A Nigerian Catholic priest serving in Massachusetts, United States, has died by suicide just weeks before he was due to return to Nigeria, a move he had reportedly opposed because of fears for his safety.
The Reverend Benjamin Okwy Madu, 54, was found dead on July 2 at his residence in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, the Archdiocese of Boston confirmed. Since 2021, he had served as both a hospital chaplain and parish priest on Cape Ann.
Madu’s R-1 religious worker visa was scheduled to expire on July 29. However, according to the Boston Globe, his home Diocese of Abakaliki instructed him to return to Nigeria before that date so he could assume a new pastoral assignment beginning on August 4.
Reports indicated that Madu repeatedly expressed reluctance to return to Nigeria.
Addressing parishioners in June and in a farewell message published on his parish’s website shortly before his death, he acknowledged that leaving the United States was not by choice.
In the message, he wrote that returning to Nigeria was not his wish, “but circumstances beyond my control have warranted that my time in the United States come to an end.”
The Boston Globe also reported that Madu experienced a panic attack while driving to celebrate Mass on the Sunday before his death.
He was taken to a hospital emergency department for treatment, according to a parishioner.
In an internal email to priests, Boston Archbishop Richard Henning disclosed that Madu had “tragically took his own life,” according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by the National Catholic Register and reported on Monday.
The Archdiocese of Boston’s public announcement of Madu’s death did not state that it was a suicide.
Meanwhile, the office of Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said the Massachusetts State Police are investigating the death but added that there was no indication of foul play.
The US-Nigeria Civil Society Coalition, in a statement made available to The Punch and other media organisations this week, linked Madu’s death to the emotional strain of facing a return to Nigeria.
The coalition said Madu “suffered acute emotional distress and panic over the prospect of returning to a region where Catholic clergy are actively targeted for kidnapping and assassination,” while also blaming the inability to renew his visa under current US immigration restrictions.
“The terrifying reality of these rigid restrictions was made plain on July 2, 2026, when Father Benjamin Okwy Madu, a beloved 54-year-old Nigerian Catholic priest serving the North Shore of Massachusetts, tragically took his own life,” the coalition said.
Born in Nigeria on May 15, 1972, Madu was ordained at St Theresa Cathedral in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
He died five days before what would have been his 25th anniversary as a Catholic priest on July 7.
He had ministered in the Archdiocese of Boston for almost six years under successive R-1 religious worker visas, with his latest permit due to expire on July 29.
According to the Boston Globe, Archdiocese spokesman Terrence Donilon said there was no available option to extend Madu’s visa because of current US immigration policies affecting Nigerian nationals.
Friends and parishioners said Madu had openly voiced concerns about returning to Nigeria, citing the growing insecurity and repeated cases of kidnappings and killings involving Catholic priests.
One of his parishioners, Arlene Lesch of Holy Family Church, told the Boston Globe that she joined others in appealing to political leaders in an effort to secure permission for Madu to remain in the United States.
In its statement, the US-Nigeria Civil Society Coalition urged American authorities to suspend deportations of Nigerians and grant Temporary Protected Status to Nigerian nationals currently living in the United States.
