Found His Vocation at an Army Base

Father Adolphus Emeka Muoghalu

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After Adolphus Muoghalu graduated from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Nigeria, with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, he did what many other young adults do—he packed up his bags and he traveled.

Father Muoghalu traveled through Europe and, then, Cyprus, where he remained to obtain a degree in tourism and hospitality management from the Eastern Mediterranean University. It was the first time he was in a largely Muslim area of a country. His home in the southeast part of Nigeria is about 90 percent Catholic.

In Cyprus, he began to crave the Church’s familiar traditions and found the closest place to attend Mass was at a Slovakian-run Army base.

Other students would also go there for Mass. “The chaplain from Slovakia would prepare the homily and would give it to me to read because his English wasn’t very good. I became a link between him and the other students,” said Father Muoghalu, 36.

“One day, the chaplain told me, ‘I believe God may want to use you in ministry,’” he said with a shy laugh and a bit of astonishment.

That suggestion caused Father Muoghalu to seriously think about the priesthood. He traveled to a Benedictine monastery in London, England, to pray and discern if he had a priestly vocation.

He remembered the faith of his childhood and the zeal he once had for it. As a young altar boy he attended daily Mass with his mother, Beatrice Muoghalu-Obiakor. His father, Matthias Muoghalu-Obiakor died in 1991. He has two brothers.

In 2009, the direction of Father Muoghalu’s life changed again. He obtained a visa for the United States. After he arrived, he joined the U.S. Army Reserves with the hopes of serving as an Army chaplain thanks to the example set by Slovakian chaplain he met in Cyprus. Father Muoghalu has served two years in the reserves and has earned the rank of Second Lieutenant.

That was only half of his task. His faith had grown, and he had discerned that he was indeed called to the priesthood. After doing research and emailing Father Luke Sweeney, who was then archdiocesan director of vocations, he came to St. Joseph’s Seminary for a three-day visit. That visit turned into a four-year stay.

“I didn’t go back,” said Father Muoghalu with a chuckle. “New York is a metropolitan area, like the place where I grew up. This is the best place for me to serve God,” he said.

“I want to be an instrument where people can see God through me, where they can see Christ,” he said.

Father Adolphus Emeka Muoghalu will celebrate his first Mass at Resurrection Church in Rye on Sunday, May 24 at 1:30 p.m. Father Luke Sweeney, an archdiocesan priest who is vice rector of the Cathedral Seminary House of Formation in Douglaston, Queens, will be the homilist.