Yet no matter where they are from \u2014 and as an essential part of their formation \u2014 all priest and brother candidates must live and work in a new culture. Father Tajonera leads Maryknoll\u2019s Overseas Training Program (OTP)<\/a> in Taiwan, which brings some of them to the island nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOTP is not an easy experience,\u201d says Josephat Odundo, a Maryknoll seminarian from Kenya who arrived in 2023 to spend two years in the program. \u201cYou have to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Odundo, now 33, spent his mornings at Providence University<\/a> in Taichung, wrestling with the myriad tones of Mandarin Chinese. \u201cLearning the language is the most important part of appreciating and understanding the culture,\u201d he says. \u201cThe better we can communicate, the more space we make for God\u2019s revelation among the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Odundo would spend the rest of the day in the neighborhood of Shalu, where Maryknoll Father Kurt Anderson<\/a> is pastor of St. Bernadette Catholic Church. There the seminarian served the Chinese-speaking congregation \u2014 a role that kept him uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Kenya, religiosity is everywhere. Christianity is in our bloodstream. A Catholic priest is always one of the big men in the community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut when I came to Taiwan, where Christians are a small minority, I realized that the simpler you become as a human being, the better you are as a priest. My approach toward priesthood has shifted to just being available and open to the realities of the people I\u2019m working with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Odundo embraces the Maryknoll legacy he inherits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGo to the cathedral and you\u2019ll learn it was built by Maryknoll. The first Catholic bishop of Taichung was a Maryknoller,\u201d he says. Although \u201cthere is pressure when you carry this big name,\u201d he notes, the work of previous missioners \u201cmakes my ministry easier because of the foundation they built.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maryknollers \u201cdid more than build churches,\u201d continues Odundo. \u201cThey could interact with anyone.\u201d That closeness to the people, he says, \u201ccalls me to be like them.\u201d He is now studying for a Master of Divinity at Catholic Theological Union<\/a> in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seminarian Paschal Madukwa is currently doing OTP in Taiwan. The physician from Tanzania volunteered with a ministry to homeless people around the Taichung train station while also studying language at Providence University. After a year, he moved to Kaohsiung, a city in the south, to begin a two-year graduate course in tropical medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Madukwa says he felt called to the priesthood because he wanted to explore how medicine and spirituality could work together. \u201cSomeday I would love to be at patients\u2019 bedsides not only as a doctor, but also providing spiritual accompaniment,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the end stage of life, when medical interventions have run their course, being present as a spiritual companion could make a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His attraction to Maryknoll, says Madukwa, started back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI saw how Maryknollers from elsewhere had come to Tanzania<\/a> and worked hard<\/a> to learn the language and the culture, to relate with local people<\/a>,\u201d he says. \u201cThat inspired me to ask Maryknoll to help me become a priest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Madukwa, 33, says his OTP experience in Taiwan is giving him the skills needed for a lifetime in mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf all we did to prepare for the priesthood was study in seminary, it would be like reading a book on how to swim without ever getting wet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, \u201cwe are like babies, coping with a new culture and language. We learn by making mistakes, and OTP provides a safe environment to do that,\u201d he says. \u201cIn my first months, I stumbled through the language and the nuances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This process takes time, he adds. \u201cWe find patience, both with ourselves and others, which allows us to fall in love with the people and their culture. There is goodness in every culture. God is found in every culture,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople are very generous, even with seminarians who constantly struggle to find the right tone to pronounce the right word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to supervising OTP in Taiwan for accepted Maryknoll candidates, Father Tajonera<\/a> has established an earlier first step: a vocational discernment program for \u201cprospects,\u201d young men considering the missionary priesthood or brotherhood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jethro Natividad, of the Philippines, was one of them. Having studied at a diocesan seminary and having taught at Miriam College, founded in Manila by the Maryknoll Sisters<\/a>, he was intrigued by Father Tajonera\u2019s invitation to Taiwan. After a two-month experience at the beginning of 2023, he resigned from his job to discern further. He serves at Ugnayan, the Maryknoll shelter for exploited migrant workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI quickly learned that this is a different understanding of priesthood,\u201d he says. \u201cHere in the shelter, we mop the floors, we wash the dishes, we walk with the people. We\u2019re reminded every day as we live among the migrants that Christ didn\u2019t come to earth as a mighty conqueror but rather as a poor baby who grew into a humble man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Natividad also directs the choir of the Tanzi Catholic Church, where the congregation is mostly composed of Filipino migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery Saturday morning we have choir practice. Even though many of them worked the night shift and just left the factory at 8 a.m., by 9 a.m. they are at church, ready to sing,\u201d he says. \u201cThey practice the songs all week long, and on Sunday morning they offer their talent to the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Natividad plays the piano, Guilervan Ignacio Omnes \u2014 who also joined the vocational discernment program \u2014 accompanies the church choir on his violin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Omnes had left a diocesan seminary in the Philippines to pursue law in order to help victims of injustice. On the eve of entering law school, however, he heard about Maryknoll\u2019s vocational discernment program and headed to Taiwan, instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne cold winter night, well after midnight, a guy showed up at our Ugnayan shelter, shivering in bare feet. He was a seafarer who had just escaped from his ship, where he didn\u2019t get enough food or sleep. From the moment I welcomed him into the shelter, I knew what I wanted to do with my life,\u201d Omnes says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Omnes and Natividad applied to the mission society and were recently accepted. They are now officially Maryknoll seminarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Guilervan](\"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/SP26-OTP-1.jpg\")
![\"Prospect](\"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/SP26-OTP-2.jpg\")
![\"Josephat](\"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/SP26-OTP-3.jpg\")