Father Kennedy Ofezu was ordained a priest of the Columbus diocese on Saturday during an ordination Mass held at Columbus St. Catharine of Siena Church. His journey to the priesthood, however, began many years ago halfway across the world.
Father Ofezu hails from a family of eight children in Uganda. He is the only member of his family to live outside of the country.
The new priest never had plans to leave home and transplant to the United States, but, it might seem, God had a different plan.
Father Ofezu first thought of the priesthood as a young child.
“My vocation actually came when I was around the age of 7 to 8 there, and it was just like in a kind of funny way, where the priest – the pastor – who celebrated Mass for the kids that day – because we used to have every Friday kids’ Mass – posed the question to all of us,” he recalled.
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More than 500 school children were gathered in the church. The pastor asked who wanted to be a priest. “I raised my hand,” Father Ofezu said.
He recalled his friends laughed, but he kept his hand raised. He and another student, who also raised his hand, were called forward to the altar. The priest asked the students in the pews to pray for their fellow classmates who wanted to be priests.
Father Ofezu recalled returning to his pew with a “light set in my heart.”
His love for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was also evident as a child.
“Every Friday Mass, I would never want to miss,” he said. “I would want to sit in front, the first seat, and since there are so many kids, you have to run fast to go to sit in the front.
“And Sundays, I would always want to be there. Even when my mom was like, “‘Today, I don’t think I will go,’ I would want to cry. I said, ‘We’ll go – let’s go.’”
When Father Ofezu reached seventh grade, it was time to prepare for secondary school, the equivalent of high school in the United States. He was accepted to St. Peter and Paul Minor Seminary in 2006, which prepares students for major seminary, which is typically at a college age level.
In 2011, he finished minor seminary, and the following year, began studies at the Uganda Martyrs’ National Major Seminary.
Around this period, Father Ofezu recalled, the desire to be a missionary was “burning in my heart at the same time.” His parish growing up, All Saints Catholic Parish, happened to be run by missionaries.
He was fascinated by missionary outreach and their ministries of education, supporting the poor and ministering to families.
After completing philosophy studies and a pastoral year to gain experience in parish life, then-seminarian Ofezu encountered Franciscan missionaries from the Philippines. He was drawn to their charism. The missionaries were devoted to the restoration of human dignity in the family and ministered to children.
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Father Ofezu served with the missionaries and was thrilled with the experience. He left studies for the diocesan priesthood to join the congregation, which had more than 20 men from various African countries.
“Little did I know, this was a short-lived kind of thing,” Father Ofezu recalled. “I did my postulancy with them, I did my novitiate with them, and then, I joined theology (studies) with them.”
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The founder of the congregation determined it best to return to the Philippines.
A member of the Filipino community died after contracting COVID, and the same week, the founder of the congregation succumbed to the disease, too.
Community members back in Kenya– where Ofezu was stationed– were financially dependent on the founder. After his untimely death, members of the community had no resources.
They were left to join a different congregation, attend university to study, or pursue marriage and family life.
“One guy burst into tears. He did not like that,” Father Ofezu recalled about the latter option. “All of us kept quiet, and so, he cried and cried. He didn’t like to hear that.”
School fees, meanwhile, were due. “The money I had was like $3. I can’t travel (back home) to Uganda,” Ofezu recalled, thinking, “that means I have to be a street boy.”
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Ofezu reached out to a friend from Uganda who was serving as a missionary priest in Cincinnati.
Father Ruffino Ezama, MCCJ (Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus), provincial superior of the Comboni Missionaries North American province, provided Ofezu money to finish classes and offered to help him find a new religious community.
“We have a priest-friend of ours in Cincinnati here,” Ofezu recalled Father Ezama offering. “He has just been ordained a bishop. Maybe I will ask him.”
That newly-ordained bishop happened to be Bishop Earl Fernandes.
Ofezu was soon connected with Father William Hahn, then-vocations director for the Columbus diocese, where Bishop Fernandes had recently been ordained.
In August 2023, Ofezu arrived in the United States. He began priestly studies for the Columbus diocese at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in Cincinnati.
Adjusting to life in a new country, Ofezu received guidance and mentorship from priests and seminarians.
“There were priests in the diocese who are doing incredible work … as pastors, as chaplains (at) hospitals, … school chaplains. They were always awesome to me,” Father Ofezu said.
“They were people I admired, even when they celebrated Mass. You’re like, ‘Wow, I want to be like that.’ And sometimes, tears almost come in your eyes when they celebrate the Masses solemnly.”
Studying to be a priest came with various other lessons.
A parishioner of Columbus St. Mary Church, located in the German Village neighborhood, where Father Ofezu was first assigned in 2024, taught him how to drive.
“We went to the cemetery of the diocese, St. Joseph (in Lockbourne), and we started learning there,” he recalled. “She was great.
“She’s like, ‘This is how you start,’ and start at the cemetery. ‘Please don’t make a mistake. If you make a mistake, you follow these guys,’” indicating the surrounding tombstones.
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In March 2026, then-Deacon Ofezu was ordained to the transitional diaconate.
For his vocation synthesis, the final stage of seminary that introduces transitional deacons to living in a rectory, interacting with parishioners and doing ministry, Ofezu was assigned to Columbus Immaculate Conception Church with Father Matt Hoover. He accompanied the priest to his new assignment at Pickerington St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in July.
Having received the sacrament of Holy Orders, Father Ofezu will soon begin his priestly assignment. He will celebrate his first Mass at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The date, which the Church celebrates as the Solemnity of All Saints, is quite fitting. Father Ofezu’s home parish growing up was, perhaps providentially, All Saints Catholic Parish, where he dreamed of becoming a missionary and will now serve the Columbus diocese a continent away from home.