Comboni Missionaries

The Comboni Missionaries remain true to their original calling as missionaries, and often serve where the Church is new and where people are just forming their Christian identity. They also serve in marginalized communities, including in some of the most impoverished places on Earth. Their parishes can be the size of American states, or within the slums of the developing world. Emphasis is given to evangelization, and to service to people who are poor many of whom have no place else to turn.

Funds collected through the Missionary Cooperative Plan are directed to projects in Africa and Latin America to evangelize, to educate (especially girls and young women), and to create better living conditions, such as through clinics and the provision of clean water. Beneficiaries range from street vendors in Peru to the Pygmies in the Central African Republic to desert dwellers in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya.

Fr. John Baptist Keraryo Opargiw, MCCJ

Fr. John Baptist, aged 65, is looking forward to giving the appeal at St. Thomas à Becket.   A native of Uganda, East Africa, he was ordained a Comboni Missionary priest in 1986, after completing his theological studies in Rome, Italy. He holds a Baccalaureate Degree in Theology and a Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology obtained from the Pontifical Gregorian University - Rome (1982-1987). Fr. John Baptist did his missionary service in Uganda (1987-1996) after which he was assigned to the Central African Republic where he served in a remote rural mission (1997-2002). He was then transferred to Lusaka, Zambia where he accompanied young Comboni Missionary students from 2002-2009.
He was then called to the General Headquarters of the Comboni Missionaries in Rome where he served as the first African Secretary General of Formation for the Comboni Congregation worldwide (2009-2021). Currently he is in the Republic of South Africa where he first has a stint as a Formator of the Comboni Scholasticate at Pietermaritzburg (2021-2022) before moving to Johannesburg as the incumbent Provincial Superior of the Comboni Missionaries in the "Rainbow Nations" of South Africa. Fr. John Baptist speaks his native Alur, English, Italian, French, Sango, and Kiswahili.  He intends to add Isizulu to this short list.
His hobby is soccer and socializing with people from diverse backgrounds.