As Pope Leo XIV was visiting Africa, African Catholics from across the United States honored one of their own at a Mass celebrating twin milestones for the first African-born bishop serving in the United States, Bishop Jerome Feudjio.
The April 17 Mass of Thanksgiving commemorating the 70th birthday of Bishop Feudjio and his fifth anniversary as the bishop of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands was celebrated at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Beltsville, Maryland. Bishop Feudjio, who was born in Cameroon, was appointed to lead the Diocese of St. Thomas by Pope Francis in 2021.
The same day that Pope Leo was celebrating a Mass for 120,000 people in a stadium in Cameroon’s largest city, a choir of Cameroonian Catholics from the Washington area led the joyful singing at the Mass honoring Bishop Feudjio, joined by a congregation that included hundreds of African Catholics now living in the United States, including many who wore traditional dress. Music and prayers at the Mass were in French and English, the official languages of Cameroon, and in several African languages.
“This celebration highlights our common journey and unity of purpose,” said Bishop Feudjio in remarks after Communion. He noted that African Catholics with roots in many different lands “are truly one body of Christ.”
The bishop, who serves on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church as a liaison for African Catholics in the United States, thanked that community “for nurturing the faith of the diaspora. You have provided a home for our shared traditions.”
As he began speaking, Bishop Feudjio with outstretched arms said, “Peace be with you,” and he said that serving as a bishop these past five years “is a privilege that humbles me daily.” He said that as a bishop he has learned that what matters most are not the miter that he wears or the crosier that he holds, but “the souls we encounter and the service we provide.”
He led the congregation in singing a song in French, joined by the Holy Trinity Choir of the Cameroonian Catholic community at Resurrection Parish in Burtonsville, Maryland. The words of that song in English included, “Coming together in God’s love, united by the same faith, you show us the way, Lord, which leads to you.”
The concelebrants at the Mass included four cardinals – Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington; Cardinal Wilton Gregory, an archbishop emeritus of Washington; Cardinal Seán O'Malley, the archbishop emeritus of Boston; and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the outgoing apostolic nuncio to the United States.
In addition to nearly three dozen priests, the concelebrants also included Washington Auxiliary Bishops Roy Campbell Jr. and Evelio Menjivar; Bishop Simon Peter Engurait of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana, a native of Uganda; and Bishop Eugenio Andrés Lira Rugarcía of the Diocese of Matamoros-Reynosa, Mexico.
Sally Stovall, the president of the National Association of African Catholics in the United States, welcomed people to the Mass, which was also organized by the African Conference of Catholic Clergy and Religious in the United States. The congregation included many African women religious.
During the Mass, about a dozen women wearing colorful African headdresses and brightly patterned skirts processed down the center aisle clearing the way with brooms as the bishop was handed the lectionary, which he held aloft dramatically before the congregation.
Father Valery Akoh, the pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Tyrone, Georgia, who is also from Cameroon, served as the homilist at the Mass honoring Bishop Feudjio.
“Thank you for bringing us together to praise and worship God in the way only Africans can do,” the priest said.
As he began the homily, Father Akoh asked if there were Cameroonians, then West Africans and then East Africans in the congregation, and he led each of those groups in singing.
Addressing Bishop Feudjio, he said, “We are here to thank God for the gift of your ministry to the people of the Virgin Islands and to the Africans in the United States.”
He praised the bishop for seeing the Church as a family, which he said is especially relevant for Africans who now call the United States home. “We come from many different nations, but we are one family. We speak many different languages, but we share one faith,” Father Akoh said.
The priest added that the bishop’s episcopal motto from Galatians 2:20 “says it all.” The motto, “Vivit Christus in Me,” translates as “(It is) Christ who lives in me.”
Father Akoh offered thanks “to the Lord for giving a shepherd after His own heart.”
The prayers of the faithful at the Mass included a prayer in English that the Church throughout the world will continue to share the joy of the Gospel; a prayer in French for Pope Leo’s pastoral visit to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea; a prayer in the Igbo language of Nigeria for Bishop Feudjio and his ministry; and a prayer in Swahili for the clergy, religious and laity of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Later in the Mass, people in the congregation processed to the sanctuary to receive a blessing from Bishop Feudjio, who sprinkled them with holy water.
In remarks after Communion, Father Maurice Akwa, a parochial vicar at St. Lawrence Parish in Alexandria, Virginia, who is also from Cameroon, thanked Bishop Feudjio for his ministry to the U.S. Virgin Islands and to African Catholics in the United States.
“You are a pastor at heart. You are a brother indeed. You are a loving Father. Thank you for just being you… You are an inspiration,” he said.
Also speaking after Communion, Cardinal O’Malley said Pope Leo’s visit to Africa underscores the importance of African Catholics in the life of the Church. “Africa is the continent where the Church is growing the fastest,” he said, noting that African Catholics now constitute 20 percent of the world’s Catholics.
He pointed out how Boston, which a century ago had many Irish and Italian immigrants, now has thousands of Catholics from Cape Verde, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.
The cardinal noted that in his early years as a Capuchin Franciscan priest, he served the growing Central American immigrant community in Washington, and while the future Bishop Feudjio was studying for the priesthood, he served Haitian immigrants there.
Later while then-Bishop O’Malley was leading the Diocese of St. Thomas from 1985 to 1992, he ordained Father Feudjio as a priest of that diocese in 1990. When Pope Francis appointed then-Msgr. Feudjio to be the bishop of the Diocese of St. Thomas, he was serving as the vicar general and chancellor of that diocese and as the rector of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral there.
“Bishop Jerome has served the Virgin Islands longer than any other priest there,” Cardinal O’Malley said, noting the bishop’s 36 years there. “…Today we thank God for his vocation, for his generosity and for his willingness to be a missionary... His priestly virtues have enhanced his episcopal ministry in a beautiful diocese.”
While serving as the bishop of St. Thomas in 1993, Cardinal O’Malley witnessed the celebration for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival on St. Croix during his second voyage. The explorer, he said, saw a sight that people today can also see there – “the beautiful palm trees, the white sand and the beautiful blue sea.”
Cardinal O’Malley noted that in the U.S. Virgin Islands, “the blessings are the people. The challenges are with the hurricanes and so many other economic challenges.”
The Diocese of St. Thomas which Bishop Feudjio leads comprises the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands, including the islands of St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island. The diocese is within the ecclesial province of Washington, D.C., and is a suffragan diocese to the Archdiocese of Washington.
Of the 110,000 people living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, about 30,000 are Catholic, and the diocese’s website notes that Catholics there includes islanders, Hispanic and Haitian immigrants and a French community.
As he spoke to the congregation at the end of the Mass, Bishop Feudjio said, “Our celebration today is less about a person and more about the mission we share.”
He thanked people for their prayers after he recently had surgery, and he noted how the second African bishop now serving in the United States – Bishop Engurait – flew from Louisiana to spend the day in the hospital with him.
“Thanks to your prayers, I stand here today,” Bishop Feudjio said.
Moments earlier, he emphasized, “On this journey of faith, I am not alone, and my ministry is sustained by your faith.”
As the Mass ended, Bishop Feudjio joined the concelebrating cardinals, bishops and priests in singing the “Salve Regina” to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary for her maternal care of the Church.
At the reception for Bishop Feudjio following the Mass, Cardinal McElroy offered a prayer for the bishop and his ministry.
The Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands will host a celebration honoring Bishop Feudjio in September 2026.
