KENYA: Pope Francis Urges Bishops from Kenya to Be Close to Their Flock
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At the end of their 10-day Ad Limina visit in Rome, Pope Francis has called upon members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) to stay connected to their congregants as they offer guidance and spiritual leadership.
“The Holy Father encouraged the bishops to be close to their flock, so that the “people can touch their bishops,” the Chairman of the KCCB Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba said in an interview Thursday, September 5, after coming back from Rome.
He stressed that the Holy Father’s message is consistent with his previous communications that “a Bishop should know the smell of his sheep and conversely, the people should also know the smell of their shepherd.”
The clarion call of Pope Francis for prelates and clerics to be “Shepherds with the smell of the sheep,” is an analogy he used in his homily at the Chrism Mass nearly a fortnight after his election as the Head of the Catholic Church in 2013.
In a video clip shared Sunday September 1, while at St. Peter’s Square next to Basilica in Rome, Archbishop Muhatia of Kisumu Archdiocese addressed the Kenyan Catholic community living in Rome saying, “We have had a very fruitful encounter in Rome, a beautiful encounter with the Holy Father and a beautiful encounter with the Cardinals that look after the various offices that help the Holy Father in doing his pastoral work.”
He expressed further, “As the bishops of Kenya we have had a very beautiful experience representing our country, representing respective Dioceses in Kenya. We go back home re-energized after encountering the successor of St. Peter and expressing our unity and our communion with the Holy Father and with the universal Church.”
As the conference of Bishops, the Kenyan Prelate said they are only complete together with the successor of St. Peter who is the Holy Father and in this case Pope Francis.
He delivered the Holy Father’s message to Kenyans saying, “The Pope in a very special way sends his Apostolic blessings to all the people, all the Christian faithful in Kenya.”
According to the Archbishop in the Thursday interview, Ad limina visit was a source of an enriching spiritual experience, reminding the bishops their responsibility and the need to always feel with the Church.
“We need to build our communities around Jesus Christ and on the firm foundations laid by the Apostles,” he underscored and expounded further, “All the Christian faithful need to be helped to feel part of the community of faith and to embrace even more enthusiastically their ownership of the Church and the mission of evangelization.”
He stressed the message shared with media practitioners in August before the bishops travel to Rome for the Ad Limina visit about the growth of the Church in Kenya saying, “The Kenyan Catholic Christians have a reason to thank God for the vibrant growth of the Church and we need to listen attentively to what the Spirit is inviting us to do, especially with the abundance of vocations to Religious life and the Sacred Priesthood.”
He added, “The Lord is inviting us to greater responsibility in evangelization”.
During their 10-day visit, the Kenya’s Catholic Bishops celebrated Mass together with the Kenyan Community in Rome including the priests, religious, and lay faithful, at St. Paul’s Basilica Outside the Walls, they prayed at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of Mary Major and at St. Peter’s Basilica and also at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.
