A past activity at St. Joseph’s Luanda Catholic Church
He further said the poverty in Luanda was difficult to ignore and that children living on the streets and widows became the focus of his pastoral ministry.
“I saw the poverty and children roaming the streets. My first priority became these children and widows. These two groups had also been a priority for my predecessors,” he recalled.
Fr. McGrath said the Mill Hill Sisters, officially the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph (FMSJ), who were based at the Parish, joined the ministry to street children and helped rescue many of them.
A social worker at St. Joseph’s Resource Center of Luanda Catholic Parish in Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Kakamega takes school children through a talk. Credit: St. Joseph’s Resource Center
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Programs supporting widows and street children continue at Luanda Parish alongside a more recent rehabilitation initiative for people struggling with drug addiction.
MHM’s family-based counselling, rehabilitation, and training resource center addresses drug addiction among street children in Luanda and in homes surrounding Luanda market.
In the August 14 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. McGrath traced his missionary vocation to the influence of the Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga and the witness of the Uganda Martyrs.
He said Cardinal Otunga, during a visit to Ireland in 1950, inspired him to serve in Africa. Reading accounts about the Uganda Martyrs also contributed to his decision to become a missionary on the continent.
Entrance to St. Joseph’s Luanda Catholic Church
In Bungoma, the Irish Priest witnessed the growth of the Catholic Church with the support of Cardinal Otunga’s father, Sudi, an influential local chief.
The Catholic Church operated about 40 schools in the area during his ministry, Fr. McGrath said, resulting in numerous Baptisms and the reception of other Sacraments.
“One of the jobs I had to do, I remember, was to drive to schools to get the names of all the kids that had been baptized and needed to be confirmed, and invite them to come and follow the instructions in the mission,” he said.
“It was really a Catholic atmosphere,” Fr. McGrath added, describing western Bungoma as “strongly Catholic” and its faithful as “very rooted Catholics.”
He also acknowledged the contribution of local catechists, whom he described as firmly grounded in the Catholic faith.
A past activity at St. Joseph’s Luanda Catholic Church
“All traditional catechists in Bungoma were firm on the faith,” he said, recalling Vincent Waswa, whom he described as “old and firm on the faith, respected, teaching catechumens and readers at that time.”
“Vincent was a very competent man, having benefited from loads of liturgical instructions and homilies. And all I had to do when I went for Mass was to sit with Vincent, and he would explain to me the words. He would come along with me at the back of my bike, and he would get pure Bukusu on paper,” Fr. McGrath recalled.
Kibabii mission was about 40 years old when Fr. McGrath arrived and was already maturing. It later began receiving catechists trained at St. Andrew Kaggwa Catechetical Training College in the Diocese of Kakamega.
Credit: Kilmurry McMahon/ Labasheeda Parish/ Facebook
The training made a significant difference, Fr. McGrath said, explaining that catechesis had previously relied heavily on memorization.
“Up to then, the people were told simple catechism by heart. They would sing the responses without any explanation because the catechists they had had very little training in reading,” he told ACI Africa.
In the August 14 interview, Fr. McGrath also reflected on the reversal of missionary vocations, noting that Priests from Africa and India are now being sent to sustain Catholic communities in Europe, where vocations have declined.
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.