BY VINCENT GOTAMI
ST DON BOSCO PARISH- MASVINGO DIOCESE
Shock, not measurable in any unit or quantity, manually nor by automated measuring, dwelt unwelcomely and took control of the Catholic community’s central nervous system on Sunday the 14th of July 2024, forcing the faithful to abruptly cease and abandon digestion and meditation of the Sunday gospel dosage they had earlier been treated to at their respective parishes and missions when news of the sudden demise of the ever cheerful and cheering Priest, Father Peter Mudhanganyi filtered through.
It started off as rumours which one could choose to deny given the suddenness and the tower height deniability of the news. For a moment, mobile networks recorded an unprecedented congestion of calls in their telecom space, and of course more revenue even enough to pay off their monthly wage bills, as Catholics within and beyond Masvingo Diocese made frantic calls to confirm the news and improvise strategies to come to terms with the news if confirmed to be true.
And the crude tackle on the church by the perennial opponent, lady death, in the game of life was officialized with a prompt statement from the Diocese’s Vicar General, Very Reverend Father Emmanuel Jongwe, confirming the sudden but peaceful exit of Father Peter Mudhanganyi from the boxing ring of life, switching membership to another arena in heaven, albeit without any sign or farewell.
No explanation nor narrative can be driven to inculcate understanding among Catholics how today, Father Mudhangayi is to be described as late and belong to the league of the invincibles whom we will not physically see nor converse with, when the former United States of America President Donald Trump is walking a fit man. Exactly 24 hours before Father Mudhanganyi’s promotion to eternity, a daring 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooksmale chose the global grandstanding of Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania to dice with danger and twerk infront of trouble of a peak magnitude when he attempted to assassinate the second time American presidential aspirant with gun shots but failed. Visiuals of Trump with bleeding scars flooded the global news space.
Now, here is the irony of the analogy between Donald Trump and Father Peter Mudhanganyi……Trump was shot, Trump bled and indeed Trump’s life was contained in a danger bowel at the time of the attempted but poorly executed assassination. Father Mudhanganyi was not shot, no drop of blood dripped from his body and his life was as safe as a crow in a gutter, he was in front of his faithful doing what had become his daily life since 23 August 2009, celebrating mass and delivering homilies. Can scientists and academics gather today and produce a meaningful write up on how Trump is alive and Father Mudhanganyi is not? Certainly no, lady death, you are offline here surely!
And the timing that this agent death chooses to strike, not to mention the manner, only goes to show that she is of an oblique moral projection, with no regard for the pain and loss that the remaining church will suffer, and with no reflection of how she interjects the smooth knitting of the religious and synodiality fabric when she choose to land on such “darling for all” characters like Father Mudhanganyi.
How she chooses to mastermind a soul heist and robbery like that, exactly 47 days before Father Mudhanganyi, together with his comrades in religious life Father Vitalis Gotami, Father Alois Chengetai Mutoda, Father Solomon Mbengo, Father Samson Mutsvanga, Father James Magadzire and Father Philemon Matsveru, mark 15 years since the then Papal Nuncio to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Archbishop Kocherry laid his hands and ordained them to priesthood at Gokomere mission at an occasion to mark the Diocese’s ten years of independent detachment from Gweru Diocese, even herself lady death, is void of a meaningful explanation. No, lady death, you’re offline here!
Every catholic gathering mood would be electrified by a mere pronouncement that the late Father Mudhanganyi is part of the lined up speakers, with the ultimate mood ignition obtaining when he took to the podium to deliver his sermons and talks, which in some cases would turn theatrical and cinematic, while drawing the focus, attention and alertness of the audience with compulsion. Faithfuls and religious often dose into sleepiness at wee hours during all night functions and gatherings, its only natural after all.
But the dosing would quickly return back to life and scramble for a better and convinent seating spot that gives them maximum audibility each time it was Father Mudhanganyi’s slot to deliver his talk. Now, will anyone gather the courage to tell Catholics that whenever they gather, what they heard of father Mudhanganyi was enough and there won’t be any more of it in this life, only because lady death calls herself ubiquitous, is found everywhere and her choices are never to be questioned nor challenged? No, lady death, you are hereby summoned to order and encouraged to behave!
Such simplicity, cheerfulness, acceptance and quick embracing of even the less desirable of things and situations was what Father Mudhanganyi was well known for, and that cut and distinguished him above the rest to just extinguish in a blink of an eye is not only disastrous to the church but qualifies for a space in the book of world corporate scandals.
Father Mudhanganyi was simple, flexible and above all, very genuine. Any item or gift given to him was assured of a reception with a smile and big thank you.
Down memory lane, when he was deployed at my native mission Mutero, I happened to bump into him with his white Toyota Belta sedan. With loud cheer and laughter, we greeted each other and I joked with him….. “Muzukuru kuno kwa Mutero unochidii chimota chidiki isu tisati tagadzira road, dei wapiwa chero tractor chaiyo…”.
He quickly took to his ever stocked acquifer of endless jokes and replied “Aaaaah, sekuru, ndiyo sign ka yekuti pamwe ndiri kuzouyiswa kwamuri ikoko mbuya vachizondibikira sekuru….chitogadzirirai kuzonditambira”.
Apart from the endless humour, Father Mudhanganyi would never question or express dislike of any gift or item given to him irrespective of quality or quantity. Instead, he would express gratitude that at times would not befit nor correspond the value, optics or aesthetic of whatever item would have been given to him. The gift of gratitude and simplicity!
Surely with the life and deeds lived by Father Mudhanganyi, particularly at the very time he took his last gasp of breath at the altar, in a month the church prays for vocations, himself a former Vocations Promoter of the Diocese, his claim for a stake in heaven and granting of eternal life is solid and authentic, and stands a high chance of acceptance even before any third part intercedes.
A service mission accomplished with distinction and laying a foundation for his own sent off to be so befitting, the possibility of vehicles population, i mean just vehicles, surpassing that of humans at other funerals is very high.
We somber, we grieve, we struggle to accept and we bid farewell to a gallant individual, a gentle giant of a priest with a big and open heart, who accepted his calling, understood the assignment of shepherding souls and discharged it to perfection. Fare thee well Father Peter Mudhanganyi, forever missed, forever remembered. Take your rightful place in eternity and intercede for us the underserving, till we meet again.
