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A Nigerian Catholic priest in Massachusetts has died by suicide, days after being ordered to leave the United States and return to Nigeria, where he had repeatedly said he feared for his life.
The Reverend Benjamin Okwy Madu, 54, died on July 2 at his residence in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, according to the Archdiocese of Boston, where he had served as a hospital chaplain and parish priest on Cape Ann since 2021.
His religious worker visa was due to expire on July 29.
According to Boston Globe, his home Diocese of Abakaliki had gone further, instructing him to return to Nigeria even sooner than that deadline, ahead of a new assignment scheduled to begin on August 4.
Madu had reportedly made clear he did not want to go.
In remarks to parishioners the previous month, and in a farewell message posted to his parish’s website days before his death, he said returning home was not his wish, “but circumstances beyond my control have warranted that my time in the United States come to an end.”
The Sunday before he died, Madu suffered a panic attack while driving to Mass and was treated at a hospital emergency room, a parishioner told the Boston Globe.
Boston Archbishop Richard Henning told fellow priests in an internal email that Madu had “tragically took his own life,” according to a copy of the message seen by the National Catholic Register and reported on Monday.
The Archdiocese’s public statement on his death did not describe it as a suicide.
Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker’s office confirmed Madu’s death was under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police, though a spokesperson said foul play was not suspected.
However, the US-Nigeria Civil Society Coalition, in a statement sent to PUNCH Online and other newsrooms this week, 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,” pointing to the frozen visa renewal process under current US immigration restrictions as a factor in his death.
“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.
Madu, who was born in Nigeria on May 15, 1972, and ordained at St Theresa Cathedral, Abakaliki, in Ebonyi State, would have marked his 25th anniversary in the priesthood on July 7, five days after his death.
He had worked in the Archdiocese of Boston for nearly six years under consecutive R-1 religious worker visas, with his most recent visa due to expire on July 29.
Boston Globe reports that Archdiocese spokesperson Terrence Donilon said there was no path to extending Madu’s visa again, citing current US immigration policy affecting Nigeria.
Madu had spoken publicly about his fear of returning to Nigeria, where priests have faced kidnappings and killings in recent years.
Arlene Lesch, a parishioner at Holy Family Church, told Boston Globe she was among those who contacted political leaders pleading for a way for Madu to remain in the US.
In a joint statement issued this week, the coalition of Nigerian diaspora and Christian advocacy organisations called on US authorities to halt deportations of Nigerians and grant Temporary Protected Status to Nigerian nationals in the country.
