By Elena Perri • Posted May 14, 2026

This profile is part of a series highlighting each of the eight men to be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 16.

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As a young person growing up in Nigeria, Deacon Jude Ugochukwu Opara aspired to be an engineer. During his time at Ihenweorie Secondary School, people began telling Deacon Opara he looked like a priest and encouraged him to pursue the priesthood.

Despite this encouragement, he decided to earn an engineering degree at the Institute of Management and Technology Enugu (IMT Enugu).

While attending college, Deacon Opara felt a strong pull toward the priesthood.

“I started feeling that God is really calling me to do something for him,” the deacon said.

But he wanted to serve God on his own terms.

“I prayed and asked God, ‘If you’re really calling me, let me be a Pentecostal pastor so that I can get married and have kids,’” Deacon Opara said.

At the time the deacon felt called to the priesthood, he wasn’t actively involved in a Catholic church and had questions about what steps he should take to discern his vocation.

Deacon Opara met a priest who advised him to stay in school and get his degree. In 2009 he graduated from IMT Enugu and then completed a year of mandatory service in the National Youth Service Corps.

The deacon wanted to be sure that God was truly calling him, so he worked as an engineer for a few years.

“I wanted to get a job and resign from that job so that people will know that I am not going into priesthood because of a lack of job or lack of something to do,” he said. “I wanted God to prove to the world that yes, you are the one calling me.”

Deacon Opara, 43, chose to join the Somascan Fathers, a religious order founded by St. Jerome Emiliani in Italy. He entered the Bigard Memorial Seminary in Enugu where he earned a philosophy degree in 2016.

The son of John and the late Florince Opara, he is the fourth of their five children. The deacon has close relationships with his father, older brothers, Uchechukwu and Ezechukwu, and his younger brother Anthony, all of whom still live in Nigeria. His brother Gordian died in 2018, and his mother passed away in 2023.

Despite the five-hour time difference, he frequently talks with his brothers in the evening.

“We are very close,” Deacon Opara said. “We have been like that ever since we are small till now.”

Leaving his family and moving to the United States in 2017 has been challenging at times, but it was an important step in his discernment process.

He attended St. Leo University in Tampa, Florida, for a year before moving Houston, Texas, where he attended the Houston Graduate School of Theology.

In 2020, Deacon Opara moved to the Philadelphia area where he became a student in the School Theological Studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

This past year he has served as a deacon at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Media.

Deacon Opara explained that seminarians from other countries are assigned a home parish, and he has returned to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Morrisville during his school breaks.

“I count myself as one of the luckiest because my home parish, the people there, they love me,” he said. “The pastor, Father William Monahan, welcomed me with utmost love.”

He added that St. John’s parishioners have treated him like a son, and several of them will be attending his ordination on May 16 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

“They are so excited that their son is going to become a priest,” Deacon Opara said.

Athough his family is unable to attend his ordination, Servant of Charity Father Uche Mark Anayo, the person who was influential during his discernment process, will be at the ordination Mass.

“He’s coming from Switzerland to be here on my ordination day, and he’s going to be at my first Mass,” Deacon Opara said.

While Father Anayo was in the seminary, he would invite the deacon to participate in events there.

“I would go to all the activities, and he was there to advise me and tell me stuff about seminary life,” Deacon Opara explained.

Throughout his discernment process, the deacon would often pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

“That is my most beloved devotion,” he said. “My mom knew I loved that devotion so much, and one of the members of her church gifted me a booklet for Divine Mercy. I still have it to this day.”

Spending time with the Lord in adoration also has been a source of strength for Deacon Opara.

“Whenever I’m in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, I pray my Divine Mercy prayer,” he said. “To stay all alone with the Blessed Sacrament is so beautiful for me. I love it.”

While some of the deacon’s family members were surprised that he wanted to be a priest, his mother sensed he had a calling.

“My mom said, ‘I think I knew something like this would come,’ but she didn’t know when it would happen,” Deacon Opara said. “My mom was my greatest fan. She prayed for me, even as she was dying.”

Last May when he was ordained a deacon, he recalled how he was thinking about his mother and praying to her while lying prostrate on the floor of the Cathedral.

“I was praying to her to keep me and guide me, guide my vocation, and help me to be a holy priest,” he said. “I’m going to do same thing this time around.”

During the upcoming ordination Mass Deacon Opara’s mother will be close to his heart figuratively and literally.

He arranged to have a piece of fabric that mothers wear on Mothering Sunday in Nigeria sown into his vestment along with her photo.

Deacon Opara explained that mothers in Nigeria wear a special uniform at Mass on Mothering Sunday, a day to honor mothers, mentors, and female leaders within the church and community.

“I ordered the fabric from Nigeria, and I will have it in the middle of my chasuble,” he said. “Then I had her picture printed right inside.”

While Deacon Opara is sad his mother won’t see him being ordained, he is grateful to his family for their encouragement throughout his journey to the priesthood.

“I have 101% support from my family,” the deacon said. “Everybody supported me.”