AMECEA: Priest Urges Formalization of Church-Government Relationship in AMECEA Region
Fr. Stephen Okello
Magdalene Kahiu
The Liaison Officer for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) – African Union (AU) office is calling for the formalization of the relationship between the Church and governments in the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region.
Fr. Stephen Okello said the Church’s role in policy-making will be more impactful if relationships with governments are formalized.
“We need to collaborate with governments as written in the Constitution of countries. This relationship between the Church and State has to be constitutionalized,” Fr. Okello said on November 29 during the Stakeholder conference for AMECEA’s Department for Promoting Integral Human Development (PIHD) and the Vatican’s Dicastery for PIHD at Roussel House Donum Dei in Nairobi, Kenya.
He said, “A country should have a legal framework of cooperation with Faith-Based Organizations. It should also give criteria on who should, according to the constitution, be qualified as a religion or religious leader.”
The member of the Institute of Consolata Missionaries said, “We are alienated from the government. We talk as outsiders.”
Fr. Okello added that governments tend to reward and punish the Church whenever it becomes critical because of a lack of formally stipulated mode of engagement.
“We cannot be held at ransom by the government, that when we are nice they give us everything, they give us Charters for our Universities, they give us exemptions for import taxations, they give us subsidies, and when we are becoming critical they withdraw all those things,” he said.
The Kenyan-born Priest emphasized the need for formalizing the collaboration saying, “We need to have mechanisms, perhaps through the same Constitutionalization of our status as religion, to have a right of representation in decision making.”
“Our interventions within government circles will have more impact when we are included in policy-making,” said Fr. Okello.
