On a sunny morning at St. Benedict the African Catholic Church on Chicago’s South Side, Father Rukulatwa Kiiguta stepped into the center of the sanctuary to preach.
“My brothers and sisters, yes, we do have this mission of saving souls by bringing them to Christ,” he told the assembly, looking around at the 50-odd people gathered in the Black Catholic parish, many of whom nodded as he spoke.
Kiiguta moved to the U.S. from his home in Tanzania for exactly that reason. After meeting an American priest who had traveled to East Africa to recruit seminarians, Kiiguta joined the ranks of about 15 African priests in Chicago. He sees his work in the Englewood neighborhood — where many families struggle to make ends meet, but Catholics pour their hearts into their parish — as God’s will.
This missionary’s story reflects a fundamental shift in the American Catholic church. After decades of U.S. missionaries traveling to Africa to convert and preach, the trend is reversing: Across the country, parishes now rely on the ministry of international priests, many from East Africa and Nigeria.
The Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the biggest American dioceses, is a case in point — almost two-thirds of its priests under 50 were born outside the U.S.
It’s difficult to estimate the number of foreign missionaries in the U.S. because their paths are so diverse. But recent studies by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) estimated the U.S. hosts some 6,600 international priests and more than 4,000 international nuns.
Meanwhile, the number of American priests is tumbling: there are 10,000 fewer priests now than there were two decades ago.
Sister Thu Do, a research associate at CARA, described the trend as “reverse missionary action.” She said the number of international priests and sisters has likely grown since the Georgetown center’s last study in 2019.
“Because of the shortage of vocations in the priesthood as well as in religious life, religious institutes and dioceses here in the U.S. go outside of the U.S. to recruit new members,” she said.
A century-old religious order changes with the times
Patrick Okok, a 32-year-old seminarian, is one such young man.
Okok grew up in Sega, a rural Kenyan town an eight-hour drive outside Nairobi. Now, six years into his training and 8,000 miles from home, he’s living in Chicago, where tempratures fell into the 20s last week, preparing to become a missionary with the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
Maryknoll was founded in the United States over a century ago with the unique mission of sending its members permanently abroad to share their religion. Missionary groups like Maryknoll are a major reason for Catholicism’s widespread popularity in East Africa today.
But as American vocations have dwindled, Maryknoll’s identity has had to change, too. In 2016, the order began accepting applicants from other countries. Okok, who joined in 2017, was among the first international candidates to join the community.
Now, the order’s international numbers are thriving, according to Father Mike Snyder, a Maryknoll priest. Almost 20 men are training to join the community now, with over two dozen others in East Africa contemplating entry into Maryknoll’s seminary.
