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When he was growing up in Massachusetts, Tom Wright heard two calls. One, he felt, was from God, calling him to become a Protestant clergyman. The other came from somewhere within himself and was propelling him toward Africa.

First to Africa then The Call

He resisted that first call—"I thought: There's no way I want to become a minister," he remembers—but eventually bargained with God over his desire to go to Africa.

"I said, OK, God, this isn't going away, so I'll make a deal with you. Give me two years in Africa, and then I'll become a minister." So he joined the Peace Corps and taught in a Catholic school in Ghana.

It was there that his two calls merged surprisingly and that his vocation changed dramatically.

An Order dedicated to Africa

Today, the 42-year-old Wright, now a Catholic priest, is the newly elected head of the American province of a Roman Catholic missionary order specializing in African missions. As head of the Tenafly-based province, Wright supervises the order's 51 American priests and lay people working in the United States and Africa and strives to recruit new missionaries.

His transition came slowly. When he arrived in Africa, he sought out a Protestant church.

African Experiences

"I was attending a Methodist church," he said, "but the service was in the local language and was three hours long." One of the Roman Catholic nuns told him that he would be welcome to attend when an Irish priest came to the mission and said Mass in English.

She provided Wright with a missal - a guide to the Mass - and for the next two years Wright attended Mass and "felt strongly drawn to the Catholic Church," despite his intention to become a Protestant minister.

Finally, he recalls, "the light bulb lit up in my head. I liked Africa, I liked the Catholic Church; why shouldn't I become a priest and a missionary in Africa." He joined the Catholic Church on Easter 1984 and by September, he was studying for the priesthood under the direction of the Society of African Missions, known as the SMA Fathers.

Civil War in Liberia

He speaks modestly of his own years in Africa. But his work - in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast - and his travels on behalf of the order have placed him and his missionaries in some dangerous situations. He arrived for his first assignment in Liberia during the civil war at a time when several American Catholic nuns had been killed.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis protested atrocities committed by all sides in the conflict, and some governmental leaders, Wright recalled, "said that no Americans were safe." Shots were sometimes fired at missionaries, and at one point the SMA priests took in the wives and children of Protestant missionaries who had been abducted. Francis eventually advised Wright, as yet not well known in Liberia, to leave the country to work with refugees in the Ivory Coast. "I heard a couple of months later," he said "that some rebels were talking about a 'Father Tom,' who they said was not a real missionary but a CIA agent."

Working with Refugees

Wright spent several years working with refugees and a year at a parish in Monrovia. As a missionary priest, he watched developments that would later burst upon the world scene. He saw the expansion of Islamic radicalism and the horror of the AIDS epidemic. The civil war led to wide­spread weapons smuggling and increased violence. He experienced the effects of crushing poverty and the social impact of the soaring debts of African nations. Wright speaks compassionately about scenes he has witnessed in Africa. On a recent visit to Kenya, for example, he watched the funeral of an elderly man who had taken care of a dozen grandchildren because their parents had died, probably of AIDS­related diseases."He was the only breadwinner," Wright said, and he speculated on how the children would have to leave school to find ways to earn money for food.

Signs of Hope

"During the civil war," he said, "some of our priests were broken­hearted as they saw young people whom they know, products of the Catholic schools, pick up weapons and get caught up in the violence."

But he also sees signs of hope. In Liberia, for example, he has met families in which some members are Muslim and some are Catholic. There are many men preparing for the priesthood in African nations, he said, because it is considered a highly respected vocation.

Some African priests are well­versed in Islam and speak Arabic, he said, making interreligious contact more fruitful.

The Needs of the People

Wright says that it is often the church that is closest to the needs of the African people and has their confidence. He cited one parish in a remote corner of a country that is the virtual government of the region because the territory is so remote from that nation's capital.

Wright also believes that the traditional respect for elders, common in African cultures can serve as a check against political oppression. "It is a hierarchical pattern, with a chief and his elders," he said. "But the chief has to go through these councils of elders, each representing his own clan, and that makes it a more participatory community."

Witness

"When they enter a country as missionaries, members of the SMA Fathers try to fit ourselves into the pastoral plan of the bishop and the local diocese," Wright said.

"Evangelization [inviting people to become Christians] is always an emphasis," he said, "but it's not just priests going out with the Bible and preaching." A nun who is there responding to Jesus' call to be with the sick or despondent is someone who sees her work as more than just making a living," Wright said. "By the witness of their lives, they make other people interested in why a person would do this."

By Charles Austin
The Record, Hackensack, NJ
December 4, 2001
(Reprinted by permission)