Fr. Peter Odhiambo Okola
Fr. Peter Odhiambo Okola, AJ is a Kenyan citizen and a member of the Religious Institute of the Apostles of Jesus.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Most Rev. Bishop Sixtus Mazzoldi and Rev. Fr. John Marengoni both of happy memories founded the Missionary Order of the Apostles of Jesus in 1968, the first of its kind to be established in Africa, for the express purpose of training and forming Religious Missionaries as Priests and Brothers for the evangelizing mission of the Church. Today the Order has 60 religious priests working in the United States of America apart from those working in Africa, Europe and Asia.
Fr. Okola is the third born in the family of five brothers and three sisters of the late Mark and Benedette Okola of happy memories.
Fr. Okola joined the Apostles of Jesus minor seminary in 1983 for his senior school and later entered the Apostles of Jesus major seminary in Nairobi-Kenya where he studied for his priesthood formation in both philosophy and theology. Upon His ordination on 19th December 1998, Fr. Okola served as vice-rector and later rector of St. Josephine Bakhita minor seminary in Kenya and later in Southern Sudan in the Catholic diocese of Rumbek, chaplain of St. Mary’s Hospital in the Catholic Arch-diocese of Nairobi in Kenya and parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the Catholic diocese of Meru in Kenya.
Apart from graduating in Philosophy and Theology for his priestly formation, Fr. Okola attended the Catholic University of East Africa in Kenya and graduated with a post-graduate diploma in education and a master degree in education administration and planning. Father came to the United State in 2009 and completed his Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) course at Blessed John Paul II institute of Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.
During his studies at John Paul II Institute of Marriage and Family in Washington DC, Father was a resident priest at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Springfield and later St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Warrenton. In May 2012, Fr. Okola was assigned as a parochial vicar at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington.
Matthew 16:17. And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”
