Nigerian Catholic priest kills self after being ordered to return home from US

Reverend Benjamin Okwy Madu, a Nigerian priest working in the United States, has committed suicide after being asked to leave the US and go back to Nigeria, where he had apparently feared for his safety.

The 54-year-old Reverend Madu died on July 2 at his home in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. According to the Archdiocese of Boston, he worked as a hospital chaplain and as a parish priest since 2021.

Father Madu’s religious worker visa was set to expire on July 29. Nonetheless, he was asked to go back to Nigeria by his home Diocese of Abakaliki in Ebonyi State to take up a new posting that was slated to begin on August 4.

According to the report in the Boston Globe newspaper, Father Madu had continually expressed that he did not want to go back to Nigeria. During remarks to the parishioners and in a farewell note posted on his parish website, Father Madu said going back to the US was not his choice but something which circumstances forced him to do.

It was also found out that in the Sunday just before his suicide, the priest had a panic attack while driving to celebrate Mass and was admitted to a hospital emergency room.

Boston Archbishop Richard Henning later informed fellow priests in an internal email that Father Madu had “tragically took his own life,” according to the National Catholic Register. However, the Archdiocese’s public statement announcing his death did not specify suicide as the cause.

The Essex County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the death remains under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police, adding that foul play is not suspected.

Meanwhile, the US-Nigeria Civil Society Coalition alleged that Father Madu experienced severe emotional distress over the prospect of returning to Nigeria, where Catholic priests have increasingly become targets of kidnappings and violent attacks.

The coalition also blamed the inability to renew his visa under current US immigration policies for worsening his situation.

“The terrifying reality of these rigid restrictions was made plain on July 2, 2026, when Father Benjamin Okwy Madu, a beloved 54-year-old Nigerian Catholic priest serving the North Shore of Massachusetts, tragically took his own life,” the group said in a statement.

Father Madu was born on May 15, 1972, and was ordained at St. Theresa Cathedral in Abakaliki and would have been celebrating 25 years as a priest on July 7, which is only five days after his death.

Father Madu had worked in the Archdiocese of Boston for almost six years under the R-1 religious worker visa. As reported by Terrence Donilon, a spokesperson of the archdiocese, there was no way to keep Father Madu in the United States based on existing US immigration laws regarding Nigerians.

Father Madu openly expressed his fear of going back to Nigeria because of security issues as well as kidnapping and killing of Catholic priests in Nigeria.

After his death, it came out that there were attempts to secure political asylum to enable him stay in the US.

US-Nigeria Civil Society Coalition has asked the US government to stop deporting Nigerians and give Temporary Protective Status (TPS) to eligible Nigerian nationals in the US.