A Roman Catholic priest from Nigeria who’d been preparing to leave the United States over his visa issue was found dead in what is thought could be suicide, according to church officials in Massachusetts, where he’d been serving as a hospital chaplain for several years.

Rev. Benjamin Okwy Madu, known as Father Ben, died July 2, at age 54 after serving Holy Family Parish and Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish for more than four years, he also served as a priest for nearly 25 years and served as a chaplain at Salem Hospital. 

Madu was scheduled to depart by the end of July but was ordered by his Bishop in the Diocese of Abakaliki to return home earlier. 

An autopsy is being carried out to establish cause of death, while Parish officials worked to contact relatives of Madu’s, believed to be in Nigeria.

In his farewell message days before his death, Rev. Mudu wrote to his parishioners: “I will miss the home I found away from home, a mother far from my mother, a father far from my father, and a people far from my own people,” he wrote. 

In his message, Father Ben said he first arrived in the United States eight years ago and that he now would be required to return to Africa. 

“Sincerely, it is not my wish to return home right now, but circumstances beyond my control have warranted that my time in the United States come to an end,” Father Ben wrote in a statement. “My heart is broken, yet my joy remains.”