He may be the only Franciscan Capuchin in Western Australia but Fr Kenneth D’Souza OFM Cap says he doesn’t feel like an orphan.
Fr D’Souza arrived in Perth from India three and a half months ago and has already made contacts with other orders derived from St Francis of Assisi as well as lay members of the Secular Franciscan Order.
“I don’t feel orphaned. God, in his plans, is doing wonders,” he said.
Ordained in 1995, Fr D’Souza first felt called to live for God while he was in Year 6.
“I’m a Bombay boy. Bombay is a hub for all the evils. I was swimming in that when God touched me and gave me a new life,” he said.
Fr D’Souza’s mother passed away when he was eight and his father “worked day and night” during his childhood to support the family.
He and his seven brothers were living “wayward” lives when he had a particularly powerful experience in Year 8 during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
“I got a message. God called me to serve. I admitted my sins and experienced God’s forgiving love and new life started. Praise God,” Fr D’Souza said.
He has been lent to the archdiocese for a year after being invited to serve by Archbishop Barry Hickey. Whatever comes, he has vowed to accept the will of God. That may have been how he came to be here. When he was in Year 12, Fr D’Souza, now 46, got to know married couple Michael and Patricia D’Souza (no relation), at a charismatic prayer meeting they attended.
At the time, Patricia told him she had a dream he would one day become a priest. Ten years ago and living in Perth, Patricia and Michael wondered what had happened to him; they discovered he had already become a priest.
He was administering the sacraments at remote parish missions in Maharashtra – India’s second most popular state. “She told me ‘we need priests in Perth. Come and serve’.”
“My response was, ‘you keep praying and I’ll keep praying and then one day God might bring me’ … And now it’s become a reality,”
Fr D’Souza said.