Calls for Environmental Protection Echoed as German Priest Famed for Planting Millions of Trees in Kenya Laid to Rest

“Fr. Hermann served within the teachings of the late Pope Francis who taught us how to respect and protect our environment,” he said referring to the May 2015 Encyclical Letter on care for our common home, Laudato Si’.”

Bishop Oseso continued, “In his Laudato Si’ teachings, Pope Francis told us to respond to the cry of the earth. He said that we are hurting and mistreating the environment.”

He said that following the teachings of the late Pope Francis, who underlined the need to respond to the cry of the poor, Fr. Hermann embraced the life of poverty according to the way of life in his Religious Order, OFM, denying himself for the sake of others.

The late Pope Francis “urged us to adopt simple lifestyles. In this country, there are people leading prestigious lifestyles while others have no place to lay their head,” Bishop Oseso said, and added, “Fr. Hermann showed us the life of poverty. Every time I saw him, he was always in a simple windbreaker sweater.”

According to Bishop Oseso, the late OFM Priest believed that the third world war would be for water.

“Fr. Hermann would say with conviction that people would fight over water. He offered himself to be the solution to the water challenge, which he had foreseen. And he did that through tree-planting,” the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said during the burial at the Franciscan Friary of Lower Subukia cemetery in the premises of Subukia National Marian Shrine.

The Local Ordinary of Nakuru Diocese, who brought a tree seedling to plant in honour of the Fr. Hermann challenged the people of God under his pastoral care to plant at least one tree after the burial of the Priest who lived in Kenya for 42 years.

“All of us must pick up from where Fr. Hermann stopped in the care of our common home. Let us not allow what he started to go to waste,” he said.

Fr. Hermann, who passed on on July 4 at Aga khan University Teaching Hospital in Nairobi after he suffered a heart attack will be remembered for transforming the landscape and the lives of those around him by motivating them to actively engage in initiatives that foster environmental stewardship.

He founded MEN to “raise awareness among stakeholders while at the same time building their capacity in tree planting and environmental conservation and management.”

Born in December 1943 in Germany and ordained OFM Priest in 1971, the late Fr. Hermann was commissioned to Lower Subukia in Nakuru Diocese, when he arrived in the East African nation in 1983. There, he recognized ecological gaps and spearheaded reforestation initiatives through tree-planting drives.

The late Fr. Hermann’s initiatives resulted in the planting of more than one million trees in Subukia Valley, the revitalization of water catchment areas, and improvement of soil fertility in the Kenyan region.

In July 2017, the Kenyan government recognized the late Fr. Hermann’s environmental conservation initiatives, including him among the 54 recipients of the Kenya Forest Service’s (KFS) “Unsung Hero” award for “planting 1 million trees in the Subukia Valley over 20 years ago.”

He received other awards from Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and from Total Eco Challenge and United Religion Initiative – Africa for his environmental stewardship initiatives through MEN.

The OFM Priest who inspired Clergy, members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL), Catholic Laity and non-Christians to participate in the care of God’s creation is remembered for collaborating with the Kenyan Ministry of Education and introducing Mother Earth Club in learning institutions to incorporate youths in environmental conservation.

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During the July 10 burial ceremony, Bishop Oseso lauded the impact of Fr. Hermann’s Mother Earth Club in schools, saying, “Fr. Hermann desired that little children be taught how to conserve nature all the way from school.”

According to Bishop Oseso, the Lower Subukia region was dear to Fr. Hermann, and the Priest wished to spend all his days serving in the region.

“One day I asked Fr. Hermann what he thought about going back to his native country. In response, he told me, ‘Where is home? Lower Subukia is my home. This is where I live. This is where I have worked as an evangelizer.’”

Fr. Hermann’s passing came while plans were underway to celebrate his 60 years as an OFM Priest, the Local Ordinary of Nakuru Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in May 2023 said at the burial ceremony on July 10.

Meanwhile, at his Requiem Mass the previous day, the Auxiliary Bishop of Kenya’s Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) challenged Kenyans to emulate the “good acts” of the late Fr. Hermann.

In his homily at the Holy Family Minor Basilica of ADN Wednesday, July 9, Bishop David Kamau Ng'ang'a said feeding the hungry and caring for the environment just as Fr. Hermannn did are ways of preparing for eternal life.

The late Fr. Hermann dedicated over four decades of his life to environmental conservation through tree-planting initiatives, Bishop Kamau said, and added, “The good acts are what will take one to heaven. So, life is a preparation (for heaven).”

“What we take with us is the good work, the charity. Fr. Hermann has prepared himself,” he reiterated, emphasizing that heaven begins while we are still on earth, not just after death.

Bishop Kamau said that the founder of MEN was “involved not only in preaching the good news but also taking care of the environment.”

He eulogized the late Fr. Hermann as a Priest who lived true to the spirit of the founder of the Franciscans, St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology and put some plants and flowers around his coffin.

“I'm sure St. Francis is welcoming him there because he did that work,” Bishop Kamau said, and went on to eulogize the late Fr. Hermann as having been a “sign of unity”, who “had that passion of bringing all the Franciscans together.”

Mourning the passing on of Fr. Hermann “is a difficult time, especially for the Franciscan where Hermann was,” the Auxiliary Bishop of ADN noted during the July 9 Requiem Mass.

He comforted mourners, assuring them that Fr. Hermann's passing on marks the beginning of his eternal life, and added, “Fr. Hermann was not just an ordinary person. He was a person who believed in Jesus Christ and eternal life. He has shown that through his whole life.”

Bishop Kamau appealed to mourners to pray for the late Fr. Hermann for God to show mercy on him and accept him in His Kingdom.