Kabwe

 

St. Mary’s is a parish  situated in the district town of Kabwe which  was taken over by the Salesians in 1986. Fr Walter Kloc,  who came to Kabwe from Chingola, where he worked as a school chaplain,  was appointed as its  parish priest. He started this Salesian presence  together with a seminarian,  J. Czerwinski, who was sent there to do his practical training.  The parish has 10 out-stations. In one of them (Makululu), Fr Joseph Bem built a new church, which was blessed by Archbishop A. Mungandu on the 1st of February 1992. A few years later,  Fr Joseph Ojczyk started on the construction of the new parish church. The existing church had become too small as the number of Catholics in the parish grew considerably.  The facilities for the youth oratory were not sufficient and we managed to obtain a piece of land from the City Council, close to the parish site. There, a house for the Salesian community and some premises for the young people were constructed and officially opened in November 2006. Presently, the community works on the project for vulnerable children which will be a joint venture together with the parish. It will consist of the  children’s  village and some recreational facilities. This important project should begin in 2008. There are three confreres in Kabwe, namely: Frs A. Reut, P. Mulenga and A. Barrientos.