REFLECTIONS OF A KENYAN PRIEST

By Fr. Casmir Odundo  I remember fondly in late March 2005, I was a form two (High School) student at St. Joseph’s Junior Seminary Molo, Kenya. We had by then closed school for the Easter and April holidays. Then suddenly it was announced that Pope John Paul II, had taken ill and was very sick. I remember watching on TV how the pilgrims kept vigil at St. Peter’s Square praying for the Pope. He was the only Pope many people had known  and so there was uncertainty of what the future would be like without him. Who could succeed such a great Pope?  On 3rd of April 2005, my mother woke me up to the news that John Paul II had died the previous day. I remember watching the announcement and I recall the spontaneous applause that followed. “Why are they clapping at such sad news?” I wondered. But the commentator on TV was gracious enough to explain that it is part of Italian tradition.  Then followed the requiem Mass on 8th April 2005, which I followed from the beginning to t...

By Fr. Casmir Odundo Benedict XVI and Card. Njue   Unlike his immediate predecessor and his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XVI did not get the opportunity to visit Kenya during his Pontificate. We know that St. John Paul II, “The Pilgrim Pope'' the predecessor of Pope Benedict XVI, made 104 foreign trips in his long pontificate that included three visits to Kenya, in May 1980, August 1985 and in September 1995. Pope Francis, the successor of Pope Benedict XVI made Kenya the first African country he visited in November 2015.  However, as a cardinal and head of the then Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (future Benedict XVI)  was part of the delegation that accompanied Pope John Paul II to Nairobi, Kenya during the promulgation of the Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa in September 1995 . Again, while he did not make a pastoral visit to Kenya during his Pontificate,  Pope Benedict XVI made two Apostolic trips to ...

   By Rev. Fr. Casmir Odundo  Today, at 9.34 am Rome time in Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, in the Vatican Pope Benedict XVI passed on just a few hours before we crossed over to the New Year 2023 and during the Christmas Octave.  By the time of his death, he was 95 years old. He had served as Pope for 7 years and as a Cardinal for 27 years. He had also served as a Bishop for 45 years and 71 years as a priest.  On 28th February 2013 Pope Benedict XVI walked into a  gathering of cardinals in the Apostolic Palace and announced in his  characteristic fluent Latin what no pope has dared for over 600 years:  His resignation.   Born on 16th April 1927 (the feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous of  Loudress) Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger rose through the ecclesiastical  ranks to become the 265 th Bishop of Rome. His vocation journey started  when as a 5 year old boy he was in the group of young children who  welcomed the then visiting C...