Say sawubona to Father David

Bubbling with energy and passion for the work he does, Father David Houbert is the new assistant priest at Ballito’s All Saints Catholic Church led by Father Stephen Tully.

Father David will assist Father Stephen at both the Ballito church and St Anne’s in Shakaskraal.

As he approached his Matric year, Father David went to the parish priest of his home parish, St Joseph’s in Morningside, and asked if he could go into the priesthood.

“He said that it would be better for me to have some worldly experience first, so he told me to do three things – get a job, travel, and get an education,” said Father David.

“He said that if God calls, he keeps on calling, he does not just stop.”

So Father David did all three things. He studied a BA, got a job at Standard Bank, and rediscovered his roots in Mauritius – he has French-Mauritian origins and can speak and write French fluently.

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“I came back and I still felt that calling. I went back to the priest and told him I had done everything that he asked, and that I still wanted to go into the priesthood. This is where I feel I am meant to be – this is where I feel at home.”

After being ordained as a priest three years ago, he was placed in Amatikwe in Inanda for intermediate Zulu work, a time which he says was very enriching.

“It was out of my sociocultural comfort zone. Of course it did have its challenges but it opened my eyes to a lot of things as well. A lot of people speak about the social injustices – the lack of power, the lack of water, the lack of access to basic services – that the majority of the people in the country face, and yet they don’t have a lived experience of that. I got a lived experience of those harsh realities that people face on a day to day basis.”

After that he hit the books in Port Shepstone, studying Zulu for three straight months. Being able to speak Zulu is key for his work at St Anne’s, which is a Zulu speaking parish, and where Father David is particularly focusing his attention.

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“It is a parish with a lot of potential, because of the size of Shakaskraal, Groutville, Nkobongo and those areas which have also grown. There is a lot of potential there for growth and development of the congregation,” he said.

While he does not know how long he will be stationed in Ballito, he has big aspirations for his time here.

“My goals while I’m here are to grow the community of St Anne’s Shakaskraal and to help in any way with its development. I also aim to be of as much assistance as I can be to Father Stephen with what he’s trying to do here in Ballito, and ministering to the needs of the community. But underlying all of that, as a priest wherever I am, as much as I can and according to my own limitations, is to try to bring Christ to people in their lives wherever they find themselves.”

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