FR GABRIEL WADA: TRUE MISSIONARY OF THE ‘PERIPHERY’

—St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Acharu-Egume

Contextual Background. The Holy Father Pope Francis, in the very first year of his Pontificate, gave the Church a lovely Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, precisely on 24 November, the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and the conclusion of the Year of Faith, in the year 2013.

The Supreme Pontiff, did not delay to demonstrate the focal point of his Letter. Thus, in four intense paragraphs of the very first sub-title of the first chapter (The Church’s Missionary Transformation), he introduces terminologies and phrases that would define the entire motion of the Church, and by extension, the Claretian Missionaries. He calls that sub-title: A Church which goes forth.

The word of God constantly shows us how God challenges those who believe in him “to go forth”… Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel. (§ 20; bold emphasis ours)

In furtherance, the Holy Father explains:

The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take the first step and to become involved. (§ 24)

Fr Wada has joined the league of those disciples, full of zeal and audacious in the like of Padre Claret, and has, ipso facto, taken a step to mission in the “margins”. Nothing daunts him!

Adaptation. The XXV General Chapter of the Claretian Missionaries took Pope Francis’ call to go to the peripheries very seriously. The Congregation through many recent Letters and documents keys into the belief that being present in the periphery, the borderlands, as enjoined by His Holiness, creates an awareness to our original charism as an Apostolic Institution and, thus, exhales better dynamics of our life as “true Missionaries”, following the footsteps of our Holy Father Founder, St Anthony Mary Claret.

However, it is true that we, the Claretians, are called Missionaries, but are we readily disposed to respond, promptly, to the call by going to mission, and, in the context of this piece, missioning to the peripheries, the margins? Fr Gabriel Wada answers yes, not just by name, but also indeed.

True Mission—Truly Missionary. Like a true shepherd, Fr Wada, beyond preaching, teaching and mentoring shows the love of Christ to his new communities through visitations, volunteering and serving the people of God for the betterment and growth of the entire locality. This Claretian, son of Claret, is living-out the examples of Jesus Christ by his way of life as the Parish Priest of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Acharu Egume in Dekina LGA, in the Catholic Diocese of Idah, Kogi State, North-Central Region of Nigeria. He is a pioneer Claretian Missionary in the Diocese.

Content. St. Joseph Catholic Church is about 25km drive from Lokoja, the State’s capital. The church has five outstations with a population of about 1,350 parishioners. They are ideal villagers whose main occupations is peasant farming. A handful of others at best do petty trading. However, other Christian denominations such as CEFN, CMML, FOURSQUARE, LIVING FAITH etc. abound in the neighbourhood.

In fact, the Church is located in a very rural area, where the villagers live in rusty zinc roofs and thatched-mud houses with no electric power supply, no pipe-borne water, no good roads and no parish house for the clergy. Mainly, motorcycles access the outstations. The priest is lucky, if one likes to say that, as his major source of water is the seasonal rainfall and the unstable borehole around the vicinity. He also has a small power generator whose repairs and fueling help sap his meagre income.

Like the primogenitor missionaries, Fr Wada’s ministry is not limited to preaching the Word, but also instructing and educating the poor children. Hence, the Church has a Primary school – St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School with a population of about 150 pupils. During the total lockdown precipitated by the Corona virus pandemic, Fr Wada was deeply involved in the buying and distribution of foodstuffs to the population.

Yes! We may build flyovers and electronic bridges in our parishes in Abuja and Lagos, Rev Fr Gabriel Ogbadu Wada, CMF, is a Missionary qua tale. His is a Mission with underpinning characteristics of mission in the borderlands, the peripheries, as defined by Pope Francis and our Congregation. His presence at St Joseph’s Catholic Church Acharu Egume is the Delegation’s concrete way of manifesting the Church’s Missio ad gentes. We MUST support him, in all TOTALITY.