Father Elias Udeh, CSSp, could have picked anywhere in the United States to spend a sabbatical from his missionary work in Brazil, and he chose Columbus.

“After spending nine years in Brazil, I recently reached a point where it was time for me to take the sabbatical period which many missionaries spend every few years as a period of both rest and education,” said Father Udeh, 45, who has been in residence at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral for a little more than a month. 

“I wanted to experience another culture and never have been to the United States and was given permission to spend my sabbatical there.

“When many people from elsewhere think of America, they think of large cities like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. But I wanted to go somewhere smaller and was especially attracted by the Midwest region. As I did an online study of the dioceses in that area, Columbus stood out. It seemed to be a diocese that was very much alive in the faith.

“I was especially attracted by your Real Presence Real Future initiative for renewing the Church because it seemed like you were making a great effort to listen to the people and have them help determine the diocese’s future direction. 

“So I got in touch with the diocese and said I would like to spend a sabbatical period there working with the poor and counseling people, as I do in Brazil. My request was granted, and I was invited to live at the cathedral.”

Father Udeh flew from Brazil to Columbus via Chicago, arriving here on Saturday, Feb. 5, a day when the high temperature was 19 degrees. “I come from Nigeria and served in Brazil, so the cold weather when I arrived was enough to make me think, ‘Wow! What a difference!’” he said.

“As I’ve gotten familiar with the city, people have been very welcoming to me, and I am adapting quickly to life here. “As a missionary, your home is wherever you happen to be. As Jesus said in Chapter 28 of St. Matthew’s Gospel, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’ 

“In my heart, I love listening to people and have learned that most people are looking for a priest to listen to them, not for a dictator who will just tell them what to do. I’m looking forward to listening to many people in this diocese and to seeing the large area and the many types of communities it contains.”

The length of his sabbatical has not been determined, but most such periods last for about a year.

Father Udeh was born in Enugu, a city of 700,000 people and the capital of the state of the same name in southeast Nigeria. He is the third of five children (three boys and two girls) born to the late Jeremiah and Virginia Udeh. His father was a civil engineer, and his mother was a textile worker who also trained women to make and sell clothes.

“My family were very strong Catholics,” he said. “My mother may never have used the word, but in her work with other women she was performing acts of evangelization. My uncle Joseph, who died in 2017, was a Cistercian monk in Nigeria, and I had an aunt who died in 2005 who was a lay member of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

Father Udeh went to primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, then attended a technical college for three years and afterward went to work at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Enugu that makes buses, trucks and small parts.

“It’s a very good company, and I was doing very well and making plans to perhaps work at one of the Mercedes plants in Germany,” he said. “But as people say, the Lord works in mysterious ways. 

“I had been a lector at my church since I was 16 and had been doing a lot of spiritual reading, and this was having more and more influence on me. It was really my first formation as a priest. I began to feel more powerfully the words of Luke 4:18: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.’

“When I told my colleagues at work I had decided to study for the priesthood, most of them said, ‘You’re crazy!’ But my family accepted the decision because of their religious background.”

Father Udeh is a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, known familiarly today as the Spiritans and earlier as the Holy Ghost Fathers. The congregation was founded in 1703 in France and has more than 2,600 priests and brothers serving in 60 nations, mainly in Africa. This year, it is celebrating its 150th anniversary in North America, where it is best known for operating Duquesne University, which the congregation founded in Pittsburgh in 1878.

He studied for the priesthood from 2001 to 2012, attending Spiritan schools of philosophy and theology in Enugu state that were affiliated with the University of Nigeria-Nsukka. He completed work on his master’s degree in theology in 2012 in Enugu, but his diploma is from Duquesne, though he has yet to visit there.

“Many Spiritans devoted their lives to the people of Nigeria, and many are buried in a basilica there,” he said. “Their presence enlightened my people. I became a Spiritan because I wished to be part of that enlightenment.”    

Father Udeh was ordained as a priest in Nigeria on Aug. 4, 2012 by Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa. His first assignment was at St. Anthony Parish in Oji River, Nigeria, where he spent a year before going to Brazil, where he served in the communities of Niteroi, across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro; Belo Horizonte, and Governador Valadares.

“As a missionary in Brazil, I needed to speak the language of the people, Portuguese,” he said. “I had problems with the language at first, but gradually l learned it.” He also is fluent in English, Igbo and Hausa, all of which are commonly spoken in Nigeria, “and I know a little Yoruba and Spanish,” he said.

“What I did in Brazil consisted mainly of approaching the poor, empowering youths and young parents who thought they couldn’t make it in life, going to places where the Church is finding it difficult and where listening is so important.

“I’m not a professional counselor and don’t try to be. I know my boundaries and tell people to see trained psychologists or psychiatrists when their help is needed. But many times, just giving people a chance to talk and engaging in conversation with them is all they need.

“Listening is healing,” Father Udeh said. “One good thing I’ve discovered in almost 10 years since being ordained is that many people think, ‘If anyone can heal me, it’s a priest.’ If I’m able to do this, it’s through God’s grace, not any power of mine. 

“I pray every day that the Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen me so I can serve people and that I am doing my little bit to be salt and light to the world.”