Events

For Passionist priests Fr Joash Oloo Okeyo CP and Fr Julius Philip Ouma Nyandiga CP, accepting an offer from their Superior to come to Australia was a lot easier than saying goodbye to the communities they served in Kenya.

For Passionist priests Fr Joash Oloo Okeyo CP and Fr Julius Philip Ouma Nyandiga CP, accepting an offer from their Superior to come to Australia was a lot easier than saying goodbye to the communities they served in Kenya.

Both men were well aware that joining a missionary congregation such as the Passionists could take them to faraway places.

“We joined with the readiness that you can be sent anywhere,” Fr Joash told The Southern Cross a few days after arriving in Adelaide on July 26.

But he and Fr Julius weren’t so prepared for the sad farewells.

Since his ordination in 2018, Fr Julius has been chaplain to the Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Nairobi, Kenya, as well as to a hospital and a battalion of army engineers. His pastoral work also involved the Sisters’ school and when some of the children cried at his farewell, the gently-spoken 35 year old said he “wished the Superior did not pick me”.

Similarly, Fr Joash, 39, who was a parish priest in Nakuru diocese, spoke of how difficult it was to “see adults shedding tears”.

On the flip side, the priests have been heartened by the warm welcome they have received already in Adelaide.

“Personally, I have had an experience of very friendly and welcoming people, because a place is always about the people; it can be a beautiful place but if the people are not receptive the beauty is as good as nothing, so for me I’ve had a good experience,” Fr Joash said.

Fr Julius agreed: “When we reached the airport I thought maybe we would just get a few people coming here to meet us, but there were a good number of people with smiling faces, as if we had been living together before and they were just welcoming us back. That really made me feel at home.”

Both priests were born and raised in Homa Bay Diocese where Bishop Michael Odiwa has served since 2021, after five years in the Hectorville parish in Adelaide.

Fr Julius said he spoke at length on the phone to the Bishop as well as to his friend Fr George Ochola Oluoch who is currently a priest in the Adelaide Cathedral parish.

Fr Julius grew up in a small village in Migori County which borders Tanzania, Uganda and Homa Bay County.

“I come from a relatively big family, because I come from a polygamous family,” he explained.

His father had three wives – Fr Julius’ mother, who had eight children, and his two step mothers, who had 12 children between them.

“We all lived together, had meals together, prayed and went to church together – the women generally follow the faith of the husband and my father was Catholic,” he said.

“My parents were notoriously religious, they loved prayers so much.”

The priests in his parish were Passionists and he greatly admired them, especially as a young child.

“They were all white so I thought if I became a priest, I will be white,” he laughed.

His vocation took greater hold when he was at high school, which was run by religious brothers, but he initially thought about pursuing a career in medicine.

In his final year, he said he “changed back to becoming a priest” but wasn’t sure if he wanted to be a brother or a priest.

As was the common practice for high school graduates, he returned home for a year of teaching in the village school to earn some money and during that period he re-established his relationship with the Passionists.

“I realised the dream was now burning,” Fr Julius said.

“There was this priest who came to celebrate Mass, a young Passionist had been involved in an accident in the lake, they lost three people so their rector came to say Mass in their village, and I loved how the priest was talking about suffering.

“I watched my father suffer a lot before he died, I was 10, and when the priest was talking about suffering I was drawn to that. It inspired me to join the Passionists because I was able to connect to the human suffering.”

Joining the seminary, he studied for nine years in four different places in Kenya and Tanzania.

It was in his first year in the seminary in Nairobi that he met Fr Joash, who had come from a village in the Suba district of Homa Bay County.

Like Fr Julius, he was the son of subsistence farmers and was the third oldest of ten children.

“It was a big family but not as big as his (Fr Julias’),” he said with a smile.

His mother and father were devout Catholics and they went to Mass every Sunday. Once again the parish was run by the Passionists.

“I only knew them, I never knew any other congregations,” he said.

“I always wanted to be a priest, when I had first Holy Communion, I would have been 12, I just wanted to be next to the priest, I wanted to serve at Mass. The desire grew from there.”

When Fr Joash was in secondary school he joined the Young Catholic Students movement where students could come together to practise their faith, with a focus on vocations.

He recalled a magazine produced by missionaries called The Seed which included contact details for various religious orders, but not the Passionists.

Students assigned themselves to an order and Fr Joash made contact in writing with the Society of Mary but nothing eventuated before he finished school and he returned home to his village.

While volunteering in the local school, he was asked by his parish priest to represent the Passionists at a vocations workshop in another town. The priest knew of his discernment and thought it would be an opportunity for him to learn more about being a Passionist.

“I went to represent my parish and I never left,” he laughed.

While there were times in his nine years in the seminary that he had “moments of questioning” as to whether he was meant to be a priest and a Passionist, he said  “at the end of the day I realised that it was home for me, and it is still home for me”.

Click here to read more.