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Bishop Moses<br />
Chikwe at his episcopal<br />
consecration<br />
in Owerri, Nigeria,<br />
in December 2019.<br />
ARCHDIOCESE OF OWERRI<br />
A New Year’s miracle<br />
When news broke of a Nigerian bishop’s kidnapping<br />
last month, friends of ‘Father Moses’ from his time<br />
in SoCal sprung into action<br />
BY PABLO KAY / ANGELUS<br />
During his nearly <strong>15</strong> years in Southern California,<br />
Father Moses Chikwe was always up to something,<br />
even when he wasn’t taking graduate courses at<br />
Loyola Marymount University and UCLA.<br />
The Nigerian priest helped in parishes, visited the sick<br />
in local hospitals, served as a prayer group chaplain, and<br />
joined soccer matches after Sunday Masses were done. He<br />
even handed out rosaries to strangers on the Venice Beach<br />
boardwalk.<br />
So when news reached California that Father Chikwe, now<br />
an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Owerri, Nigeria,<br />
had been kidnapped along with his driver Dec. 27, he had<br />
an extensive network of old friends praying for his release.<br />
“I feared for the worst. I couldn’t sleep,” recalled Patrick<br />
Chikwe, a nephew of the bishop. The younger Chikwe,<br />
who joined his uncle in California eight years ago and today<br />
teaches at an LA area high school, knew who to call first<br />
when he got the news.<br />
“Everybody we asked started prayer chains like crazy,” said<br />
Gary Micaletti, who became friends with “Father Moses”<br />
during his time at the Church of Saint Mark in Venice.<br />
Former parishioners from Saint Mark and parishes in San<br />
Diego where he served spread the word. Family members,<br />
prayer groups, and convents, including the Carmelite Sisters<br />
20 • ANGELUS • <strong>January</strong> <strong>15</strong>, <strong>2021</strong>