by Eileen Connelly, OSU

Father Charles Munachiso Onumaegbu, the new chaplain serving the deaf community across the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, is eager to offer them hope, support their faith and provide the sacraments.

Father Onumaegbu’s vocation to the priesthood and interest in working with the deaf population originated in his native Nigeria, where he hails from the Imo State, in the country’s southeast. His parents, both elementary school teachers, inspired him, the youngest of 11 children, but he admits that “life was not easy for my family. We were very poor, and I was able to go to school, but it was a 30-minute walk to church and school every day.”

He left elementary school at just 10-years-old to attend the local high school seminary, primarily for its excellent educational opportunity. “That was the most important thing to me at the time,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking about being a priest then, but I was open to the Lord’s call.”

After high school graduation, with his older brother already a deacon, Father Onumaegbu pursued studies in environmental engineering at Federal University of Technology Owerri. Amid his studies, he became fascinated by a television program featuring a professor who taught sign language. “That really touched my heart,” he recalled. “I really wanted to learn to use my hands to help others.”

While visiting his brother, who had since been ordained to the priesthood, Father Onumaegbu met two Italian sisters, Sisters Maurav and Claudia, of the Daughters of Providence for the Deaf. When the nuns told the young man that he looked like a seminarian, he first objected that a family couldn’t have more than one priest. They quickly informed him of a family they knew in which three sons were called to be priests and three daughters entered religious life. Knowing of his interest in deaf ministry, Sisters Maurav and Claudia encouraged Father Onumaegbu to apply to the Congregation of the Little Mission for the Deaf in Rome.

“I thought, ‘Whatever the Lord wants me to do, I can do it,’ so I applied,” he said, and was enthusiastically accepted into the community. Father Onumaegbu was first sent to the Philippines to study philosophy while learning ASL (American Sign Language) and Tagalog. He was then sent to Rome for additional theological studies and to learn Italian and Italian Sign Language (LIS). Ordained to the priesthood in 2016, he was soon elected Bursar General of his congregation. He went on to minister at St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine parishes in Rome, with a special apostolate to the deaf: celebrating Mass and the sacrament of reconciliation and offering spiritual direction and seminars. He also traveled to the Congo to supervise construction of a formation house and deaf school.

God’s path for Father Onumaegbu changed in 2021, when a letter from the Vatican informed him that his congregation had become too small and would join with the Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus, an order that did not specifically serve the deaf. So, he began searching online for new ministry opportunities that would use his English and ASL skills, seeking dioceses in need of priests to minister to the deaf community. His search led him to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and St. Rita School for the Deaf.

The archdiocese established the Office for Persons with Disabilities several years ago with the goal of meeting the needs of people from across the spectrum of disability: mental health, the deaf community, the blind community, people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, people with Autism and people with physical disabilities. Much of the office’s early focus was on the deaf community due to the shortage of priests trained to celebrate the sacraments in ASL.

Excited about this opportunity, Father Onumaegbu reached out, “hoping my email would reach the right person.” He soon received an invitation from Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr to visit Cincinnati and was subsequently granted permission to exercise priestly ministry here.  Since returning to Cincinnati in January to begin his new ministry, Father Onumaegbu has been celebrating Sunday Mass and offering catechesis and reconciliation for the deaf community in Cincinnati at St. Rita. During the week, he observes in St. Rita’s classrooms to learn more about the school and its teaching methods, and on Saturdays, he can be found celebrating the sacraments at St. Christopher Parish in Vandalia for the Dayton area deaf community. “I have so many programs, so many ideas, in my mind, but it’s important not to rush things, to find out exactly what the deaf community needs and wants,” he said.

“After 16 years of living with the deaf in their world and learning from them, I see how isolated they feel from their families, society and the Church,” Father Onumaegbu explained. “I have seen the joy they experience at a Mass celebrated in their own language. That is so important to them—the sense of community, experiencing God’s love for them. As a hearing person, it brings me joy to have their confidence in me. I hope that I can be their voice.”

This article appeared in the April 2024 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.