bishop Blase Cupich, Raymond was invited to become a seminarian, and eventually a priest, for the Diocese of Spokane.

On his way to the United States for the first time in 2014, Raymond had imagined the U.S. as a country with little to no homeless, a place where the Church mostly stayed in the church. Upon his arrival, he realized this was certainly not the case, especially as he began working at the House of Charity in Spokane. There, Raymond worked in the kitchen and at the front desk, which gave him an opportunity to interact with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds. He realized what it meant to be a person who serves others. Raymond joked, "I didn’t know about my beautiful smile until a homeless guy told me, ‘You have a beautiful smile! Where do you come from?’" While living and working within the Diocese of Spokane, he grew to understand what it is that people in the United States need. “I felt really belonging to these people.”

In 2017, Bishop Daly ordained Raymond as a deacon. After having studied in Uganda for many years, just before his ordination to the diaconate in Uganda, he was told by his diocese that he would be unable to be ordained because his parents were not married in the Church. “I’ve never had a sad moment like that,” he said.

Deacon Kalema is now finishing up his studies at Theological College in Washington, D.C. Having been ordained as a deacon by Bishop Daly in 2017, Raymond has become very familiar with the D.C. area and Spokane. In the 2017-18 academic year, Deacon Raymond spent his time not in seminary, but in Walla Walla, getting to know the diocese he will serve as a priest of Jesus Christ. “It gave me the chance to know the people I’m waiting to be with and the chance for them to know me,” he explained.

“My year as a deacon in Walla Walla showed me that there is a great need for priests — first of all not as priests but as people who are of service, people who are like the Good Shepherd.”

Deacon Raymond cannot wait to be back in Spokane — the diocese has become a home to him. Since leaving Uganda, he has had the opportunity to go back once, but his mother told him when he first moved to the United States that “family can be wherever you go, so just make those people to be your brothers, your sisters, your fathers and your mothers.” While he has spent quite a bit of time in D.C. at this point, Spokane is still the place he considers home. As a priest, Raymond is excited to be able to serve in a very profound way.

“What I take for my priesthood is to be the kind of priest who accompanies the people of God,” he said. God willing, Raymond will be able to step into Father Miner’s shoes — not in Central Uganda but in Eastern Washington.

Bishop Thomas Daly will ordain Deacon Raymond Kalema a priest of Jesus Christ through the imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit on May 17, 2019, at 5:30 p.m. in a public Mass and rite of ordination celebrated in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane. All are welcome to join in this beautiful ceremony as we welcome Father Raymond Kalema home to Spokane.