Name: Michael Onuoha
Hometown: Enugu, Nigeria
Stage of formation: Prenovice

Michael Onuoha, 28, from Enugu, Nigeria, is the son of the late Joseph Okoronkwo Onuoha and Christiana Onuoha. Michael was accepted into Glenmary’s prenovitiate last year, but did not receive his travel visa until the summer of 2007. He has holds a degree in philosophy from the Missionary Society of St. Paul and has also owned his own business for a short period of time. He spent the last year working at St. Patrick Church located on the outskirts of Enugu in an area known as “coal camp.” Michael hopes to be a priest with Glenmary.

More about Michael Onuoha

At the age of 10, Michael Onuoha knew he wanted to be a priest and wanted to pattern his life on the Missionaries of Africa who served his home parish in Nigeria. His motivation to become a missionary prompted him to earn a philosophy degree from the Missionary Society of St. Paul before applying to Glenmary on the recommendation of a Josephite priest.

After graduating from school and before and his acceptance into Glenmary’s prenovitiate, Michael owned and operated a business that offered low-cost telephone calls. But his aspirations toward the life of a missionary did not wane. Michael worked for nearly a year to obtain the needed visa to travel to the United States to join Glenmary.

Despite his troubles obtaining his visa, Michael has sustained a good sense of humor, says Father Vic Subb, the director of Glenmary’s prenovitiate. “He is lighthearted, and has a wonderful ability to laugh,” Father Vic says. Michael laughs about how he envisioned the Glenmary House of Studies, thinking that it would be a large compound, not the rambling house in the center of Hartford, Ky. Although the house is not at all what he thought it would be, Michael says that he enjoys living in community with the other men in prenovitiate.

Michael is attracted to the unique mission of Glenmary. He grew up in various villages in Africa (his father was a police officer and the family moved frequently) and recognizes the need for missioners in rural areas of the United States as well as Africa.

As a student at Brescia University in Owensboro, Michael is studying American history and, knowing that it will be necessary for a missionary priest, he is beginning to learn Spanish from others in the house in Hartford.

Like the others in the prenovitiate, Michael spends two or three days a week in apostolic activities. He visits in an Ohio County nursing home, works with a mental health group and in the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop. He looks forward to joining the choir at Holy Redeemer, the former Glenmary mission in Beaver Dam. Michael sings and plays the drums and says that the Hispanic flavor to the parish’s liturgical music reminds him of the liturgies in his home in Nigeria.

 Michael has two brothers and three sisters, the youngest of whom is a religious with the Daughters on the Holy Spirit.

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