Plans announced earlier this year to close Columbus St. Anthony Church as part of the diocese’s Real Presence Real Future restructuring program meant the Ghanaian Catholic community that has met there for two decades would have to find another place for worship.
With the help of Bishop Earl Fernandes, Columbus St. Aloysius Church has been chosen as the community’s new home. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 6, Mass in the Ghanaian language of Twi will be celebrated there every Sunday at 9 a.m. by Father Lawrence Tabi, a priest from Ghana who came to Columbus about a year ago for a sabbatical leave.
The bishop has appointed Father Tabi as parochial vicar at Columbus St. Andrew Church, administrator of St. Aloysius and chaplain for the Ghanaian community as of July 11.
On that date, Father Emmanuel Adu Addai, who also is from Ghana and was the community’s chaplain for 6 ½ years, began service as chaplain of Genesis Hospital in Zanesville and of Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans High School, with residence at Zanesville St. Nicholas Church. He also was parochial vicar at Worthington St. Michael Church.
“I leave Columbus very much with mixed feelings,” Father Addai said. “It’s sad to part ways with people whom you love and who love you and with whom you’ve shared celebrations, as well as the difficulties caused by COVID,” he said.
“But in appointing me to the diocesan ethics committee and as a hospital chaplain and teacher, Bishop Fernandes has recognized my talents.”
Father Addai, a priest for 14 years, has a Ph.D. degree in medical ethics from Loyola University in Chicago and wrote a book titled Medical Ethics: A Physician’s Guide to Clinical Medicine, in 2021, based on his interactions with physicians at Mount Carmel East Hospital in Columbus as part of his degree work.
“Medical ethics is an area of so much concern because of continuing medical developments. As chaplain at Genesis, I can serve as a strong voice in the community on behalf of Catholic moral and ethical values. I also have been a teacher and am happy to be continuing that work at Rosecrans,” he said.
The change in worship site for the Ghanaian community will mean a move from the Northland area on Columbus’ north side, where most of the community’s members live and where St. Anthony Church is located, to St. Aloysius Church at 2165 W. Broad St. in the Hilltop neighborhood on the west side.
“As the Real Presence Real Future plan has proceeded, we have known for about a year that St. Anthony’s would close and its congregation would join with Columbus St. Elizabeth Church,” Father Addai said. The closing, effective Oct. 20, was made official in a decree of suppression issued by the bishop following a meeting of the diocesan Presbyteral Council on June 8.
“The move was of concern to some members of our community because the Hilltop in recent years has become known as a high-crime area. And, of course, any change is not easy, especially when you have been somewhere for 20-plus years,” he said.
“But we are determined to make the best of this opportunity, and we know Bishop Fernandes made a decision that he felt would be of the most benefit to us. St. Aloysius has a strong history that goes back to the early 1900s, has a community of sisters living there now and is well-known for its service to the poor in the neighborhood.
“One of the things we asked the bishop for is the opportunity to have a morning Mass, which we will be celebrating every Sunday,” he said. “Our Mass at St. Anthony’s had been at 1:30 p.m. The earlier time should give more people who weren’t able to attend because of their work schedules an opportunity to come to Mass. It will have a reverse effect on others, also for work reasons.
“We’ve always recognized that many members of the community can’t come to Mass because they work on Sundays, but the change will help the majority.”
Father Addai said the local Ghanaian Catholic community consists of about 300 families, a total that was larger before COVID. A history of the community published for a 20th anniversary Mass celebrated by Bishop Fernandes on June 25 said its roots trace to a Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Columbus home of Peter Womber, who came to the United States in 1997 and who with his family were members of Columbus St. James the Less Church.
“I had been a seminarian in Ghana and invited some priest friends for dinner,” he said. “Among them was Father Francis Tandoh, CSSp, a fellow seminarian then living in Dayton. He suggested I find other Ghanaian Catholics in Columbus because there were probably enough to form a community.
“The other priests at the dinner pledged their support. At about the same time, I met Alfred Akainyah of St. Anthony Church, and he helped me reach out. The two of us went to Dayton to talk to Father Tandoh, then started sending flyers to all the African stores in Columbus asking any Ghanaian Catholics to get in touch with us. In less than a week, about 15 people saw the flyers.
“Since Alfred knew Father Mark Ghiloni, who at the time was pastor of St. Anthony’s, we asked him if we could use it as our place of worship. He supported and accepted us physically and spiritually. Without his welcoming attitude, none of what has happened to us in 20 years would have been possible,” Womber said.
The community celebrated its first Mass as part of St. Anthony on April 27, 2003. “Through word of mouth, we grew rapidly,” said Anthony Christian, who also came to this country in 1997 and has been a community leader since its beginnings, serving as the first president of the community’s executive committee from 2002-2004 and repeating in that role from 2019-2021.
“One of the great challenges we constantly had was that there was no priest in Columbus who could celebrate Mass in Twi, so we had to have a priest come here from elsewhere until Father Emmanuel arrived in Columbus in 2017 and became our first resident priest,” Christian said.
Father Addai said Father Tandoh, Father Anthony Kyere-Mensah and Msgr. Dominic Fosu Asiedu were visiting priests who kept the community thriving until his arrival. He also said the love and concern shown by Father Ghiloni and his successor as pastor at St. Anthony, Father Thomas Petry, have been continuing blessings for the community.
The community also has benefited from visits by more than 50 priests from Ghana who were traveling or studying in the United States. Four bishops from the west African nation have celebrated Mass at St. Anthony, most notably Cardinal Peter Turkson in 2009 and 2015.
Cardinal Turkson has been chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences since 2022 and served in the Vatican as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 2009-2017 and prefect of its successor, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, from 2017-2021.
Ghanaian Catholics don’t just meet for Mass on Sunday but are part of several organizations that conduct community service activities and special events. These include a men’s fellowship; a St. Theresa of the Child Jesus women’s group promoting vocations; Christian Mothers and Fathers; a charismatic prayer group; the Knights of St. John and its ladies auxiliary; and a youth group.
“In 20 years, we have become what might be termed a quasi-parish, preserving our culture, language and traditions,” Christian said. “Change always brings strong emotions, and we will miss the church that’s been our home for so long. But one thing about the Catholic Church is that it is universal, and wherever you go, you belong to the Catholic family.
“It doesn’t matter where our community goes as long as it stays together. With that in mind, I see moving to the Hilltop as an opportunity for growth and for serving a new group of neighbors, and I’m looking to it with great joy.”
