[Day 6----October 21, 2013]
Msgr. Mike, Father John Peter and I began our day by
con-celebrating Mass together---just the three of us---in the Chapel here on the
grounds of the St. Teresa Diocesan Pastoral Center. The Chapel is enclosed, but it's really an
outdoor setting. At the early hour of
7:30, it was cool and pleasant. I
offered my Mass this morning for all the Priests and Deacons of the Diocese of
Kalamazoo. We pray each day at Mass, in
particular, for all those dear people who we know are praying for us during
this great adventure. After a quick
breakfast, we were picked up to travel to the Diocesan Offices, a 5-minute
drive from the Pastoral Center, through the heart of the marketplace of Lodwar
along the very dusty roads. Here in
Lodwar (and throughout the entire state of Kenya), today is a national holiday
known as "Heroes Day" (perhaps similar to our Memorial Day). Like holidays in the U.S., this is a day off
from work/school and the usual bank/post office closings. However, in spite of the holiday, the 24
Department heads of the Diocese of Lodwar Pastoral Staff were all present for
the day that Bishop Dominic had planned for us to hear from the Staff
leadership about the works of the Church here in Lodwar.
As a note, the Diocese of Lodwar is similar to the
Diocese of Kalamazoo in a number of ways, some of which I've mentioned
already: we share the same diocesan
Patron, Saint Augustine; we are about the same age---Kalamazoo is 43 years old
as a Diocese; Lodwar is not quite 40 years old yet; the size of our
Presbyterates are similar (as an interesting note, there are no Permanent
Deacons here in Lodwar; in fact, Bishop Dominic said that there are no
Permanent Deacons in all of Kenya and throughout most of Africa). However, when it comes to the nature of what
our Diocesan staffs do, there's a world of difference. The pastoral staff of the Diocese of
Kalamazoo is very similar to most diocesan staffs in the United States---our
focus is on the spiritual, pastoral, educational, temporal aspects of
parish/ecclesial life. The pastoral staff of the Diocese of Lodwar is a mini social services agency, in light of
the fact that the government here in Lodwar does next to nothing for its
citizens. If it was not for the
tremendous and varied ways that the Church here in Lodwar, through this
dedicated staff, reaches out to help people, no matter what their religious
affiliation, a lot more people would be dying from the terrible circumstances
in which a high percentage of this population lives.
It is also interesting to make mention of the makeup of
this Diocesan Staff. Of the 24 people in
the room, more than half were lay persons.
However, there were also three brothers from a religious community based in
Utrecht in the Netherlands; a religious Sister; and several priests. While most of the people are citizens of this
country, a number of the staff are from elsewhere in the world. Several of them came to Lodwar by means of a
program known as Volunteers in Mission and Assistance. Among them is the Director
of (Human) Development from the Phillipines; the Director of Transportation
from Australia; the Chancellor who is from Ireland. In addition the Finance Director is a
Religious Brother and is originally from New York City. The staff composition is quite varied and
diverse.
We spent the better part of five hours today, listening to
these department heads speak about the work that they do, and the great
challenges that they face while trying to do their ministries. The circumstances are far different; but the
challenges that both they and we face are pretty much the same: a lack of funds and resources, the shortage
of priests, paid staff, and volunteers.
The one circumstance that they have here
that is not one that we encounter is in the ability to reach the people
they need to serve because of the awful infrastructure here in this entire
Diocese. The Diocese of Lodwar covers
only one county---the County of Torkana---but the area is vast: 77,000 sq. km. compared to the 5,337 sq.
miles of our 9 counties in our Diocese.
Turkana County is the poorest county in all of Kenya, and ranks at the
bottom of all the charts in terms of health, education and social services. We discussed ways that our two dioceses can continue
to be in dialogue over the years to come, and ways in which our two
diocesan pastoral staffs might be supportive of and helpful to one
another. We will hear more about that in
the months to come.
I need to mention that Sr. Maureen Metty's name came up
any number of times today. Sr. Maureen
is a Sister of the Congregation of St. Joseph in Kalamazoo. Sister spent about a month here in the
Diocese of Lodwar several years ago, and she is the one who began to encourage
our two dioceses to find ways to work together.
Sr. Maureen is also the one who encouraged the Sisters of St. Joseph
Foundation to help sponsor the Diocesan Pastoral Visit in which we are
currently engaged. Many of the Lodwar
staff send their greetings to Sr. Maureen.
Following the long and fruitful discussions, we visited
Bishop Dominic's office and toured a few of the diocesan offices, and tried to
catch up on some of our e-mail since the only place here in Lodwar that we can
have access to the internet is at Bishop Dominic's offices (not the Pastoral
Center where we are staying). It is for that reason that these blog updates will be
appearing somewhat on a haphazard schedule, depending on when we can have
access to Bishop Dominic's wi-fi.
Msgr. Mike, Fr. John Peter and I have had a leisurely
evening, a hearty dinner, prayed Evening Prayer together, and now are ready for
a good night's sleep. I look forward to
tomorrow as we will travel with Bishop Dominic to a parish two hours away where
I will have the privilege of conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation on 35
young people.
Emanuel, a staff member in Lodwar, is shown on-air at the diocese's radio station: Radio Akicha, 99.5FM (photo courtesy of Flickr, by Javier Merelo/Internews
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