By Pierre-Paul Dossekpli

On June 29th, in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Most Rev. Dennis Kofi Agbenyadzi, SMA — newly appointed Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Berberati in the Central African Republic — received the pallium from Pope Leo, the woolen band that marks a metropolitan archbishop’s bond with the Apostolic See and his call to shepherd his flock as Christ shepherds the Church. The following day, June 30th, he returned to a more intimate setting to celebrate Mass with the SMA Community of Nocetta — with his Missionary family of the Society of African Missions, SMA.

“Let us entrust it to the Lord”

In his homily at Nocetta, Archbishop Dennis spoke not as a man basking in honor, but as one keenly aware of his own limits and of the God who carries him regardless. He urged the community gathered around him not to dwell on the things that cause panic or fear, but to receive each day as a blessing — a sign of the Lord’s abiding presence.

He returned to the Gospel scene where Jesus tells Simon Peter that he has prayed for him, knowing full well what Peter would go through and that his faith would not ultimately fail. For Archbishop Dennis, this was the heart of his message: ministry is not built on personal strength or competence, but on trust. “Let us not count on our own strength,” he said, “but let us entrust it to the Lord.”

He spoke candidly of his own journey since becoming a bishop — of moments when he simply had to say, “Yes, Lord, you know,” even without understanding why he had been led to a particular place or trial. He described these moments not as abandonment, but as “a divine surprise” of God’s ever-abiding presence, even — perhaps especially — in God’s silence. “Sometimes the silence of God is an answer to our prayers,” he reflected, asking the community to pray for the grace to let that silence speak.

The homily turned, too, toward the suffering Church in his beloved country of the Central African Republic. The Ghanaian-born Archbishop Dennis asked for prayers for a young priest who had been attacked and shot at the previous day in the Central African Republic, and for the local bishop, the faithful and his family. It was a sober reminder, offered in the same breath as words of hope, that the joy of his own celebration is inseparable from the suffering of the Church he now leads. “It’s a moment of pain for the whole Church,” he said, “as we try to put our lives at the service of others.”

He closed by asking the community to help him stand firm “in the midst of all the storms of life,” and entrusted everyone present — and all those who had asked for prayers — to the Lord’s care, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A Brother From Another Mother: Fr. Chris Remembers

Among those present for the celebrations in Rome was Fr. Christopher J. Hickey of Our Lady of the Angels Parish in the Archdiocese of Boston, ordained in 1994 and a friend of Archbishop Dennis for more than two decades. Fr. Chris was also present in 2012, when Archbishop Dennis — then Fr. Dennis — was ordained a bishop in the Central African Republic.

Reflecting on the two days, Fr. Chris described being “overwhelmed” to stand so close to the Chair of Peter alongside his old friend. “I’m a friend of a descendant of the Apostles,” he said, still visibly moved. He recalled the long, beautiful ordination in the heat of Bangui years earlier, and contrasted it with the weight of standing within two thousand years of history at the Vatican.

Fr. Chris brought greetings from Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Boston, noting with a smile the fitting connection that the parish carries the name Queen of the Apostles in its own prayer life. Archbishop Dennis has visited the parish nearly every summer for 21 years, missing only twice — once for his episcopal ordination, and once during COVID. “We have continued this friendship for all those years,” Fr. Chris said. “I tell everyone he’s my brother from another mother.”

Asked what drew him so closely to the SMA family, Fr. Chris traced it back to his own assignment in Dedham (USA), near the former SMA seminary, where he came to know Fr. Nelson and Fr. Joseph. That early connection blossomed into a lasting bond. “Whenever someone asks me who they should support, I always mention the SMAs first,” he said, “because I know how much more the people you serve need it.”

What struck him most, he said, was not only the SMA’s work but its joy. “Between the Irish and the Africans, there’s such joy,” he reflected, expressing a wish that the same spirit of contentment and gladness — joy found in very little — might take deeper root among his own parishioners. “I love the spirit of the SMAs.”

A Celebration Rooted in Trust

Taken together, the homily and Fr. Chris’s reflections paint a portrait of a churchman whose elevation has not changed his posture before God: one of trust, humility, and solidarity with a suffering Church. As Archbishop Dennis put on the pallium in Rome, his thoughts remained with the priests and people of the Central African Republic — a reminder that every honor in the Church exists for the sake of service.

Please keep Archbishop Dennis, the people of the Archdiocese of Berberati, and all those affected by violence in the Central African Republic in your prayers.