Nigerian faithful say native-language Masses help promote vocations, ancestral heritage

Southfield — Every first Sunday of the month, Emelda Duruaku walks into St. Cecilia Church on Livernois Avenue in Detroit. But it feels like she’s stepping into a church that’s half a world away. And in many respects, she is.

Duruaku is part of the ever-growing Igbo Catholic community, made up of Nigerian immigrants in Michigan wishing to worship God in the same manner their ancestors did.

“Coming to an Igbo Mass makes us feel at home, still remembering where we come from, preserving our culture and language,” Duruaku said.

The Igbo Catholic community in Michigan began in 1996, when 15 people met at St. Cecilia for the first Igbo-language Mass.

Now, the community has grown to more than 200 families spread across Michigan, primarily in Metro Detroit.

On April 22, Fr. Michael Nkachukwu, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Heaven-Good Shepherd Parish in Detroit and the leader of the local Igbo Catholic community, welcomed Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon to Divine Providence Lithuanian Church on Nine Mile Road in Southfield, where the community celebrated Mass and formally kicked off its effort to pursue canonical recognition from the Archdiocese of Detroit to establish an Igbo parish or mission, similar to those of Divine Providence for the Lithuanian community or St. Andrew Kim Parish for Korean Catholics in Northville.

“Today is another step for our parish,” Fr. Nkachukwu said. “This is the inauguration of the Nigerian Igbo parish movement. Igbo Catholics, just like here with the Lithuanian parish, want our own parish.”

People on the move

The influx of Igbo migration to the United States began mostly as the result of the Nigerian Civil War from 1967-70. Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, and declared a republic in 1963.

On May 30, 1967, the Igbo and other predominately Christian ethnic groups in southeastern Nigeria formed the Republic of Biafra and declared independence from the rest of Nigeria, which was predominantly Muslim.

Following a three-year war, Nigeria defeated Biafra, leading to a series of persecutions and poverty that drove many Igbo to leave the country. Today, an estimated 220,000 Igbo live in the United States, with about 4,500 living in the Metro Detroit area.

Duruaku and Fr. Nkachukwu know how important it is to keep Igbo culture alive in their new home. But the establishment of an Igbo parish is about more than just keeping the language and culture alive.

“We’re worried about a lack of Igbo vocations,” Fr. Nkachukwu told The Michigan Catholic. “We need a parish to encourage vocations, to build up the church.”

The Igbo Catholic community submitted paperwork to the Archdiocese of Detroit’s Department of Parish Life and Services to receive recognition as a parish or quasi-parish, so they can began their quest to find a more permanent location to celebrate Mass and facilitate the growth of Igbo culture in Michigan. The community currently celebrates two regular Igbo-language Masses each month, at 1:45 p.m. on the first Sunday of the month at St. Cecilia and the third Sunday of the month at Our Lady Queen of Heaven-Good Shepherd.

“We have a goal to get up to 750 families,” Fr. Nkachukwu said. “Among the request of the community to the archbishop and archdiocese includes the recognition of their status as a unique faith community with special gifts, support for its goal of establishing a parish of its own or in the interim a mission status, so it may have some legal standing to start to deposit in an effort to secure our own location.”

Right now the Igbo Catholic community spends an estimated $5,000 a year in outreach to the community, including $3,000 a year to St. Charles Lwanga Parish for the use of its St. Cecilia site.

“It’s our hope and prayer the Igbo Catholic community will be accorded some sort of recognition in the archdiocese after this launching of our campaign,” Fr. Nkachukwu said. “The faith community needs moral and technical support to reach its goal, which would be a ‘win-win’ for both the community and the archdiocese.”

Finding home

As the Igbo community celebrated inside Divine Providence’s parish center, members of the community raised money and signed up to be on the community’s official roster.

Recalling what it means for a people so far from their native home to come to Michigan and make it home, Duruaku said the community has a just reason to celebration.

“Today we’re doing the actualization for fundraising to have our own parish,” Duruaku said. “It’s a great honor for Igbos in Michigan to have an Igbo Catholic organization, a place to teach our children our culture. It’d be a great honor for Igbos in Michigan to have our own parish. We’re all over, from Detroit to Canton, Southfield, West Bloomfield, Lansing and Ann Arbor. We’re part of the culture of this region now.”

During the Mass, Bishop Hanchon related the need for “coming home” to one’s culture to that of Divine Mercy, which was celebrated that weekend.

“God knows how much of his mercy is needed, everywhere,” Bishop Hanchon said. “So to leave home, where the language and culture here is so different, is a best test. But on Sunday, to use the language, culture and dance, to come home to that. There is a mercy to that.”

Bishop Hanchon spoke about St. Faustina Kowalska painting the original Divine Mercy image before World War II broke out, and the great need in those times to trust in Jesus.

He likened it to the trust in Jesus an immigrant people needs to move to a new home and establish new roots.

“So much depends on us expressing mercy, that to know those who choose sin are making a terrible choice,” Bishop Hanchon said. “They require mercy. And God says, ‘I forgive your sins, so now forgive others.’ If we look at all the mercy we’ve received, we see it’s up to us to spread the message, to say, ‘Jesus, I trust in you.’”

The Igbo Catholic community continues to celebrate Mass in their ancestral language with the guidance of Fr. Nkachukwu and two other priests: Fr. Peter Ben Opara, chaplain of St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, and Fr. Luke Iwuji of Our Lady Queen of Apostles in Hamtramck and St. Hyacinth in Detroit.

“When we gather to celebrate Mass together, as Nigerians all over the world celebrate Mass, we show we are one,” Fr. Nkachukwu said. “That’s why it’s important to have a community, to show we are one Church, united together in worshiping God. The atmosphere generated at Mass speaks volumes to how much it means to the Igbo Catholic community to celebrate Mass in Igbo, to worship God in a culture that’s familiar. That’s what it means in coming home to Christ.”