Fr. Michael Barton, MCCJ

Fr. Michael “Mike” Barton, MCCJ, a Comboni Missionary who devoted much of his priestly life to the people of Sudan and South Sudan, passed away in his sleep very peacefully in Blue Ash hospice in Cincinnati on Saturday, August 28, 2026. He was 78 years old and had celebrated 50 years of priesthood.

Born April 6, 1948, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Fr. Mike grew up in St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish. His connection to the parish would span his life: he was baptized and confirmed there and, on December 14, 1975, returned to Little Flower for his ordination to the priesthood.

Fr. Mike entered formation with the Comboni Missionaries as a young man. In September of 1961he began studying at the Comboni seminary in Cincinnati at the age of 13 and at Sacred Heart College in Monroe, Michigan, before continuing his formation in Spain. Following his ordination, he studied Arabic in Cairo in preparation for the missionary life that would define much of his priesthood.

He arrived in southern Sudan in 1978, at a time when the region was still struggling to recover from years of civil war. Churches, schools, hospitals and entire communities had been devastated. Fr. Mike would spend much of the next four decades accompanying the people of Sudan and, after independence in 2011, South Sudan through war, displacement, famine and the difficult work of rebuilding.

Education became an especially important part of his ministry. Wherever he served, Fr. Mike worked not only as a pastor but as a teacher, builder, administrator and advocate for communities that often had very few resources.

His early assignments included Kworijik/Luri. After several years back in the United States working in mission and vocation promotion, he returned to Sudan in 1993 and served at Mapourdit, where the Comboni Missionaries ministered among people displaced by the country's civil war. The mission developed schools and adult education programs as well as its pastoral ministry.

The dangers of missionary life during the war were very real. In August 1996, Fr. Mike was detained and imprisoned for nearly two weeks after the Mapourdit mission was surrounded and looted. He was eventually released and continued his missionary work.

In 2002, Fr. Mike began another long period of ministry at St. Theresa Parish in Nyamlell. During approximately 12 years there, he served an enormous territory encompassing dozens of chapels and devoted particular attention to the parish's schools. His work involved everything from finding teachers and constructing classrooms to arranging transportation so children in remote communities could attend school.

In letters describing the seemingly endless needs facing the mission, Fr. Mike revealed the practical persistence that characterized his approach to missionary life. Faced with another enormous undertaking, he wrote simply, “I shall move one step at a time.”

In 2014, already more than 35 years after first arriving in Sudan, Fr. Mike volunteered for a new Comboni mission in the Ayod area of South Sudan. Renewed civil war disrupted those plans almost immediately. While studying the Nuer language in Leer, he was forced to flee when fighting reached the area. He eventually made his way through Old Fangak and Ayod and continued accompanying displaced communities in places including Jiuny and Mogok.

At Mogok, he again found himself doing what he had done throughout his missionary life: building a Christian community and creating opportunities for children. Serving as acting pastor, community superior and school director, he helped establish a primary school for children whose lives had been profoundly disrupted by war.

The hardships Fr. Mike encountered during his years in Africa included war, illness, primitive living conditions, displacement, and imprisonment. Yet accounts of his missionary life consistently reveal a man less interested in dramatizing those difficulties than in addressing whatever problem was immediately in front of him.

Asked in one interview what kept him going through so many years of hardship, his answer was characteristically simple: “I just have to do something.”

That determination took many forms over the years: celebrating the sacraments in distant chapels, teaching children, raising money, constructing schools, repairing mission buildings, finding boats and vehicles, helping displaced families and simply remaining with communities when circumstances became extraordinarily difficult.

Fr. Mike returned to the United States September 10, 2022, and lived with the Comboni community in Cincinnati, remaining active in priestly and missionary ministry during his later years.

He is survived by his sister, Sheila Barton Bosron, DDS (William Bosron, PhD) and Mary Catherine Barton, JD; as well as his brother Comboni Missionaries and the many people and communities he served during five decades of priestly and missionary life.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Dennis Joseph Barton and Mary Florence (Sullivan) Barton; and his brother, Dennis J. Barton.

His funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026 at 11:00 am EST at Little Flower Catholic Church, 4720 E 13th St, Indianapolis, IN 46201, and can be accessed remotely at Little Flower Catholic Church and School on Facebook or on YouTube at a later date.