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June 13, 2023By Mary Lim
Jesuit priest at the Vatican Observatory, Father Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya Eluo, started considering the priesthood in high school. The Jesuit said understanding who God really is began when he was an adolescent. His high school, Institut Bonsomi in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was run by the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. It was their example that planted those first seeds of the calling to the vocation of the priesthood in young Jean-Baptiste's life. Reflecting, Fr. Jean-Baptiste said, “The unconditional dedication of the Jesuits brought me to start to imagine who truly is the one they were serving among us: God himself. So, for me, I understood from then that God is that one who cares about life and gives it abundantly, and always.”
This understanding of who God is was further evidenced by his family and community at home. It was the example of the Jesuits who guided his faith formation in school. Fr. Jean-Baptiste says as a youth he came to understand who God is and how God loves us through the love of our families, through creation, and through His Word.
The Jesuits left a lasting impression on young Jean-Baptiste. As he grew, he knew that God was calling him to the vocation of the priesthood. In his last year of high school, it was time for him to decide whether the path of formation for him was that of the Major Seminary or that of the Jesuits. He and six of his friends supported each other in making this decision. Four of the young men chose the Major Seminary. Fr. Jean-Baptiste chose to continue his studies in Mathematics and Physics with the Jesuits. Two other young men who discerned alongside him also joined the Jesuits.
Fr. Jean-Baptiste said of his time discerning this path, “My discernment to join the Jesuits went back to the first impression I got from the Jesuit Fathers who were our formators. Only one question kept coming in my mind: ‘These Fathers came from very far away to form us and open for us opportunities in life, could I do it?’”
Following the example of his priest teachers, Fr. Jean-Baptiste says, “I wanted to dedicate my life to the education of young people.” He did his priestly formation all over the world to facilitate his studies. Formation took him to Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Belgium, France, and Canada. Fr. Jean-Baptiste was ordained in Kimwenza, Kinshasa, in the DRC on July 5, 1998. This year he celebrates his 25th Jubilee.
Today as a priest in the Society of Jesus, the bulk of Fr. Jean-Baptiste's work is as a scientist. He completed his studies of mathematics and did his field research in celestial mechanics at the University of Namur in Belgium. It was then that he was contacted by the Vatican Observatory and asked to work with them. He went to Canada to earn his PhD in Astronomy at the University of Western Ontario. Now his work consists of observing and cataloguing the density and other properties of very faint meteors and observing and characterizing Near Earth Objects (NEOs) to determine their physical properties and chemical composition. He uses the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) located on Mount Graham near Safford in southeast Arizona to do his observations.
While Fr. Jean-Baptiste is passionate about his work for the Vatican and contributions to the scientific community as a whole, he shares that he has felt conflicted about his identities and roles in the past.“I’m religious (Jesuit) – Priest and scientist. I’m surely all of them at once, but what comes first? If there is ever a conflict, which one do I jump into in priority? And how did I come to settle myself down about this particular question?
I was studying in London Ontario, Ontario, Canada. There is in London Ontario a Catholic French community with a parish. It happened that the pastor of the parish stepped suddenly down for some reason known only by the Bishop. Knowing that I speak French, the Priest who was in charge personally contacted me and asked me if I could take care of the French parish.
Being a pastor is a full-time job, and being a student is also one full-time job. Should I accept the mission of being a Pastor knowing that I was in London Ontario for one specific mission: study and accomplish a PhD degree in astronomy for my future mission at the Vatican Observatory? But I’m Priest. How could I let one Catholic community be without a Priest, meaning without Sacraments, and particularly the Eucharist, right there beside me? I started to ask the question: ‘Who am I fundamentally?’I shared with my superior my struggle, and the answer he gave me brought me peace: “Being priest, you need to be one wherever you are, and whenever you are.”
During any given season of life, every person, even those who are not religious, will find themselves torn between different identities and obligations. Family, school, friends, desires, goals, struggles, fears, hobbies, jobs – our lives are made of many different dimensions. How do we navigate all of this, with our goal being to discern God’s will for our lives?
“Good judgment is the one that is done in prayer, meaning before God, as it is only in God that we find ourselves to be totally free, as He accepts us as we are. This is the only one place where we are true.” This is the first advice that Fr. Jean-Baptiste says he would give to any person discerning their vocation. “Good judgement and good discernment” can only be made from a place of true freedom, which can only be obtained when one knows oneself “truly and profoundly,” which is only possible when we “open ourselves [in prayer] before God,” for He is the only one who can completely “accept us as we are.”
“I would encourage a young man to the priesthood,” says Fr. J
ean-Baptiste, “but not before I help him get to that place of freedom. It is only in this attitude of freedom that one can engage himself in one way of living or another.” After discerning his vocation, studying toward ordination, and now serving as a priest for 25 years, Fr. Jean-Baptiste says that it is “the gift of the life of Jesus to humanity, through the consecration during Mass” that continues to sustain him in his vocation. His favorite part about being a priest is his unique ability to be there for the people and to pray for them.
Thank you, Fr. Jean-Baptiste, for your “yes” to God’s call, for your service in the priesthood, and for your scientific contributions with the Vatican Observatory!
