KENYA: Mission is the Church’s Heartbeat – KCCB General Secretary
Magdalene Kahiu
Missionary work is at the core of the Church, the General Secretary of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) said, urging diocesan Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) directors and Pontifical Missionary Childhood (PMC) coordinators to remain committed to spreading the Gospel across the country.
Speaking during the four-day annual PMS Kenya Annual General Meeting, Fr. Jude James Waweru stressed that PMS exists to help the Church live out its missionary identity.
“Missionary work is the heart and the soul of the life of the Church. Missionary work is actually the Church. It is the work of the Church,” Fr. Jude told the 50 participants gathered at Assumption Sisters of Nairobi JJ McCarthy Centre.
He emphasized the role of PMS, “When we speak about the work of PMS, we are not talking about a responsibility outside ourselves. We are speaking about who we are as the Church. This mission is very sublime and very noble. Without it, the Church is almost non-operational.”
“Christ established the Church so that it might carry out missionary work, making Him known in the universal arena, so that His name may be proclaimed throughout the world; that is missionary work,” Fr. Jude said, adding that every Christian is called to be a missionary.
Fr Jude also cautioned the missionaries against competing with each other, saying it risks turning missionary work into private projects.
“Comparison is good. Benchmarking is good. Learning from one another is good, but competition is bad,” Fr. Jude said, adding, “When we compete, we lose sight of the fact that this is missionary work and that each of us has a responsibility. It will never look the same everywhere; the synergy will differ; the dynamics will differ.”
He explained that the Church’s mission “is about complementarity … and strengthening one another’s work.”
Instead of competing, the Priest urged the missionaries to build solidarity and, in doing so, “protect the mission from becoming a private project.”
“What must be the same is that all of us are doing our best. That is the only thing that needs to be the same: that each of us is giving our very best,” Fr. Jude said.
In her virtual presentation to the gathering, Sr. Inês Paulo Albino, the Secretary General of the Pontifical Society for Missionary Childhood, highlighted that proclaiming the Gospel is not optional but a central duty of the Church.
While citing Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), she emphasized that evangelization is the responsibility of every baptized person, and that the Church is inherently missionary, called to be “outgoing” rather than inward-looking.
“The missionary mandate is lived through witness of life, proclamation of the Gospel, participation in local Church life, and concrete service to the marginalized,” she said.
“Formation and animation go hand in hand. PMS must continue to train animators and provide them with tools to sustain missionary awareness.”
Sr. Ines stressed the importance of long-term formation programs and the preparation of missionary animation materials, ensuring that PMS remains a central force in promoting evangelization and nurturing Catholics’ missionary consciousness throughout Kenya.
