From Tanzania to Tasmania: Fr Dominic celebrates 15 years of priesthood

By Heather Excell

From a small, rural village in Tanzania to serving the faithful in Tasmania, Passionist priest Fr Dominic Samamba marked 15 years since his priestly ordination on 7 July 2026.

Born into a Catholic family as the fourth of ten children, Dominic’s early years were spent helping his family on their farm, delaying the beginning of his formal education until he was ten years old.

“My parents were strong Catholics,” he said. “They supported me to attend the minor seminary, not for the priesthood, but so I could receive a good education and get a better job.”

At the time, the Passionist missionaries serving his local parish were all Italian. Fr Dominic recalls how, before entering the minor seminary, he had never met an African priest. It was that contact with local vocations that helped to shape his understanding of the priesthood.

“There I met African priests for the first time,” he said. “Seeing them celebrate Mass and teach us attracted me very much. That is where my vocation really started to grow.”

Encouraged by his Passionist priest, Fr Dominic spent his school holidays at the congregation’s formation house, where he came to understand their charism and mission.

After completing his schooling, he entered the Passionists formation. In 2005, he made his first profession, and after further study, was ordained a priest on 7 July 2011.

Fr Dominic recalls his ordination as being a significant day for his home community.

“I was the first Passionist priest from that area,” he said. “I helped people realise that becoming a Passionist priest was possible.”

It was after his ordination that Fr Dominic came to truly understand the Passionist charism of ‘preaching Christ crucified to those who are crucified today’. He speaks of this understanding as coming from two distinct experiences.

Firstly, through witnessing the physical suffering of the communities he served in rural Tanzania where poverty shaped daily life. Families often lacked food, clean water and access to medicine. Fr Dominic would help to transport water to the villages for his parishioners and would give away his food to help support the families in his parish. 

In 2019, he was unexpectedly assigned to Australia, first serving in Sydney before moving to Hobart in 2023. This is where he came to experience the less tangible side of human suffering.

“In Tanzania, the crucified people were those without food or water,” he said. “Here, I meet people suffering through loneliness, illness, homelessness or isolation. The suffering is different, but Christ is present in both.”

As he reflects on the last 15 years of priesthood, Fr Dominic speaks of how accompanying people through their suffering has been the greatest gift of his vocation.

“When I celebrate Mass, I am actually bringing Christ down to the people,” he said. “I get to bring that gift to them, and they are God’s gift to me.”