A simple priest with a love for people

A willingness to listen and a desire to be present to the people. Father Felix Udolisa, a Dominican priest from Nigeria, says that is what he hopes to bring to the people of Maine.

“It’s basically about people, the salvation of souls, and then, it’s just being there for the people, letting them know that the challenges they are experiencing will pass,” he says.

Father Udolisa is a member of the Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph the Worker, Nigeria and Ghana. He professed his first vows with the Dominicans in 2004, his final vows in 2009, and was ordained a priest in 2012.

He says his desire to be a priest goes back to his teenage years.

“When I was 15, it was a turning point for me: ‘Why am I feeling this way? I think there is something going on and brewing in me.’ It was a desire, a burning desire to be a priest,” he says.

Originally from Lagos in the southwestern part of the country, Father Udolisa was raised in a Catholic family. He remembers, when he was young, his family insisting that he join in praying the Rosary. Initially reluctant, he says he came to embrace it.

“You know how it is with little kids,” he says. “I was, like, ‘Oh, I don’t like stuff like this, but before you know, it’s like, it’s kind of cool. Then, I had the desire to pray more. I became more devoted to church stuff,” he says.

That included being part of the Block Rosary, a local group that met every evening to pray the Rosary, as Our Lady of Fatima asked us to do.

He says when first felt the call to the priesthood, he tried to fight it, but the feeling did not go away. After high school, his father, wanting his only son to follow a more traditional path, wouldn’t let him apply for seminary, but Father Udolisa says his vocational call remained. 

“He kept me at home for four years. He said, ‘You have to go to college. You have to be an engineer,’ stuff like that. I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I want to be a priest.’ We kept going back and forth,” Father Udolisa says. “Then, when I turned 20, he allowed me to join the Dominicans.”

Father Udolisa says he had visited a Dominican church in Lagos when he was growing up and had gone to confession there. He remembers seeing Dominicans chatting and laughing, and although he explored other religious orders, he says he felt drawn to their family style of life.

After his priestly ordination, he first served in Lagos, at St. Dominic Catholic Church and St. Andre du Luc, a small mission church in a fishing community. From there, he became a lecturer at the Siena Institute of Technology in Laos, while also serving as an associate chaplain at St. Thomas More University in Lagos and doing pastoral work.

His ministry briefly took him to Zambia, where the Dominicans were seeking to establish a presence, but he was then named pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Gusau, which is in the northern part of Nigeria. It is a predominantly Muslim area that has been the scene of violent attacks from militants known as “bandits.”

“The situation around was kind of chaotic, with the kidnapping of priests. My friend was killed. A young guy like me, he was killed. Another one was kidnapped,” he says. “I was a bit traumatized when they killed my friend. He was a parish priest in a church called Martin de Porres.”

Despite the violence, which caused many people to leave the area, Father Udolisa sought to continue his ministry.

“I tried to do my work there. I drove around to see the sick and all that, but the major challenge is that when you are traveling on the highway, it is all open fields. You never know; anyone can come out from the bush. That is what they do sometimes. They ambush people and kidnap them into the bush. It’s really a sad situation,” he says.

Father Udolisa says, however, when faced with such challenges, it is important to remember that they can connect us with our Lord’s Passion.

“When we go through something like that, like St. Paul said, we try to offer it up to help unite us with the suffering of Christ. We are still part of Christ,” he says. “Sometimes, we go through stuff. Well, that is life. But we shouldn’t forget the Lord.”

Father Udolisa says he was supposed to serve in northern Nigeria for three years but stayed five, after which he learned his next assignment would be in a place he had never been before.

“I was told I was coming to the United States. I said, ‘Oh, that’s good.’”

He says he enjoys traveling, and coming here gave him the opportunity to reconnect with Father Joseph Osunde, OP, another Dominican priest from Nigeria who is currently serving in Maine.

“We went through the same formation. I think I was ahead of him by two years or so,” he says.

Father Osunde and Father Udolisa are now both serving as parochial vicars of Good Shepherd Parish in Saco, where Father Udolisa says he is looking forward to providing pastoral care to the people.

“I’m just a simple priest, but I love people. I love people a lot, God’s people,” he says. “I want to make a positive impact in the lives of people, to administer the sacraments, to preach the Gospel, and to reach out to souls.”

Father Udolisa says he loves to teach, and he loves youth ministry.

“Maybe it’s my personality, but I love the energy,” he says. 

He also likes sports, especially soccer, and he enjoys learning languages. He speaks five of them, including English, French, Spanish, Igbo, and Yoruba.

Father Udolisa says he also remains committed to praying the Rosary and has a devotion to the Blessed Mother.

“We need to look at her and learn how to follow the will of God,” he says. “She is the perfect disciple.”