Jude Tadeo Friday to be ordained for Tororo

• Age: 28
• Home parish: St. Francis Xavier Church, Dabani, Uganda. Friday is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Tororo (Uganda) studying at Notre Dame Seminary.
   

Examples of holiness

Jude Friday is the fourth of eight children (all boys) in his family. He was born in Eastern Uganda, near the border with Kenya. He studied in Uganda until high school, when he was sent by the archdiocese to study philosophy in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Philosophicum of the Apostles of Jesus Congregation.

His home parish of St. Francis Xavier has many mission churches.

“I always attended church services every Sunday at one of the mission churches until I joined the minor seminary,” he said. “Our parents went to a different mission church, which was far from home, because they had responsibilities in that church.”

Friday said he rarely was able to receive Communion because even Communion services were infrequent, much less the celebration of Mass. A priest would visit three times a year.

“I always noticed a difference whenever a priest visited this mission church,” he said. “I always admired everything about the priest – his gestures, the welcome he received, the change in the way we prayed at Mass and the respect he carried with him.”

Friday said when he was 13, he felt a tug toward the priesthood.

“Our great aunt, a religious nun, visited our family,” he said. “My brothers and I told her what we wanted to be in the future. I said, ‘A priest.’”

After four years without any further talk about the priesthood, his aunt “surfaced and guided” him until he joined the high school seminary.

“The love from family, friends, formators at all levels, and the Christians I met is a clear witness of my calling,” Friday said. “My desire to be a priest makes me focused on my calling. This desire has been constant in me since the moment I admired to be like the priest who always came to our mission church. I dearly thank everyone who either directly or universally assists me in my formation to the priesthood. I ask for your continued prayers and the usual support you offer me. I love and pray for you always.”