Rev. Fr. John Ugobueze, M.A., DHCE
Father John Ugobueze was ordained as a diocesan priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria, in 1985. He served as a priest and pastor in rural parishes in the State of Anambra, Nigeria for nearly 10 years, among them, St. Gregory’s Catholic Parish, Iyiowa, Odekpe, Anambra State, Nigeria. His Archbishop sent him to the United States for graduate studies, where he earned Masters degrees in Theology and in Rhetoric Communication, and a Doctorate in Health Care Ethics (DHCE). Fr. John is Board Certified in Clinical Pastoral Education, having completed his Chaplaincy training with studies and pastoral care with several United States medical centers, including the Mayo Clinic, and while employed as vice president of Spiritual Care at the Provena Medical Center in Illinois. Presently Fr. John resides and works in Houston. He serves as one of the nine full-time Chaplains at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center (MEDVAMC), one of the largest and most prestigious VA Medical Centers in the country, serving almost 130,000 veterans from all over the country. While he was in Nigeria, the local, mainly rural parishioners of his parishes wanted to recognize him for his apostolic work as spiritual director of the CATHOLIC EUCHARISTIC PRAYER MINISTRY, ODEKPE. Community members urged their leaders, Chiefs, the Okakwu, Local Government Area Head and Principal to donate a large tract of private and community property to allow the Church’s continued work in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the “alleviation of misery and want among the sick and poor,” as the property Deed states. After his experiences in Nigeria, Father John sees a critical need for high quality medical and psychiatric care in rural communities. Scientific surveys and studies by the United Nations, World Health Organization, NGOs, and researchers in Nigeria’s Teaching Hospitals also concur with Fr John’s observations. Fr. John has not forgotten the wishes of his Nigerian parishioners in Odekpe. He founded a United States IRS 501(3)(c) not-for-profit corporation. Assisted by a team of professional advisors in Texas and Nigeria, he is working to raise funds from foundations to design and coordinate construction of a Western model hospital in the impoverished rural Odekpe community.
Jesus wants us to show everyone the kind of love that others can know and recognize. For the poor of nigeria, a hospital providing high quality medical ane mental health care is how to show that love.
I am Fr. John Ugobueze. i was ordained as a diocesan priest in 1985 in Nigeria and served as pastor in rural parishes in the State of Anambra, Nigeria for nearly 10 years. That part of Southeastern Nigeria is predominately Catholic. Soon, the parishioners began to recognize my promise as homilist and pastor even though I was so young… as thousands of faithful would crowd into the church for Mass. They brought all kinds of problems, asking for Christ’s healing and his caring pastoral care – something very challenging for me as a young priest just out of the seminary.
Many of those thousands who came had mental and serious medical issues. Extremely poor in this desolate part of Nigeria, my parishioners simply had nowhere else to go. So I did what I could with the tools given to me, my training in pastoral care, my faith, and the blessings I gave using holy water.
Looking ahead, the Archbishop sent me to the United States to obtain a Masters degree in Theology and a Doctorate in Health Care Ethics. Now, with Board Certification in Clinical Pastoral Education and having completed Chaplaincy training at the Mayo Clinic, I serve as a Chaplain at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas, one of the largest in the United States.
Besides my “day job” at the VA hospital and his pastoral duties, my other passion is to fulfill a life-long vision – I want to help Archbishop Valerian OKeke in Nigeria to design and build a Western-style psychiatric hospital in rural Southeastern Nigeria, where there are NO SUCH HOSPITALS.
I am proud to serve as president of the Catholic League for the Poor of Nigeria, with a board of highly dedicated, distinguished group comprised of a psychiatrist, physicians, architect, and with the help of several attorneys providing pro bono assistance to this Work of Mercy.
I hope you will help to make this much-needed hospital a reality.
Fr. John Ugobueze, President
