“You see, being a Priest or Religious is no guarantee. You may be standing at the door and knocking, and nobody will open,” Archbishop van Megen further warned.
He challenged the Clergy, women and men Religious to examine the extend to which they “know” the Lord, guided by the questions, “Do we know Him? Do we recognize Him? Do we really know Him?”
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“In the meantime, 2,000 years have passed, but some people will never learn the lesson. You know, some 30 years after that Presentation of the Lord in the temple, the temple again witnessed a tragic and dramatic scene. They accounted for him 30 pieces of silver. And from then on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over the price for a slave, 30 pieces of silver,” Archbishop van Megen said, emphasizing the negative consequences of being obsessed with money.
According to him, “The Priests in the temple with all their formation and education should have known better, but they did not.”
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In his speech at the February 1 event, Bishop Kamomoe addressed himself to the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya, saying, “Your Excellency, when you were preaching, you pricked my conscience, because you said that when Jesus was being presented (in the temple), the Priest did not focus on the child Jesus, but the Priest focused on the Sadaka. That pricked my conscience.”
One of the two Auxiliary Bishops of ADN recalled his reporting to the Local Ordinary of the Kenyan Metropolitan See about the events at St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Seminary as the members of the Nairobi-based national Church institution were celebrating their Patron Saint.
“His Grace, as we were walking in, asked me, ‘how was the day yesterday?’ And you know what I told him? We were able to raise a lot of money,” Bishop Kamomoe recalled his conversation with Archbishop Philip Anyolo.
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The Kenyan Catholic Bishop said he finds it regrettable that his reporting on the events of January 31 that involved Holy Mass and a funds-raising initiative for the support of the national Major Seminary for Theology only focused on the latter.
“I did not mention about the Eucharistic celebration that we had. I did not mention about the Word of God that we shared ... and the Archbishop was also very happy to hear that,” Bishop Kamomoe said reflecting on the homily of the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya.
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He reiterated, “Your Excellency, you have pricked my conscience. Let us continue actually reflecting where our preoccupation is, where exactly?”
In an interview with ACI Africa, the Provincial Superior of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (CSSp./Holy Ghost Fathers/Spiritans) in Kenya and South Sudan said that the Apostolic Nuncio’s caution against obsession with offertory was relevant.
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“Our focus, as Religious men and women, should be to move away from money, and look at Christ in the people we serve,” Fr. Frederick Wafula said, and adding that a focus on “sadaka” can be “distractive” to the mission and identity of the Consecrated.
Sr. Mary Santrina Tumusiime of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM/Loreto Sisters) told ACI Africa that she “felt so touched by his (Nuncio’s) inspiring and challenging message inviting me to reflect on what prevents or blocks me from seeing Christ.”
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“Money should not be the focus in our religious ministries,” Sr. Zipporah Wawira Njiru of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi (ASN) told ACI Africa.
In his homily during the February 1 celebration of the Jubilee Year for the Consecrated in the ADN, the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya acknowledged with appreciation the persons of Simeon and Anna who, during the scene of the Lord’s Presentation in the temple, “recognize the little child.”
“Simeon arrives in the temple, an old man, righteous and devout, he is described,” he said, and added, “And those kind of Simeons, we all know them; the old missionary, the old Sister, who lives, so to say, a bit in the background of the Congregation. They don't really participate in the heated discussions that take place within the younger generations.”
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The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya since his appointment to the East African nation in February 2019 went on to favourably compare Simeon with “those old missionaries who are still serving up to now in faraway places; they don't care about career or about money, and they are happy in their little mission ... They live their lives in simplicity, the simplicity of everyday life. And even when they are sick or in need, you will not hear them.”
Simeon can also be relived in a woman Religious “maybe already in the sick bay ... praying the rosary, silently attending Holy Mass, sitting for hours in the chapel. She doesn't participate in, and she doesn't like the silly bickering between younger Sisters; she just watches from a distance with a tired smile,” he said.
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“Simeon and Anna are like the saints we know, Saint John Maria Vianney, who always served in poor and isolated parishes, forgotten by his bishop, forgotten by his colleagues ... Or Saint Josephine Bakhita, who, after coming to Italy, served in the convent basically with a smile and very few words, as she kept on struggling with the Italian language,” the Dutch-born Vatican diplomat further said.
A section of women and men Religious told ACI Africa that they found the virtues of Simeon and Anna, which the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya highlighted in his homily thought-provoking and that if embraced, can positively impact the mission and apostolate of the Consecrated.
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“The homily by Archbishop van Megen served as a profound reminder to stay vigilant and focus on what truly matters: the presence of Christ in our lives and ministry,” Sr. Maureen Naryama Ogundeph said.
The Kenyan-born member of the Sacramentine Sisters of Bergamo (SSBG) said that the Apostolic Nuncio’s contrast between the Priests in the Jerusalem temple and the persons of Simeon and Anna “challenged me to avoid being consumed by material concerns or administrative duties that could distract from our spiritual mission.”
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“The call to be attentive to Christ’s presence and to serve with humility and devotion is a wake-up call to live out our consecration authentically, always prioritizing our relationship with God and our commitment to serving others with love and integrity,” Sr. Maureen added.
Sr. Rosemary Mueni Mwaiwa of the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul (FSP), also known as Pauline Sisters, told ACI Africa that she was touched by the Apostolic Nuncio’s “appreciation and witness of life our missionaries, the elderly Sisters who spend time with the Lord, serving Him with dedication and love.”
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They are “great witness of Consecrated Life and we need to emulate them,” the Superior of the recently established East Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (EAMZZ) Province said, and added, “They are our Anna and Simeon of today.”
On his part, the Provincial Superior of the Spiritans in Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Wafula, said he felt inspired to appreciate “the old Missionary who are still serving quietly and never distracted by power, and material attractions. It reminds of Sean MCgovern in Rotu Mission (East Pokot, Kenya); he stays put at 86!”
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Fr. Samuel Nyattaya told ACI Africa that he felt challenged “to constantly (like the old Anna) and frequently visit the Lord (now present in His Temple, the Church).”
The member of Clergy of Kenya’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu said that from the Nuncio’s homily, he felt encouraged not to lose “focus on the Lord present in His Temple, not being distracted by anything else” and that “like Simeon and the old Anna, to be ready to be sent even to the remotest parts of the world as a missionary.”
For Sr. Mary Santrina of the Loreto Sisters, Nuncio’s homily triggered a reflection on “the ‘Simeons and Hannas’ in my Congregation, that is, those members that have lived longer in this life.”
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“Can I learn from their experiences of contentment, total self giving as opposed to whining and complaining about unnecessary things,” the Ugandan-born Loreto Sister said.
The inspiration that Sr. Gladys Karimi Ndege received from the February 1 homily is that “Like Simeon, the waiting may take too long, but I need to be patient amidst the challenges and the feeling of being worn out.”
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“Maybe I need to feel worn out and tired so that I may surrender myself completely, living totally for God and for others, to give everything to the last drop, like a mother who would give her last drop to her children,” the Kenyan member of the Sisters of Emmanuel (SE) told ACI Africa.
Sr. Gladys also said, “The Life of Religious cannot be without prayer and contemplation. Like Anna, I need to persevere in prayer and desire only to be known by God. Only God is enough.”
In his homily, the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya also highlighted tribalism as “many times an issue” in ICLSAL.
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“If you're not with a majority tribe, you may have a problem. If you're not from the ‘right tribe’, you might be even isolated,” he said, and posed, “Imagine that would have happened in the temple, would Anna have ever been allowed to come in (being) member of a lost tribe (Asher), member of a tribe that was considered less than the others?”
“However, let's face it, it is many times through those Priests and Religious members of a minority, the underdogs, the outcasts that the Holy Spirit speaks, as was the case with Anna from the tribe of Asher,” the Dutch-born Vatican Diplomat, who started his service as Apostolic Nuncio in Sudan in March 2014 said during the celebration of the 2025 Jubilee Year for the Consecrated in the ADN.
The worldwide celebration of the Jubilee of Consecrated Life has been scheduled to take place from 8-9 October 2025 in Rome.
ACI Africa was founded in 2019. We provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, giving particular emphasis to the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See, to any person with access to the internet. ACI Africa is proud to offer free access to its news items to Catholic dioceses, parishes, and websites, in order to increase awareness of the activities of the universal Church and to foster a sense of Catholic thought and culture in the life of every Catholic.
Archbishop Hubertus van Megen. Credit: ACI Africa
Credit: ACI Africa
Credit: ACI Africa
Credit: ACI Africa
Credit: ACI Africa
