New priest 'looking forward to becoming a local'

Following Father Andrew Grace's departure on January 30 to take up a posting in Kooringal, Reverend Henry Ibe is stepping into the shoes of Sacred Heart Parish's priest while Father Connell Perry will be taking on a role as Assistant Priest.

"I hope that I will bring my own gifts from God to enrich the spiritual lives of the people here, and in doing that, they will also enrich my own spiritual life so everybody will be a winner at the end of the day," Father Ibe said.

"I will do my very best to be a good man, to love the people and to do my best to serve them and God."

Though raised Catholic, Father Ibe began his journey to priesthood later than many, beginning at 31 after becoming involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in his late 20s.

"As I began to dig deeper, I began to get this sense that God was calling me to be a priest and that was it."

Pursuing his new calling, he joined with the Wagga diocese in 2005, studying for almost seven years and becoming ordained to the priesthood in 2011.

After a stint as an Assistant priest in Albury, he continued his studies in theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake - all the way in Illinois, in the United States, before returning to Albury with a new posting as the parish priest.

Just last year, he even completed a Master's degree in Terrorism and Security Studies, inspired to understand how people become extremists.

"I was born in Nigeria, and in the last 12 years, there have been serious cases of terrorism with Boko Haram and those kinds of groups. I wanted to understand what would make a man choose to blow himself up," he said.

"This degree has helped me to go into the minds, understand why somebody would choose to blow themselves up ... that puts you in a better position to deal with the situation."

At a smaller scale though, he said he was looking forward to becoming a local, and has even started learning a bit of Italian.

"I look forward to visiting people, seeing all the places of interest, getting to know everyone. I want to be a local by the time I leave town," he said.