Venerable Libermann, on his part, “is a friendly man who is considerate, who understands and is open, who understands and who embraces,” he went on to say, adding that “des Places and Libermann are like a program for the Congregation.”
The two founders of the Spiritans, the Nuncio told the new Bishop of Lodwar, “can also be your program for your pastoral work in this Diocese.”
Credit: ACI Africa
“Be that good and friendly man who gives room to people to breathe,” the Dutch-born Nuncio who doubles as the Permanent Observer to the United Nations Environment Program and Human Settlements Program told the candidate he was about to consecrate Bishop.
He encouraged the Bishop-elect to heed the words of Libermann who said, “All you have to do is keep yourself docile and pliable in the hands of the Spirit of life, whom our Lord has placed in your soul to be your all."
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Credit: ACI Africa
The Spirit, the Nuncio told the native of Kenya’s Machakos Diocese, “must be the principal and unique source of all your affections, of all your desires and movements of your soul; He must be the thriving power of your mind, and the guide of your soul through the movements He implants there.”
“Dear John, if you are able to follow up on those words, if the Holy Spirit is really able to govern heart, then you will be like Christ who once said to His disciples, ‘my yoke is easy, my burden is light,’” the Nuncio in Kenya and South Sudan told the new Local Ordinary of Lodwar Diocese.
Credit: ACI Africa
The newly ordained Bishop who turned 49 last month had been ministering at St. Chad’s South Norwood Parish of the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark in the United Kingdom at the time of his Episcopal appointment.
Following his Episcopal Ordination on June 4, Bishop Mbinda has succeeded 60-year-old Bishop Dominic Kimengich who was transferred to the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret in November 2019.
In his homily during the June 4 event, Archbishop van Megen appealed for prayers for the new Bishop so that his mind "may be pleasing to God and that he may be totally conformed to the holy will of God."
Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.