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The Rev. Ben Madu, a Nigerian national who had served at Salem Hospital and ministered at three Cape Ann churches, died Thursday night following an order to return home, Boston’s archbishop told fellow priests early Friday. Madu’s visa was expiring after having served on the North Shore since 2021.
Boston Archbishop Richard G. Henning told fellow priests that Madu had taken his own life, according to two copies of the message viewed by a reporter.
Madu had expressed fears about going back during remarks to parishioners last month at St. Joachim Church in Rockport. In Nigeria, many priests have been abducted for ransom, and some have been murdered by their kidnappers, or have died during captivity.
In a blog post last weekend, Madu said he did not want to return to Nigeria, “but circumstances beyond my control have warranted that my time in the United States come to an end.”
“My heart is broken, yet my joy remains. If I am ever given the chance to minister again to the people of Gloucester and Rockport, I would gladly do it all over again,” Madu wrote. “I will miss the home I found away from home, a mother far from my mother, a father far from my father, and a people far from my own people.”
Henning, whose email to priests Friday morning was addressed “Dear Brothers,” requested his colleagues to pray for Madu in “asking the Lord to bring comfort and healing to all who mourn his passing.”
“We extend our prayers and heartfelt condolences to his family, brother priests and friends in Nigeria as well as the many people he ministered to here in Cape Ann and at Salem Hospital,” Henning said in the message.
A mass for Madu will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Good Voyage Church in Gloucester.
Madu was born in Abor, Nigeria, on May 15, 1972, and was 54, according to the Boston archdiocese. He had served as a chaplain principally at Salem Hospital since May 2021, and also at three churches on Cape Ann.
Madu would have celebrated his 25th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood on July 7, the archdiocese said. He had been ordained at St. Theresa Cathedral Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, in Nigeria.
In a separate statement released by the Archdiocese Friday afternoon, Madu was initially scheduled to depart for Nigeria at the end of July, but was instructed by the bishop in the Diocese of Abakaliki to return home early. The Archdiocese statement does not refer to Madu’s death as a suicide.
The Office of Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker confirmed Madu’s death is under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to Tucker’s office and the Lynn Police Department.
Madu had worked for the archdiocese for nearly six years, mostly under two consecutive R-1 visas for religious workers. Madu’s current visa was set to expire July 29.
The US Department of Homeland Security requires religious workers seeking another visa to leave the country before obtaining a new one.
But the department has also suspended the processing of some immigration cases for nationals of 75 countries, including Nigeria. The Trump administration has deemed people from those countries likely to require public assistance while living in the US, the AP reported.
The Globe does not normally report on suicides, but Madu had become a public figure and was a longtime religious leader on the North Shore.
Henning, in the archdiocese statement, said officials are working with the Catholic communities of Gloucester and Rockport, and their pastor, the Rev. Jim Achadinha, “during this difficult time and period of mourning.”
Achadinha, in a blog post on the church’s website, said Madu had served Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish “with true joy, kindness, and generosity for more than four years,” Achadinha said, calling Madu a “good man and holy priest.”
Achadinha asked for prayers. “We are all heartbroken,” he said.
Arlene Lesch, a parishioner with Holy Family Church, said Madu’s death was devasting. “It shouldn’t have happened,” Lesch said in an interview.
He seemed to love his job, she said. He was always smiling. Madu, who was known as “Father Ben,” would chat with anyone who wanted a word with him after Mass, she said.
Lesch said she was among those who made calls to political leaders, pleading with officials to find a way for Madu to remain in the US.
When Madu announced during Mass he had to leave the country, she said, he stood before parishioners, bowed, and asked for their prayers.
“He was always a sweet man,” Lesch said. “He was such an asset to our community.”
Madu, in his blog post, talked about his experiences celebrating Mass for the first time in a predominately white community. His presence could prompt an initial reaction of “curiosity, fixed stares, and guarded expressions,” he wrote.
After Mass, he would often receive praise for his homilies, some parishioners would feel like he was speaking directly to them, he wrote. But he wasn’t doing anything extraordinary, he said, beyond the care he put into his work.
“I do not simply prepare it. I absorb it fully. And then through stories, life experiences, humor and reflection, I try to offer something nourishing to myself and to the faithful,” Madu wrote.
He thanked community members for the love and hospitality he received from Saint Joachim Church in Rockport, as well as Gloucester’s Saint Ann Church and Our Lady of Good Voyage Church, where he held Mass each weekend.
He said he’d miss the North Shore, and the seaside, where he’d call his family after Mass.
Where the ocean meets the rocks and its endless rhythm, he said, became “the music of my post–Mass peace." He found comfort and serenity there, he said.
The message was signed, “Goodbye from my heart. — Father Ben Okwy Madu."
Brian MacQuarrie of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.
