Nairobi, 28 May, 2025 / 7:54 AM
For Sr. Mary Killeen, who will be clocking 50 years as a Catholic missionary in Kenya in January 2026, individualism and the desire for “high life” is the number one killer of vocations to Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL).
The Irish Nun who has been serving as the Director of Mukuru Promotion Centre (MPC) among Kenyan slum communities for the past 40 years said that in Europe, where vocations to ICLSAL have been on a downward trajectory compared to Africa, the few young women choosing to consecrate their lives fully to God are not keen on joining “modern Religious Life”. Instead, they are only attracted by “traditional” Institutes and Societies that do not make life “easy” for their members.
“In Europe now, where Religious Life seems to be gone, some Irish young girls are joining Religious Life. And they're joining Religious Life in other countries that are still very traditional,” Sr. Mary said in a May 21 interview with ACI Africa on the sidelines of the celebration of MPC’s 40th anniversary.
She added, “It seems that people don't want to join this modern Religious Life. You know, where people are very free and they don't wear a habit. It seems people like to be an orderly group.”
“All this individualism, it seems, doesn't attract vocations,” she said.
According to the member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy (RSM), a genuine desire to serve the less privileged in society is what will sustain growth of vocations to ICLSAL, especially in Kenya where she said there has been a steady increase in young people consecrating their lives fully to God.
She said that a desire for easy and good life, and the need to be comfortable has never been good for the growth of vocations to ICLSAL.
“Here in Kenya at the moment, there are still vocations (to ICLSAL). But again, if the Sisters don't do the work they're called for, the vocations will fail. If they start living a high life and wanting all to teach in posh universities or private schools, then people will say, why will I join them? So somehow, some of us Religious, we're the ones who have killed vocations, by how we live and by the work we do,” she said.
Sr. Mary is one of the only two remaining non-African RSM members in Kenya. She describes herself, and the other Irish-born RSM member, as “the last of an era” as more and more African natives join the Congregation that Catherine McAuley founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland.
“We came here about 40 or 50 Irish Sisters. Now we're 40 or 50 Kenyan or African Sisters. And we're only two Irish left. So, you're lucky you're seeing almost the last of an era,” she said.
Expressing hope in the revival of vocations to ICLSAL in Europe, Sr. Mary said, “Christ died, and he rose again. Religious Life dies and it rises again. So even in Europe, it's death and resurrection.”
Born Mary Brigid Killeen in Phibsborough, northside of Ireland’s Dublin Catholic Archdiocese, the RSM member arrived in Kenya young and has been working in the poverty-stricken Mukuru slums, where she established the first school in the Nairobi’s Eastlands informal settlements under the auspices of MPC.
MPC has expanded over the past four decades, birthing five other schools, a technical training institution, a hospital, and social establishments including rehabilitation centres for the handicapped, drug addicts and ex-convicts.
In the slums in Nairobi’s industrial zone, Sr. Mary is fondly referred to as “the mother of Mukuru” for her love of the poor residents, and her willingness to give them opportunities in life.
In the May 21 interview with ACI Africa, Sr. Mary said that her biggest prayer is to see women Religious, who are totally devoted to serving the less privileged.
“These African sisters from Kenya, from Congo, and other African countries, we'd love to get some of them with that love and that enthusiasm for the work among the poor. That's my hope and my prayer,” she said.
She expressed fear that without a leader who serves from the heart, MPC may not succeed in serving the less privileged residents of Mukuru slums that are home to residents who face myriads of challenges such as unemployment, inadequate housing, sanitation and health issues, and limited access to basic services.
“People have to have the vocation in their heart,” she said, and explained, “Some Sisters are sent by their Superior to work with me. Some will come, they look bored, and they won't have any interest in doing the work. That's no good to me.”
“You need the one who has the interest in their heart, who comes willingly and who loves to do that work. Now, if you love the work, it's no labour. Where there's love, there's no labour. But if you don't love it, it's a hardship,” the Irish Nun told ACI Africa.
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Sr. Mary has urged African Sisters going to “evangelize Europe” to seek to be “very committed themselves.”
According to the RSM member, born the fourth child in a family of eight and the first girl, young African female members of ICLSAL can bring fresh energy in Europe by their exemplary lives and their commitment to the Gospel values, to the poor, and by living humbly.
She pointed out what she described as “the danger of some of them wanting to have a lot of fashion” and wanting “to live highly”, saying, “That will ruin Religious Life.”
“You have to keep steady and keep to your original calling and to your original charism. But the temptation is for people to get better off, to do better in life,” she lamented, and explained, “We're all tempted to leave our calling. If you're a married woman, you're tempted to flee. You see another very attractive man. You see, a married man is attracted to a girl in black.”
Sr. Mary continued, “We're all tempted to run away from our calling. With the Religious and Priests, it's the same. It's very hard to stick to your calling. It's very hard to be a good mother. Be there for your children. Be there for your work. You get bored. We're all tempted to leave our calling.”
“To remain faithful to your calling is the challenge. It's not easy,” the Irish RSM member, who had trained as a primary school teacher before joining the Congregation emphasized.
She also shared with ACI Africa the difficulties she experienced when she first arrived in Kenya in January 1976, and how difficult it was for her to leave Dublin, where she had nine-year experience of teaching in Carysfort National School and St. Vincent's Industrial School, Ireland’s national school in Goldenbridge.
“When I was sent to Kenya, it was very difficult. My father had just died. My mother was in a terrible state. And then, I had another sister in a lot of family trouble. So, I actually didn't want to come at that time,” Sr. Mary recalled.
She explained, “I wasn't against coming. But they asked me in November 1975 when my father had died the same year in June. My Superior told me they needed someone to go there urgently. So, eventually, I came.”
“I said I only wanted to come for a short time. So, I was supposed to come for two years. Now, I've been almost 50 years. In January (2016), I'll be 50 years in Kenya,” Sr. Mary, who, in 2018, received the Presidential Distinguished Services Award for the Irish abroad, told ACI Africa during the May 21 interview.
Earlier, the RSM member had been chosen to represent the residents of Nairobi slums in articulating their challenges to Pope Francis during his maiden pastoral visit to Africa in November 2015.
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