KENYA: A Head of World Youth Day, Kenyan Youths Advised to Respect the Name of the Church and Conference
During preparatory meetings in Lisbon. Credit. Fr. Mwova
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
As young people across the world prepare for the 37th World Youth Day (WYD) slated for the month of August in Lisbon, Portugal, youths who are to take part from the East African country of Kenya, have been reminded that even when out of the country, they need to maintain the good name of the Church and of the conference as well.
Sharing with AMECEA online of their preparedness for the upcoming world event, the National Youth Chaplain for the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) Fr. Cosmas Mwova acknowledged that they are in the final stages of preparations and he wishes the Kenyan youths portrays good example during this period.
“As we prepare for the trip to Lisbon, I pray our young people maintain the good name of the Church, of the country and for the conference. It will not augur well to represent a conference and the same conference receives negative reports” the Kenyan cleric who has been heading the National Youth Chaplaincy office since December 2017 shared in an interview on Thursday, June 22.
He advised the youths that it is an opportunity for them to spiritually grow in their faith and to learn more about the Catholic faith since the event is faith oriented and learn from others too.
“This is also a good chance for our young people to meet the Holy father and receive his blessings,” Fr. Mwova said adding that the youths should not only take the event as a time for tour, but also to draw more graces which the opportunity will present.
Even though the preparations for travel seem to be coming to an end, the National youth chaplain said, the group has faced several challenges which has led the original participants who registered for the travel as 66, to reduce to 42.
“We have faced a lot of challenges. When it comes to documentation, most of the participants lacked required documents. This was coupled with financial problems due to inflation in the country and so the fare kept hiking and flights changing their schedule,”
the cleric said and explained further, “since many pilgrims from various countries registered to travel to Portugal this has made the fare for air tickets to increase because of high demand.”
The Kenyan group preparing for the travel will comprise of youth representatives from 11 dioceses, 12 priests, two Religious sisters, two Bishops: one in charge of Commission for Pastoral and Lay Apostolate at KCCB, and the Bishop Chair for Commission of Education together with the General Secretary of the conference. This will be 24 females and 18 males.
Asked the strategies put in place to ensure all youths come back to the country after the WYD as some young people use the opportunity to sneak out of the country, Fr. Mwova said, “We have engaged the security agencies to help us in the interrogation of these youths to know their motive of travelling. In the process of cross examination, one gets to understand the reason for the youth’s travel.”
Speaking on how the theme for the WYD which is ‘Mary Arose and Went with Haste,’ is relevant to the youths, the priest who also attended the previous world youth event in Panama, Central America in 2019 explained that “The youths need to wake up and evangelize the world because they are very creative, energetic, aggressive and innovative.”
“This theme should speak to them in a way that they participate and bring life to the Church, utilize the social media for evangelization where most of them are found and be proud of their faith as a Catholic,” he said.
Accordingly, the priest expects that when the youths are back from Lisbon, they should be the “best tools for evangelization and also need to implement what they shall have received from the Pope’s message.”
Besides, “They should rise up to high levels of faith, high levels of participation in Church matters and grow in faith after the exchange experience and apply the three aspects of synod on synodality that we live in communion, participation and have a mission to accomplish as young people,” he said and continued that the participants during the WYD should psych the other youths when back so that the next celebration more youths may register to attend the function.
The 37th WYD will be from 2 to 6 August in Lisbon, Portugal.
