Fr Ezama: First African Comboni Missionaries leader in America

Fr Ruffino Ezama in a photo dated August 30, 2020. He plans to help vocations grow for the mission society. His priority will be to bring a “new vitality to the mission.” PHOTO/ Courtesy.

What you need to know:

  • For the first time in its 80-year history, the North American Province of the Comboni Missionaries elected an African as its leader. Fr Ruffino Ezama began his three-year term as provincial superior in January 2020.
  • Founded in 1867 by St. Daniel Comboni, the Comboni Missionaries are an international Catholic organization dedicated to ministering to the world’s poorest and most abandoned people, often working in unstable political climate, in the midst of extreme poverty.

The need to know God and make sense of creation is innate to every human being. As children, we marvel at the beauty of the full moon while our imaginations shoot beyond it to search for the higher power responsible for it. Everyday occurrences like rain or the rising sun keep steering our thoughts back to the individual behind these miracles. These thoughts are almost always automatic. 

How is it possible that the water in a river keeps flowing perpetually in one direction year in year out without ever running dry? How come the source doesn’t get depleted? Or how come the pit at the end of the river doesn’t fill up? Does the water get sent back to the source to start the cycle again? 
As children we may never bring these questions up, but we are thinking about them. And it always brings us to the conclusion that the existence of God is a fact. So by the time anyone ever tells us about the Creator, we already know that we know. And the need to seek and serve Him starts to grow in us. 

The question then is, how come only a handful of us ever follow through? Do we slowly doubt the certainty of God as we grow older? Or does the allure of the seen world far outweigh our fascination with the unseen realm? The answers to these questions are beyond most of us to provide. 
One thing is for sure: the decision to follow through and serve God tends to take more courage and bravery than any other decision in life. The stubbornness and hard work that is needed to keep serving an unseen God amid all the attractions of carnality is unimaginable. The humility it takes is simply unattainable. 

This is more so when it comes to catholic priests because theirs is a decision that entails the most painful of sacrifices. And yet some people not only manage to find it in themselves to commit to this sacrificial path, they also excel at it on a global scale. One such person is Father Ruffino Ezama. 

Father Ezama is the Provincial Superior of the Comboni Missionaries in North America. His territory comprises the United States of America and Canada, two of the most prosperous nations on earth. He coordinates the leadership team and activities in this part of the world.
Fr Ezama has lived in Cincinatti, Ohio had since September 2009 when he left Uganda on a call to missionary work. 
By 2011, two years later, Fr Ezama served as a Provincial Councillor. Provincial Councilors are tasked with handling regular deliberations that make the work of Provincial Superior streamlined. 

In 2016, after serving five years on the council, Fr Ezama served as Mission Office Director, a much more sensitive office with much bigger, far-reaching responsibilities. This office is the Procurement Office for the Comboni Missionaries all over the world. One of the tasks of this office is to coordinate the fundraising activities for all the missions across the world. Which effectively entered Ezama in the exclusive club of people whose office covers the entire globe. 

On January 1, 2020, Fr Ezama would become the Provincial Superior of North America through a competitive election. Members of the North American Province came together in mid 2019 and voted to put their trust in the best man for the job. That man turned out to be Fr Ezama. He will be at the helm for a three-year term after which he can stand for another and last term. 

When asked if his relentless rise through the ranks might end up at the Papacy, the soft-spoken priest laughs and says, “The Papacy is out of my dreams.” And then he adds, “All I want to be a better Christian. The Lord puts us in places to be his hands, feet, bodies and heart to bring His love to His people.” 

The dream
Fr Ezama’s journey to the top leadership of the Comboni Missionaries started here in Uganda, where he was born, raised and educated. He first desired to become a priest at the age of 6. 
“One day, after seeing priests celebrate Mass, I told my dad about my dream to be a priest. My father said that we needed to pray about it. That if it was God’s will, it would happen,” he says.

His dad, Mr Simeo Ariga Onyaa, was a police officer. As such, the family lived in different parts of the country where his regular police transfers took him. By the time Fr Ezama was eight, he and his six siblings had lived through over five police barracks in different parts of the country. 

“I grew up interacting with kids from different cultures in different police barracks. This gave me a bigger horizon of things. Ethnic/tribal lenses were not my measure of things,” he says. 
His father was a man of strong Catholic conviction and insisted on taking the entire family for every single one of them no matter where they found themselves. 
“Much of our upbringing revolved around faith and mum,” he says.

Faith and mum because when Ezama was only nine, his father passed on, leaving them to be raised by their mother, Ursula Draleru Ekaa. She was helped by Ezama’s maternal uncle, Angelo Ejidra Zatison, and a foster father. 
“My foster father, the late Joseph Etima, former Commissioner General of Prisons, played a pivotal role in shaping my life to serve wholeheartedly and with determination. The affection my two mothers (biological and foster) shared with me urges me to share the love of God with the people,” he says.

The rekindling
When Fr Ezama was in P.3, his desire to become a priest was rekindled. “I had a friend, Taban, a Sudanese refugee. I asked how often they would attend Mass back home. His response blew me away: ‘once every 8-9 months’ he said, ‘due to the shortage of priests and difficulties in reaching the Christian communities,” he says.
Fr Ezama joined the Apostles of Jesus Seminary in Moroto. But his grandfather had misgivings. His son, Ezama’s father, had lost his life in the same town. So he forbid him to join the school. Fr Ezama ditched the idea of ever going to seminary. 

The calling
Or so he thought. “In 1981, during the centenary of the death of Daniel Comboni, I read a book: Daniel Comboni, a man for Africa. It rekindled my desire to become a Comboni missionary. I applied to join them. In 1985 I started training with them. In 1990 I made my first religious vows. 

On July 16, 1994 ,I was ordained a priest. My choices for mission were South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia/Eritrea.  In 1995, he was assigned to the Province of Togo-Ghana-Benin serving as St Francis Parish in Cotonou. “I had to learn the local language, Fon. Between in 2002 and 2003, I served as Associate Pastor of Lodonga Basilica Parish,” Ezama says. It was after this that he, in 2004, became Vocation Director of the Comboni Missionaries in Uganda, in charge of recruiting young missionaries. Fr Ezama held the position till 2008. 

School Journey
Ezama started school at the age at Kotido Mixed Primary School. before joining Kasimeri Integrated in Moroto. After the passing of his father, the family went back to west Nile where he attended Atratraka Primary from P4-P7.

He attended St Joseph’s College Ombaci for O-level and St. Peter & Paul Pokea Seminary, for A-level, both in Arua. He joined Alokolum National Seminary, Gulu for Philosophical studies only to be interrupted by the Alice Lakwena “Holy Spirit Movement”, forcing the school to seek temporary shelter at Katigondo National Seminary. He completed his studies from here graduating with a Diploma in Religious Studies and a Bachelor in Philosophy.
 
In April 1990, he took his First Religious Profession as a Comboni Missionary in Our Lady of Africa Church, Mbuya. His Superiors assigned him to Rome, Italy, soon after, to study for another Bachelor degree and a Master’s in Philosophical Anthropology from Gregoriana University. Ezama later did a PhD in Philosophy from Makerere University.