Associate pastor in Mountain Home becomes citizen

Growing up in war, priest values America as ‘a country that welcomes everybody’

Published: March 14, 2015

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Father Christopher Okeke, a native of Nigeria and associate pastor at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home, holds his certificate of United States citizenship, which he received Dec. 12.

Aprille Hanson

Father Christopher Okeke, a native of Nigeria and associate pastor at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home, holds his certificate of United States citizenship, which he received Dec. 12.

MOUNTAIN HOME — On Dec. 12, Father Christopher Okeke was able to officially call two countries home — his native Nigeria and the United States.

For about four months, Father Okeke would duck in his office between moments of prayer, celebrating Mass and assisting the needs of parishioners at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home and traveling to St. Mary Church in Mountain View, to flip through the pages of his American history/civics book. He studied everything from the Declaration of Independence to the various branches of government and how it operates.

“I like to be here … secondly if I want to go anywhere, it would be easier for me to go,” Father Okeke said. “Even if my bishop says today, ‘You have to come back,’ I can go home and if I feel like coming back here, it’s just a question of getting my flight ticket and no one will question me.”

Then he and 54 other candidates, with 24 countries represented — pointing out that he was the only one from West Africa — became U.S. citizens.

“I was really happy when I succeeded in getting my citizenship,” Father Okeke said. “America is a free country. A country that welcomes everybody. It’s a very nice place.”

It is a far cry from his humble beginnings in Amanze Obowo in the Imo state of Nigeria, where he was born in 1954. The second of three sons, Father Okeke and his brothers were dealt devastating blows. Father Okeke was just 5 years old when his father died and just eight years later, his mother also died of illness.

“During the time my mom died that’s when we were just in the war, because the war started in Nigeria in 1967, the civil war,” Father Okeke said.

Left as orphans, the brothers lived with their uncle and other relatives before going to an orphanage to be raised by the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy in Avutu.

For a child during the Nigerian civil war, the threat of death is real. It was at this time, Father Okeke made a promise to God.

“I said to God, ‘If you will protect myself and my brothers, if you keep us alive that I will offer myself, I will sacrifice myself to you,’” he pleaded.

He was accepted to Bigard Memorial Seminary in 1981 and later studied at the Seminary of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Father Okeke had unique obstacles to overcome while at the seminary, as there were rumors that Muslim extremists wanted to go to lethal measures to eradicate Christianity and convert Nigerians to Islam.

“They wanted to kill all people in the seminary; if they do that, it’d be easier for them to deal with the Church, Christianity. During that time at the seminary we were asked to keep watch of who is coming … but nothing happened,” Father Okeke said. “What they are doing now, they are bombing churches, killing people; maybe this is what would have taken place at that time, but nobody gave them the chance.”

On Aug. 3, 1991, he fulfilled his promise to God and was ordained a priest with the Umuahia Diocese.

In 2005 he was called by the bishop in his home diocese to serve in Arkansas. He has served in a variety of parishes including Lake Village, Hot Springs, Fort Smith and Jonesboro, celebrating Masses in English for the first time.

Not only did he have to adjust to the Southern accent, he was asked to say Spanish Masses in Fort Smith and Jonesboro — a language he’d never spoken before. But by what Father Okeke called “supernatural grace,” he learned the language.

In 2011, he arrived at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home. Then came another challenge — Bishop Anthony B. Taylor asked him to celebrate Mass in Latin — despite not knowing any Latin.

“I had not celebrated Mass in Latin, I don’t know Latin. It was supernatural grace,” Father Okeke said. “Nearly I packed my bags and left this area when I was asked to take Latin. But I thank God, the good Lord answered my prayer to help me to be able to celebrate Latin Mass. I’m not even taking classes, but somebody comes to help me with the pronunciation of words.”