News: Priest named canonical administrator in Shelby County

August 27, 2021

Father Augustine Clement Owusu has been appointed canonical administrator of St. Michael Parish in Harlan, St. Joseph Parish in Earling and St. Peter Parish in Defiance, and of Shelby County Catholic School.

Shelby County recently suffered the loss of two pastors, Father Dan Gehler and Jesuit Father David Smith.

 Father Owusu was a pastor and spiritual director in Ghana before being asked to become a missionary in the Diocese of Des Moines. He arrived in 2019 and served at St. Albert Catholic School in Council Bluffs before moving to Shelby County.

His vocation to the priesthood was inspired by an international priest who served his childhood parish.

Ordained in 2011, Father Owusu served as an associate pastor for one year and a pastor for three years before being assigned to a Marian grotto, where people went for retreats and spiritual direction. He served there three years before coming to the Diocese of Des Moines.

He joined a small community of priests from his home country when he arrived in the Des Moines Diocese. They are: Father Samuel Danso, Father Francis Amoako, Father Raphael Assamah, Father James Ahenkora, and Father Philip Yaw Bempong.