Murang’a, 05 October, 2020 / 11:33 pm (ACI Africa).
The leadership of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Murang’a has cautioned various Church institutions in the East African country against recognizing two men who reportedly going around the country identifying themselves as a Priest and a Seminarian of the “Congregation of Franciscans of Our Lady of the Poor”
In a widely shared circular dated October 3 addressed to all Priests and Religious men and women in Kenya, Bishop James Maria Wainaina of Murang’a Diocese says the Congregation is yet to receive “recognition as a Religious Congregation.”
“It has come to my awareness that a certain Paul Mburu Ngumi is going around presenting himself as a seminarian of a Congregation calling itself Franciscans of Our Lady of the Poor, and going to different parishes in our diocese and probably elsewhere in the country, seeking to be recognized and to be treated as a seminarian,” Bishop Wainaina says.
He cautions, “I wish to bring to your attention and clarify that… The Congregation of Franciscans of Our Lady of the Poor has not received recognition as a Religious Congregation, and in fact, must be avoided.”
The Congregation, according to Bishop Wainaina who serves in the Economic Affairs department of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), has presented itself in “a perfidious and disreputable manner” in the Catholic Diocese of Murang’a and elsewhere in the country.
