CUEA: “Hold Each Other’s Hands, Be Your Brother’s Keeper,” Chancellor tells 2025 Graduating Class
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The Chancellor of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) at the 44th Graduation Ceremony on Friday, October 24, emphasized the critical need for compassion, unity, and ethical leadership in the challenging contemporary world.
In his address to 3,745 students who graduated on Friday, Bishop Charles Sampa Kasonde of Solwezi Diocese, Zambia, urged the 2025 graduating class to embrace their roles as ethical leaders and be their “brother’s keeper” as they navigate the post-graduation world.
“Let us hold each other’s hands as we navigate the world. Once in a while, check up on your classmates and friends and ask them how they are doing,” the Bishop advised, highlighting the “myriad of challenges” currently facing society, including social, financial, and faith-related struggles.
He noted that checking on one’s peers is a practical way to help reduce or eliminate acute stress, which can negatively impact health, learning, and growth, thereby preventing “wastage”. He further asserted that positive and healthy relationships are foundational to fostering a “healthy and productive society”.
Bishop Kasonde, who doubles as the Chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), stressed that the CUEA graduates are uniquely positioned to serve as the “much-needed ethical leaders for our Church and society.” This, he said, is because of the distinctiveness that lies in the University’s commitment to “value-based quality education,” which “informs the actualization of learners’ potential by additionally injecting values into the education”.
“This is what separates CUEA from other Universities in our region, and this is what separates graduates of CUEA from their peers,” he said and continued, The University’s vision, to empower people to become ethical leaders for the Church and Society, is fulfilled by inculcating its Core Values both academically and through extracurricular mechanisms.
The Zambian Prelate also highlighted the University’s dedication to social justice, noting that a key aim is to enhance CUEA’s global image as a “beacon of hope for society.” He emphasized the importance of CUEA’s Catholic identity, which includes accommodating the needy through the Cardinal Otunga Memorial Scholarship Fund.
This charitable fund, supported by staff, operational partners, and friends, ensures that needy students can complete their studies and stands as a “testament to our commitment… to be a beacon for society’s Pilgrims of Hope, especially in education,” he said.
The 44th graduation ceremony was graced by a high-profile audience, including the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs in Kenya, His Excellency Dr. Musalia Mudavadi, Dr. Gerard J. Rooney, President of St. John Fisher University, New York, who symbolized the association between Catholic-owned universities worldwide, and Bishops, among others.
Bishop Kasonde congratulated the 2025 graduating class and reminded them: “As you go out there, you too are Pilgrims of Hope; therefore, unite and remain together in prayer.”
