Before they’d even officially become twinning partners to St. Patrick’s Madera Parish in Soroti, Uganda, the parishioners at St. Maximilian Kolbe in Liberty Township, Ohio, were already giving generously to support the parish school.  

They’d come to know the former pastor of St. Patrick’s, Fr. Simon Peter Wankya, after he arrived at St. Max for a two-year sabbatical; that sabbatical was extended to five years, when he became the church’s parochial vicar.  

“Fr. Simon Peter told us that 80 percent of the 30,000 people in the parish live in poverty,” said Dan Suer, a parishioner at St. Max who has been deeply involved in getting the twinning ministry underway. He was shocked at the statistic.