In August each year, young men from around the world arrive at the Blessed Mario Borzaga Community in San Antonio, Texas. They are Missionary Oblate scholastics, students attending the Oblate School of Theology (OST). The community is named in honor of Blessed Mario Borzaga, OMI, a Missionary Oblate martyred in Laos in the early 1960s for refusing to give up his faith.
Today, 17 young men are studying and discerning their calling to life as Missionary Oblates as part of the Borzaga community.
To help ensure the scholastics are unencumbered with concerns about acquiring debt as they embrace God, the Missionary Oblates have created the Blessed Mario Borzaga Scholarship Program to cover the expenses of Oblate seminarians from foreign countries who attend OST. The program allows these students to live and study at the school without creating financial hardship on the Oblates in their native countries. Without the scholarship program, some of these scholastics might not be able to pursue their religious calling because of a lack of funds.
The scholarship program was created because vocations to the Missionary Oblates are growing in many countries. Currently, there are 600 seminarians from more than 60 countries who are studying to become the next generation of Oblate priests and brothers.
Often, these Oblate seminarians must leave their home countries to attend theology schools. In recent years, OST has been accepting more and more Oblate seminarians from abroad. Kenya, Zambia, Mexico, Myanmar, Cameroon, Peru, Bolivia, Vietnam, Madagascar, and Namibia are studying at OST with their brother American seminarians.
Brother Henry Zayamoe, OMI, has taken one of the most unusual paths to the Borzaga community. He grew up in Burma (now Myanmar), and his family had to flee violence and religious persecution. He lived for six years in a refugee camp in Thailand before immigrating to Buffalo, New York, where the family joined an Oblate parish. Today he is in his fourth year of studies at OST.
“As I make this journey, I ask a favor from you,” said Bro. Henry. “Please consider making a donation in support of the Blessed Mario Borzaga Scholarship Program. Most of us come from families or countries with very limited resources, so we must rely on friends like you to cover our basic living and educational expenses. You truly are a partner with me and my brother seminarians as we become the future of the Oblates and the Church.”
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