“I remember Monsignor Turek talking to our Archdiocese and saying, ‘Rome needs to hear that the Church in Nairobi and that the Church in Kenya is praying.’ It is true that we have been praying and Monsignor Turek said he had no doubt,” Fr. Njoroge said.
He added, “They in Rome know that the Church in Nairobi and in Kenya is a Church in prayer. But Monsignor Turek said Rome wants to hear, and wants to know that the Church in Kenya is a Church in prayer for the cause of the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga.”
Fr. Njoroge shared a personal experience while he performed some secretarial tasks for Cardinal Otunga who was then Archbishop of Nairobi. Fr. Njoroge spoke about experiencing a man who seemed “not to be listening” yet very attentive. “I once went to his house in Lavington… I had an issue or two that I wanted to discuss with him.”
Fr. Njoroge narrated that after Cardinal Otunga served him tea and biscuits as he always did with all his visitors, he started to pour out his heart to the Cardinal who appeared to be absent-minded.
“There he was, facing a certain point, and his eyes seemed closed,” Fr. Njoroge narrated, and continued, “I wondered, ‘is this man listening to what I am saying?’ But I continued, pouring out what my issues were. And as I went on and I explained to him and narrated, at one point he seemed to be asleep. When I finished speaking, he opened his eyes and he looked at me straight in the eye and held me as it were.”
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“He had powerful eyes,” the Priest recalled of Cardinal Otunga who passed on in 2003 at the age of 80. “When he looked at you, you were not able to look elsewhere. You stayed there. He looked at me straight in the eye. And then, blow by blow, point by point, he responded to the issues that I had raised. And he told me even more how he knew my parents, my father especially, because they had gone to the same intermediate school and to the same high school…He was telling me about myself.”
“Maurice Cardinal Otunga had appeared to be sleeping. But he was very, very alive to what I was saying,” Fr. Njoroge said.
He said that there was a parallel between that day’s experience with Cardinal Otunga and what is going on in the Cardinal’s cause.
“The cause of the Servant of God, Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, may seem to be taking time. But it is very much alive. That is what has been communicated by the Relator, Monsignor Angelo Romano from Rome to the Archbishop of Nairobi,” he said.
“Therefore, kindly, us continue to pray. Continue to pray and to pray firmly that this course is going to remain alive. And that it is going to bear fruit according to the will of God,” Fr. Njoroge said.
Fr. Njoroge’s sentiments were echoed by Fr. Peter Kaigua Ngugi, the Chairman of the Central Committee for the Beatification of the Servant of God, Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, who noted that the biggest challenge for the committee was delays.
Fr. Ngugi attributed the delays to the thoroughness of Catholic Church processes.
“We have had delays. Delays in responses,” the Priest of the Archdiocese of Nairobi told ACI Africa at the dinner event, and explained, “You place whatever is required and then it takes a whole year to get a response. But that’s how the Church works.”
Fr. Ngugi shared that the committee is also struggling with shrinkage owing to deaths of its members and transfers.
“The committee is shrinking by the day. Unfortunately, people die and others get transferred. For example, members of the committee who are Priests get transferred to other places,” he said.
The Priest who teaches at Kenya’ University of Nairobi (UoN) where he is also Chaplain said that the challenges notwithstanding, people are excited about the cause of the Servant of God Cardinal Otunga.
“People are waiting. Everywhere you go, even outside the Archdiocese of Nairobi, people are praying for the course of the Servant of God Michael Cardinal Otunga. People are hopeful,” he said.
Fr. Ngugi’s role for the past two years has been to mobilize people to know the story of the Servant of God and also to mobilize resources that are necessary for the cause.
Sharing with ACI Africa the inspiration behind the dinner, he said, “In the African cultures, stories are best told when you bring people together to eat. So when we are eating, we come and tell the story of the Servant of God.”
The dinner was also graced by UoN and JKUAT students. Fr. Ngugi said, “We have tried to bring along us young people. We realized that if we don’t tell the story of Cardinal Otunga to the young ones, the story may get lost.”
Apart from dinners, the committee has organized golf tournaments, walks, and even engaged in the selling of merchandise to raise funds.
The funds, Fr. Ngugi said, go into activities such as meetings, research, and publications of documents required for the cause of the Servant of God.
The Priest believes that although many people never met Cardinal Otunga, his presence is felt by everyone who hears his story. “I am lucky I met him myself. I remember meeting a gentleman, a very humble, very prayerful, a very good man,” he said of the Cardinal.
Fr. Ngugi shared with ACI Africa that he met Cardinal Otunga many times in his childhood, and later as a newly ordained Priest at a home for the elderly in Nairobi where the Cardinal resided upon his retirement.
“I met Cardinal Otunga when I was a Priest and he told me something very interesting. I have never forgotten what he told me, because he was frail and old and I had just been ordained. He told me, “young man, go and minister the people of God. For me, I am now old, the only pastoral work remaining for me is to pray for you as you do active ministry”. It was a very profound statement.,” Fr. Ngugi narrated, and added, “That was 23 years ago but I remember what he told me to date.”
“For me, Cardinal Otunga is not a legendary figure. He is a person that I met and knew and confessed to,” the Priest said.
Asked how the Church in Kenya will feel the day that the Servant of God Michael Cardinal Otunga will be declared a Saint, Fr. Ngugi said, “It’s going to be the best day in our Church and in our lives.”
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya’s Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.