My dear friends, Cardinal O’Malley has truly blessed St. Mary’s by assigning to our parish a new priest. I am happy to announce that Fr. John Tanyi, ordained this weekend at Holy Cross Cathedral by Cardinal O’Malley, is St. Mary’s new Parochial Vicar. I am grateful to Cardinal O’Malley for this assignment and upon his arrival in a few weeks, I look forward to welcoming Fr. John Tanyi and introducing all of you in person. Until then, here are some excerpts from a write-up on Fr. John from a recent Boston Pilot article. - Fr. Bob

"Mommy, one day you will call me reverend," Deacon John Tanyi said to his mother when he was seven years old. Thirty-nine-year-old Deacon Tanyi, was born John Tanyi Nquah Lebui in the coastal city of Tiko, Cameroon, a country in West-Central Africa. He grew up on a farm with seven siblings. His mother was a lab technician and his father was the headmaster of a Catholic school. Visiting the Catholic school compound with his father, Deacon Tanyi was fascinated by the white cassocks the priests wore. That was when his interest in a vocation began.

"The faith was ingrained in us," Deacon Tanyi likes to say that his family was his first seminary. He, his parents, and his siblings would wake up at 5 a.m. daily and walk almost an hour to attend Mass at 6:30 a.m. Before dawn, with only a torch to light the way, they prayed the rosary as they walked to church. He would work on his family's farm, growing corn, beans, yams, plantains, and cassava, and raising chickens and pigs.

Deacon Tanyi's parents made sure that he attended one of the finest Catholic secondary schools in Cameroon. "We were not poor, but we weren't rich," he said. "We had a decent living and our parents worked very, very hard to make sure we had all of what we needed." Around the time he graduated in 2002, he talked to his pastor who convinced him to become a missionary. He spent six years doing missionary work in Uganda. "It was a very good experience, but different," he said. "It is Africa, but Uganda is in East Africa. It is somewhat different from life in West and Central Africa where I come from, and a new language, new cuisine." He speaks seven languages: English, French, Luganda (the dominant language of Uganda), Swahili, Cameroonian Pidgin English, and the Cameroonian languages Bayangi and Ewondo. He is also currently learning Spanish.

After missionary work in Uganda, he studied international relations in Kenya, and was hired to teach at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and Mount Kenya University. After his ordination, he hopes that he can continue writing about his favorite topic, the diplomacy of the Holy See. He recently wrote "The Cross and the Flag," about the international travels of Pope St. John Paul II, which will be published by St. Augustine's Press in June.

He graduated from Boston College in 2020, then joined Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, where he received "spiritual nourishment" as well as academic training. His favorite part of being a seminarian has been getting to know people from different backgrounds. "He was ordained to the transitional diaconate in 2023, and assigned to St. Anne Parish in Salem.

"I really want to be close to Christ," he said. "To be close to Christ in prayer, to be close to Christ in front of the Blessed Sacrament. And I want my life, my ministry as a priest, to help people also grow in their faith.'' He also looks forward to reaching out to people who are lacking faith. "If through me," he said, "and the ministry that the church will give me, they can come back to the faith, that would be good."

Excepts from: Ordination Class 2024: Deacon John Tanyi, Wes Cipolla, Pilot Staff , 3/22/2024

BACK TO LIST