REFLECTIONS OF A KENYAN PRIEST

By Fr. Casmir Odundo 1. Anticipating the Ordinary Jubilee The year 2025 had been long awaited in the life of the Church, for it was marked as an Ordinary Jubilee Year. Indeed, when Pope John Paul II closed the Holy Door of the Great Jubilee in January 2001, he pointed ahead to the next Ordinary Jubilee to be celebrated in 2025. Even before that moment arrived, an important preparatory step had already been taken. Following the election of Pope Francis on 13 March 2013, the Church entered a period marked strongly by themes of mercy and hope. In 2015, Pope Francis announced an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which ran from 8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016. Significantly, it began on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Vatican II Council (8 December 1965), recalling that at the end of the Council Pope Paul VI had also called for an extraordinary Jubilee in 1966. 2. Mercy as a Path towards Hope As Pope Francis later explained in his letter to Archbishop Rino Fisichella dated ...

FOR HISTORICAL INTEREST: AGES AT EPISCOPAL ORDINATION OF BISHOPS IN KENYA 1) 34.0 – Maurice Michael Otunga 2) 35.0 – Philip Sulumeti 3) 35.8 – Zacchaeus Okoth 4) 36.7 – Filippo Perlo, I.M.C. 5) 37.6 – Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’ Nzeki 6) 38.6 – Charles (Carlo) Maria Cavallera, I.M.C. 7) 38.6 – Carlo Re, I.M.C. 8) 38.9 – Alfred Kipkoech Arap Rotich 9) 39.5 – Emilio (Emile) Njeru 10) 39.5 – Giuseppe Perrachon, I.M.C. 11) 39.7 – Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo 12) 39.9 – Cornelius Kipng’eno Arap Korir 13) 40.0 – Caesar Gatimu 14) 40.6 – Anthony Muheria 15) 40.7 – John Njue 16) 41.0 – Joseph Mairura Okemwa 17) 41.1 – Linus Okok Okwach 18) 41.7 – Maurice Muhatia Makumba 19) 41.8 – Joseph Ndembu Mbatia 20) 41.9 – Peter Joseph Kairo 21) 41.9 – John Njenga 22) 42.1 – Nicodemus Kirima 23) 42.6 – Jean-Marie-Raoul Le Bas de Courmont, C.S.Sp. 24) 43.5 – Paul Darmanin, O.F.M. Cap. 25) 43.6 – William Dunne, S.P.S. 26) 45.2 – David Kamau Ng’ang’a 27) 45.4 – Urbanus Joseph Kioko 28) 45.5 – Frederick Hall, M.H...