KENYA: First-Ever Blessing of Animals in Kenya as a Response to Commemorating Season of Creation
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
In response to the ongoing season of creation which commenced on September 1, and will end on October 4, Global Catholic Climate Movement in Africa (GCCM Africa) has blessed animals and pets for the first time in Kenya as a sigh of our interconnectedness with creation.
The idea of blessing animals and pets which was first introduced by St. Francis of Assisi is often celebrated on the Sunday nearest to October 4 the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi the patron of ecology.
According to the GCCM Programs manager for Africa Fr. Benedict Ayodi, “The tradition behind the blessing of animals and pets, an event that has taken place in Kenya for the first time, is from St. Francis of Assisi who loved animals and creation as a whole and talked of cosmic fraternity that we are all integrated as brothers and sisters.”
As he addressed approximately 70 people who gathered with their animals for blessings in Kenya’s capita, Nairobi, Fr. Ayodi said that GCCM “aims to motivate people to care for environment and not forget animals as part of creation.
“As we celebrate this feast in the context of season of creation, we the Catholic movement encourages Christians and non-Christians alike that we are called to be stewards of environment and our environment include all plants and animals,” he stated.
During the season of creation, the GCCM has also been promoting among other activities “divestment program asking people divest investments from fossil fuel which destroy our environment, reducing on how we spend and how we consume what we have been given,” and finally “ecological conversion that we need to be spiritually connected to creation knowing that through creation we are able to find God and to be close to each other.”
Referencing Pope Francis’ words in his encyclical Laudato Si’ Fr. Ayodi a member of the Religious Institute of OFMCap noted that “Each and every creature has its intrinsic value” and “we need to know that our creation is part and parcel of our day to day life.”
