After years of seminary study, Father Ryan Agbim, formerly of Holy Family Parish in Florham Park in the Paterson Diocese, N.J., describes his first few weeks as a priest of the Society of the Divine Word as both “surreal” and “a pure joy and a grace.”
On May 23, Father Agbim, 31, and six other seminarians were ordained Divine Word priests by Bishop John Douglas Deshotel of Lafayette, La., in Chicago. Divine Word Missionaries work globally in 79 countries to spread the Gospel through service and action.
“Presiding over a liturgy and putting into practice what I’ve learned from my great teacher, Father Richard Fragomeni [associate professor of liturgy and preaching and chairperson of the Department of Word and Worship at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago], has been a pure joy and a grace!” said Father Agbim, who attended weekly Mass with his family at Holy Family from 2003 to 2014.
Father Agbim continued, “To hear my first confession was such a blessing, as I have been waiting to facilitate that sacrament since the beginning of my formation! It is such a moment to make known the infinite mercy that Christ offers to all of us. To all reading this: Go to confession! You won’t regret it!”
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Within Divine Word, Father Agbim has been assigned to the Canada District at Cristo Rey Parish in Mississauga, a large Canadian city neighboring Toronto on Lake Ontario. There, the faith community speaks English and Portuguese. He will take some time to learn Portuguese to become more effective in his pastoral role.
In addition, Father Agbim has accepted the role of communications coordinator for the Chicago Province, which spans from Nebraska to Massachusetts and from Canada to the Caribbean.
“This is an exciting new role that will take creativity, teamwork, and another degree,” said Father Agbim, who will travel to Argentina in August for a meeting of coordinators where the Society of the Divine Word is located around the world.
Recently, Father Agbim returned to New Jersey and visited Holy Family, where he celebrated and concelebrated Masses. He used to worship there with his family — his mother, Barbara, from England, and his father, Mathias, from Nigeria, both deceased, and his sister, Jessica.
“It was heartwarming to celebrate the Eucharist among familiar faces. It felt like a homecoming,” Father Agbim said.
Initially, Father Agbim discerned a life with a wife and children. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., in 2018. But at the end of his sophomore year, he had a life-changing conversation with Father Fred Walters, then Holy Family’s pastor, now retired.
“Father Fred said, ‘As a priest, you could be a spiritual father for your spiritual children — to so many people,’” Agbim said. “That moved me from wanting to be a biological father to being a priest.”
But it wasn’t until college that Father Agbim first heard God’s call through the questions of others, like “Have you thought of being a priest?” One of them was Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli during a pastoral visit to Holy Family.
Father Agbim’s exploration of vocations led him to the Society of the Divine Word. He was impressed by the community’s “missionary spirit.”
In 2019, Agbim quit his job as a pharmacy technician to enter Divine Word’s novitiate in Epworth, Iowa. He made his first vows in 2020 and his perpetual vows in 2025. He later moved to Hyde Park, Chicago, for theology studies.
Father Agbim was featured in a November 2025 story on BeaconNJ.com. There, he anticipated in future priestly vocations “feeling gratitude, mixed with some fear. But I leave certain decisions in God’s hands. He knows better than I do.”
Read the story on Father Agbim last year.
