Father Simon, the new priest at Patagonia’s St. Therese Catholic Church, is talking about his favorite books. He winks and asks if you have heard of “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.”
“I read books to learn—books that help you get in touch with yourself and the best you can be in your service to others,” he explains. “’Think and Grow Rich’ is one of the best books you’ll ever read because it’s about abundant life. Not necessarily about money.
“Just like watching the L.A. Lakers or Michael Jackson, I can take a book that focuses on something else, like a military book for Navy Seals, and see spirituality in it. When you look at the training of Navy Seals, they are willing to face pain, to sacrifice. That’s exactly what you need to experience God. You need to be willing to sacrifice and grow in spirituality.
“The best book is the Bible,” the former high level soccer player-turned-priest says. “Because it can bring in all knowledge. It can even tell how to make money, how to grow, how you can be inspired. It’s a book lacking nothing.”
Ever since Simon Ityo was a child, he wanted to become a priest. He was born in north central Nigeria, where his mother was a businesswoman and his father worked in a school while both also farmed. After four girls, Simon was the first son before another boy and girl followed.
Crops on the farm included ground nuts, yams, oranges, mangoes, sweet potatoes, beans, millet and corn. (When Simon heads to African stores in Tucson these days, smoked fish and fresh and dried vegetables like bitter leaf are at the top of his list.)
After high school Simon played soccer. We’re not talking neighborhood soccer. Simon played at the national level. “Every position in defense,” he proudly says. Then came seminary. “Soccer played a major role in keeping me in seminary. I was boosted in spirit because I loved soccer so much.” During his nine years in seminary,
Simon did one degree in philosophy and another in theology.
Then, after serving as a priest for 11 years, his religious order, the Nigeria-founded but worldwide Via Christi Society, sent him to the United States in 2019, to Tucson.
Asked about life in Nigeria, Father Simon quickly smiles, “There’s joy in the African Church. Real happiness. Music. Africans are naturally dance-oriented. Music is not separate in life. Like food, it’s part of life. Dance is there…real dance. Like when you clean the swimming pool with a net, good music and singing mop up the destructions, clear the ground for you to connect. Mass has music that’s danceable, so joyful.
“If you go to Nigeria, you’ll begin to move your body,” he laughs.
He offers more. “In Nigeria you have different tribes, 250 languages. Sometimes you have divisions, but kids grow up together, go to elementary school together. No division there, no ‘Muslims,’ ‘tribes,’ ‘Christians.’ It’s highly diversified and that’s a blessing, a gift. In diversity you have the hand, head, heart, but one body. Even in the world you have diversity—plants, people—we are better off together.”
Here in Patagonia, Father Simon likes, besides reading, to walk, watch soccer, meditate, “just be alone and stay quiet,” and talk to people. And, of course, “I love music. I like music based on my mood. Sometimes I stay alone and want secular music, like R& B. I love it. If I’m in a gathering or restaurant, I like Mexican music, like La Bamba. The joyful spirit reminds me of Nigeria.”
As for his vocation, he says, “I don’t relate to my work as priest as routine. It is life. I want people to know God to give them peace.
“We see each other as an image of God. There is a spiritual power that comes from connection with God. You forgive or keep helping someone who rebuffs or harms you not because the person deserves it, but because your relationship with God gives you patience and encouragement to find an inner sweetness in yourself.”
He adds, “I believe so much in what we can do. My philosophy is we can work wonders. That’s what Jesus gave us. It’s not miracles. It’s love. It’s the cord that keeps people together. When people share they’ll say yes, we’ll do anything.”
He is looking forward to what might come forth in this new setting. And along the way, if anyone is curious to look up “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari,” or better yet, “The Imitation of Christ,” the 15th century meditative book read worldwide by Hindus, Muslims and yogis, you know where to find someone who would happily discuss it—or anything else—with you.