Catholics in Kenya to Foster “stewardship” During Lenten Season 2020

Besides continuing the evangelization mission of Christ, Bishop Oballa noted, Local Ordinaries have an obligation to promote integral human development, including the need to identify and speak about issues of concern in society.

In that regard, Bishop Oballa who is the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Ngong Diocese explained about the link between KCCB’s anti-corruption campaign launched last October and the planned Lenten Campaign.

“When we (Bishops) made the Subukia Declaration and launched the anti-corruption campaign, we also thought that this year’s Lenten Campaign should be a subset of that (anti-corruption campaign) without overshadowing the purpose of Lent,” Bishop Oballa said during the Monday interview.

Reflecting on the theme of the Lenten Campaign, the CJPC Executive Secretary in Kenya’s Murang’a Diocese, Fr. Charles Waweru observed, “to change and transform Kenya we must accept our special role of stewardship for creation.”

“Kenya has become a crying nation, a nation of tears in almost every sphere of life,” Fr. Waweru told ACI Africa and added, “To a Kenyan, news of corruption, floods, landslides, famine, drought, spousal killings, health crisis, among others  have become the order of the day; we can say we are living in a 'learned hopelessness' condition.”

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On his part, CJPC Coordinator in Kenya’s Archdiocese of Kisumu, Fr. Samuel Nyattaya considers individual efforts significant in fostering stewardship.

“I must be a good steward even if everybody else is not a good steward; It makes a difference,” Fr. Nyattaya stated in a reflection shared with ACI Africa.

According to the Kenyan cleric, “there is a lot of joy, a divine joy to be right when everybody is wrong even if you are the only one, than waiting to be right only when everybody else is right.”

“Join the minority group of the few people who are good stewards,” Fr. Nyattaya appealed.

The Bishops have provided weekly topics to guide personal and community reflections during the entire period of Lent. The topics include responsible and sustainable farming, youth and development, natural resource management, leadership and accountability, and sanctity of life and human dignity.

During the campaign, Catholics across the country will be expected to make Lenten contributions at parish level. The money collected is meant for needs in the respective parishes, dioceses and the national CJPC office.

The Lenten contributions submitted to the national office of CJPC are used to finance “a particular national need that the office can assist” in line with the Lenten Collection Policy, Bishop Oballa clarified during the January 20 interview.