Category Archives: Religion

WHEN BLOOD BECOMES THIKER THAN WATER OF BAPTISM NOTHING YOU CAN DO

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014

Yuvnalis from Kisii writes: “Hallo, Fr. Beste, on the issue of the Catholic Bishops not commenting on the social ills. Most of the Media consumed by the public is based on what the editors’ think makes good reading to the public. They want headlines that sell. Since Catholics don’t normally say things in a sensitized way, the chances of it being given front page coverage are very small.

Hence the need for the Catholic church of having its own means of giving out news and making these outlets popular enough for people to consume them. Ask the Lady (Susan) whether she listens to Waumini Radio or Family Radio and TV”.

Mama Lily from Bungoma writes: “Father Beste let us be realistic you did not answer Susan from Kibwezi’s question satisfactorily. To me you were trying to defend the bishops. It is very clear that at the height of President Moi’s corrupt authoritarian rule from around 1988 the Catholic bishops were very vocal in condemning the ills, particularly Bishop Ndingi Mwana ‘a Nzeki who spoke for the marginalised and oppressed with a clarity and empathy that captured the mood of the nation.

This was especially after the 1992 ethnic cleansing as a political tool around the elections. Ethnic cleansing had swept through the Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and other areas where opposition party supporters were stronghold.

When President Moi vacated office in 2002, and his former vice president, Mwai Kibaki took over relations between Church and State altered dramatically. Bishops from Kibaki’s region took political side, supporting him publicly.

In 2008 hundreds of churches were razed to the ground in the Rift Valley because they were identified with particular ethnic groups or in some cases simply because a careless Pastor had made partisan or bigoted sermons in the heat of the campaigns.

I was particularly perturbed when I read an article from one of the daily newspapers on Tuesday November 26, 2013 when Bishop Paul Kariuki of Catholic Diocese of Embu lashed out at the US/ UK and France accusing them of undermining the sovereignty of Kenya.

Kariuki was speaking in Embu when he accused the West of compounding Kenya’s problems by failing to support deferral of cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto, at the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the action to abscond from voting at the UNSC was clear indication that they never had the interest of Kenyans at heart.

Father I was perturbed, not because the Embu bishop spoke because Uhuru belongs to his ethnic community, I was perturbed because he did not speak about the victims, many of whom were brutally killed, their properties destroyed, stolen, and family members traumatized.

Father sorry for writing long article, but I feel I must to spell it out so that our bishops should change their trend of pastoral approach. This time I am referring to one of your articles on your Jaluo.Kom website where Emily from Nairobi wanted to know whether Eldoret Catholic bishop Cornelius Korir backed Jubilee’s motion to remove Kenya from Rome Statute because he is a Kalenjin, and if this is the case, as a shepherd of the flock in Eldoret where we have many tribes other than Kalenjins, don’t you think this makes him partisan? Thank you Father Beste and keep on the good you are doing-God bless”.

Thank you for the question Yuvnalis. I agree with you that there are many good things the bishops have said but media seem to be highlighting negative ones because this is what sells.

Mama Lily I don’t think I defend the bishops there are good things they have said just as Yuvnalis has mention. But I do agree with you that as individual bishops there are things they have said that tend to support their leaders from their ethnic communities or regions. This is because blood is always thinker than water of baptism.

The fact that I am a bishop or a priest does not remove this fact from me. The only thing that we should be very careful with what we speak in public and private. That is why the two individual bishops you have quoted have been misunderstood from what they spoke.

As a body of catholic bishops’ conference there are many pastoral letters they have issued challenging Kibaki’s government as well as Uhuru. I am not sure whether bishop Korir backed Jubilee MPs in passing the motion to remove Kenya from Rome Statute that formed International Criminal Court (ICC) because he is a Kalenjin, what I do know for sure is that bishop Korir like any other Kenyan has his democratic right to air his views.

I also do agree with you that it is not only bishop of Embu but also evangelical pastors. The words they have spoken tend to ignore the victims of the post election violence and only angry that Ruto and Uhuru are at The Hague.

On the side of Korir, this is not the first time he has been accused of being partisan- In April 2012 he was challenged that by attending Kamatusa meeting in Eldoret he was tribal. Kamatusa meeting was initiated by MPs allied to William Ruto and took place in Catholic Church pastoral centre attended.

Among Kenyans who accused him included former Mombasa Catholic Archdiocese Bishop Boniface Lele. He said religious leaders who attended the Gema and Kamatusa meetings were tribal.

Speaking during Easter vigil mass, Lele said religious leaders who side with their ethnic political leaders who have been alleged to have mentioned on post election violen propagated impunity and tribalism.

Lele was referring to the Gema and Kamatusa meetings held in Limuru and Eldoret respectively attended by Bishop Cornelius Korir of Eldoret who led a host of priests at the Kamatusa meeting and Peter Njenga who attended the Gema meeting.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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KENYA: FOR GOD’S SAKE JUBILEE SHOULD NOT UNCOVER WOUNDS OF PEV

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Vivian from Nairobi writes: “Fr Beste what do you say about the members of the Jubilee Coalition who are drafting a motion for the National Assembly seeking to summon Justice Philip Waki to disclose the full contents of an envelope he handed over to the former International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, containing names of key individuals implicated in post-election violence?

Don’t you think this is going to spark yet another clashes among ethnic communities. For God’s sake I pray that Adan Duale should not try this. In Kenya we are just trying to heal from the clashes of 2007/08 and now they want to take us back again surely”.

Vivian you are absolutely right, by bringing Waki to open the other secret envelopes is to spark fire. This comes days after immediate former ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo admitted in a radio interview last week that he had been under pressure then from some Western diplomats in Nairobi to pressure judges to declare President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto unfit to run in the General Election.

National Assembly Majority Leader Adan Duale insists Waki must be brought to the Parliament to reveal other names which were not given to Ocampo. By revealing the secret names in the list according to Duale will help confirm widely held contentions that the cases were part of a nefarious design by the West to fix Uhuru and Ruto.

According to Duale, it was clear Koffi Annan was working with envoys from United States, Britain, France and Germany to have Uhuru and Ruto locked out in order to ensure Raila Amolo Odinga ascended to power.

By revealing secret names Duale wants to demonstrate that Uhuru Kenyatta never supported President Mwai Kibaki as alleged to have planned, financed, and coordinated the violence perpetrated against the perceived supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement, the political party of the President’s rival, during post-election violence from 27 December 2007 to 29 February 2008.

According to Duale Uhuru had no control over the Mungiki organization and as such never directed it to conduct murders, deportations, rapes and other forms of sexual violence, persecutions, and other inhumane acts against civilians in the towns of Kibera, Kisumu, Naivasha, and Nakuru.

Kenyatta was summoned to appear before the Court on 8 April 2011 and the confirmation of charges hearing was held from 21 September 2011 to 5 October 2011, in conjunction with the cases against Mohammed Ali and Francis Muthaura. All the charges against Kenyatta were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Francis Muthaura was indicted on 8 March 2011 with five counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. As the Head of the Public Service, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Chairman of the National Security and Advisory Committee of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, he is alleged to have planned, financed, and coordinated the violent response against the perceived supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of the President’s rival, during post-election violence from 27 December 2007 to 29 February 2008.

Specifically, Muthaura was alleged to have directed and paid Mungiki forces loyal to the President to attack civilians and instructed Mohammed Ali, the Commissioner of the Kenya Police, not to intervene against Mungiki forces.

Muthaura was allegedly criminally responsible for murders, deportations, rapes and other forms of sexual violence, persecutions, and other inhumane acts perpetrated by Mungiki forces against civilians who were perceived to be loyal to the ODM in the towns of Kibera, Kisumu, Naivasha, and Nakuru.

Muthaura was summoned to appear before the Court on 8 April 2011 and the confirmation of charges hearing was held from 21 September 2011 to 5 October 2011, in conjunction with the cases against Mohammed Ali and Uhuru Kenyatta. All the charges against Muthaura were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012. He was later left free for lack of evidence.

William Ruto was indicted on 8 March 2011 on four counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. He is alleged to be the leader of an ad hoc organization created by members of the Kalenjin ethnic group which was created to perpetrate violence on behalf of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of presidential candidate Raila Odinga, during post-election violence in December 2007 and January 2008.

On 1 August 2011, the charges were reduced to three counts. Ruto, as the a top leader in the ad hoc Kalenjin organization, directed Kalenjin youths to target civilians of the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kisii ethnic groups, which were perceived to be supporters of the Party of National Unity, the political party of Odinga’s opponent during the election.

Ruto is alleged to be criminally responsible for the murder, deportation, torture, and persecution of civilians in the towns of Kapsabet, Nandi Hills, Turbo, the greater Eldoret area. Ruto first appeared before the Court, voluntarily, on 7 April 2011 and through the confirmation of charges hearing, which was held in conjunction with the cases against Henry Kosgey and Joshua Sang. All the charges against Ruto were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Joshua Sang was indicted on 8 March 2011 on four counts of crimes against humanity with regard to the situation in the Republic of Kenya. He is alleged to a top leader of an ad hoc organization created by members of the Kalenjin ethnic group which was created to perpetrate violence on behalf of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the political party of presidential candidate Raila Odinga, during post-election violence in December 2007 and January 2008.

On 1 August 2011, the charges were reduced to three counts. As a broadcaster for the Kass FM radio station, Sang incited Kalenjin youths to target civilians of the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kisii ethnic groups, which were perceived to be supporters of the Party of National Unity, the political party of Odinga’s opponent during the election.

He is alleged to be indirectly responsible for indirectly for the murder, deportation, torture, and persecution of civilians in the towns of Kapsabet, Nandi Hills, Turbo, the greater Eldoret area. Sang first appeared before the Court, voluntarily, on 7 April 2011 and through the confirmation of charges hearing, which was held in conjunction with the cases against William Ruto and Joshua Sang. All the charges against Sang were confirmed by Pre-Trial Chamber II on 23 January 2012.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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Kenya: KISUMU IS PARALYSED AS YOUTH STAGE PROTEST AGAINST A SIKH COMMUNITY MONUMENT

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From: LEO ODERA
Date: Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:07 AM
KISUMU POLICE IN THREE DAYS BATTLES WITH THE YOUTH OVER STATUE

Reports leo Odera Omolo

The police in Kisumu city fought a running battle with hundreds of rowdy ODM youths who had staged near violence demonstration in Kisumu city central Business District (CBD) demanding that a statue erected by members of the Sikh Community be removed.

The monument is meant to commemorate 100 yeas since pioneer members of the community settled in the town 100 years ago.

The statue made of bronze metal is erected on the round about on Mosque road right behind the Siri Guru Sabha Mosque.

It has attracted hundreds of youth who are usually idling themselves at Kondele, Nyalenda, pandpieri and the main Kisumu Bus Terminal, boda boda motorbike and bicycle riders.

Business was paralyzed in severeal streets as the shop owners hurriedly closed doors fearing the possibility of looting

The demonstrators, some of the armed with and bottles filled with petrol in readiness to set the monument a blaze. It forced the police to lob tear gas canisters on the demonstrators who fled in on directions, but immediately regrouped at a distant spots.

The ODM leader Raila Odinga visited the scene, on late Friday afternoon and pleaded with the protesters to disperse in vain. The former Prime Minister returned to the scene on Saturday morning and pleaded with the youth to disperse, but none could hear him. The youth heckled him and shouted obscene words. The youth and mistaken the statue to be an idol God erected by Devil worshipers and vowed to bring it down even at night. Some had brought the old tires and fuel ready to set the monument ablaze. Aiaoleft quietly after his pleas landed on the rock.

Sensing the danger that some of the demonstrators had ulterior motives of looting Indian shops the police have kept vigil at the scene.since Thursday when the project was started.

The youths according to some of the eye witness were incited by a woman who claimed that she represents the church Ministry of the Prophet Dr. Owuor and had insisted that the monument would symbolize devil worshiping – – Something, which they claim was an insult to the mainly Christian Kisumu residents.

Curious onlookers milling around the statue fled in disarray after the police fired teargas at the protestors. The youth vowed that they would not rest until the statue is pulled down.

Two religious leaders in Kisumu commented they had objected the construction of the monument when their opinion were sought by the county Governor Jack Ranguma whose office is believed to have concerted to the by members of the Sikh community

Bishop Dr. Washington Ogonyo Ngede of the Power of Jesus Around the World and Bishop Mwai Abiero of the Anglican of Kenya said they had voiced their objection that the statue was a sign of idolatry.

However, head of the Sikh Community in KisumuMr C S Hayerin vehemently denied that the statue was offensive to any religion. The monument was erected for the single purpose of commemorating 100 years of the Community arrival and presence in the town. It has nothing to do with religion

ends.

POVERTY AS AN OBSTACLE TO MAKING AFRICAN SAINTS

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From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2014

Anicia Acen from Torit South Sudan writes: “Fr Omolo Beste today was the feast of Sudanese Saint Josephine Bakhita. How comes there are no many African Saints like whites. Do you have some African Saints in mind you can name? Otherwise I am sad that you left People for Peace in Africa and this has weakened its program and activities”.

Thank you for the question Anicia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has offered category of some African Saints you can click here to read more-Category:African saints – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The problem of not making many African Saints is to do with poverty.

Saint-making requires a great deal of funding, up to almost about $1 million.

Now you can think of your grandma and pa who died in poverty somewhere there in Torit with all the requirements of becoming a saint.

It requires that through reflection and renunciation the person in question found divinity in interior life and became capable of extraordinary charity.

Then there are the miracles. A saint needs to have performed two, either during his life or through posthumous intercession: one for beatification and second for canonization, though the pope can waive the latter if he’s feeling generous. The first step in the process, being declared “venerable” by the pope, does not require any.

The most labored-over task in the process is the writing of the prositio, the formal argument for sainthood, whose “aim is to show an ordinary life that was lived in an extraordinary way.

Medical cures have always been the most common form of miracle attributed to saints. The papacy is generally suspicious of other supernatural events—visitations from the Virgin, experiencing the stigmata, levitation.

It is African pride that Josephine Margaret Bakhita, F.D.C.C. has become one of the African famous saints. In our community, the Apostles of Jesus Missionaries, Rev Fr Peter Odhiambo Okola has added as his third name’ Bakhita’ to demonstrate this pride.

Bakhita was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Canossian Religious Sister in Italy, living and working there for 45 years. In 2000 she was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She was born in about 1869 in the western Sudanese region of Darfur in the village of Olgossa, west of Nyala and close to Mount Agilerei.

Sometime between the age of seven to nine, probably in February 1877, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders who already had kidnapped her elder sister two years earlier. She was cruelly forced to walk barefoot about 960 kilometers (600 mi) to El Obeid and was already sold and bought twice before she arrived there.

Over the course of twelve years (1877–1889) she was resold again three more times and then given away. It is said that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her own name; she took one given to her by the slavers, bakhita, Arabic for lucky. She was also forcibly converted to Islam.

In El Obeid, Bakhita was bought by a very rich Arab merchant who employed her as a maid in service to his two daughters.

They liked her and treated her well. But after offending one of her owner’s sons, possibly for breaking a vase, the son lashed and kicked her so severely that she spent more than a month unable to move from her straw bed.

Her fourth owner was a Turkish general and she had to serve his mother-in-law and his wife who both were very cruel to all their slaves. Bakhita says: “During all the years I stayed in that house, I do not recall a day, that passed without some wound or other. When a wound from the whip began to heal, other blows would pour down on me”.

On 9 January 1890 Bakhita was baptised with the names of Josephine Margaret and Fortunata (which is the Latin translation for the Arabic Bakhita). On the same day she was also confirmed by Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, the future Pope X.

On 7 December 1893 she entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters and on 8 December 1896 she took her vows, welcomed by Cardinal Sarto. In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, in the northern Italian province of Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life.

During her 42 years in Schio, Bakhita being the only African nun among the whites was employed as the cook, sacristan and portress (door keeper) and was in frequent contact with the local community.

She suffered a great deal under white sisters but persevered since she was convinced that she was working for Jesus who called her to religious life.

Her last years were marked by pain and sickness. She used a wheelchair, but she retained her cheerfulness, and if asked how she was, she would always smile and answer “as the Master desires”.

Bakhita died at 8:10 PM on 8 February 1947. For three days her body lay on display while thousands of people arrived to pay their respects. Her feast day is commemorated on February 8.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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CAN POPE FRANCIS HELP SOLVE AFRICAN PROBLEMS?

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To: jaluo@jaluo.com

From: joachim omolo ouko
NEWS DISPATCH WITH FATHER OMOLO BESTE
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014

Recently I posted on my Fcebook Timeline the story where U.S. President Barack Obama is planning to visit Pope Francis to discuss a range of issues, including the Middle East peace process and Africa.

The page like was overwhelming with some pals wondering whether Pope Francis can really manage to restore peace in Africa where tribalism and nepotism have been the main factors causing tensions and conflicts.

Many African countries have fallen prey to this vice and consequently the results have been dreary as people turned against each other on the basis of ethnicity leading to loss of many lives. In Kenya we witnessed in the 2007 post election chaos that left 1300 people dead and 600,000 internally displaced.

The trend is currently witnessed in a new wave of rebellion against the Jubilee government after Deputy President William Ruto’s Kalrnjin URP legislators accusing President Uhuru Kenyatta of sidelining Kalenjins when making appointments.

This is also witnessed among the TNA Uhuru’s legislators from Meru led by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi, accusing Uhuru of sidelining the Meru communities and only favoring his Kikuyu communities despite the fact that Meru communities supported TNA and the President on account that his government would address inequalities in Meru region.

This is also witnessed in South Sudan where former Deputy President Riek Machar is fighting against President Salva Kiir’s government for failing to fulfill the 50-50 percent key government job positions between Riek’s Nuer ethnic communities and Kiir’s Dinka communities. Machar is accusing Kiir for failing to honor the agreement.

Nepotism is the appointment of family to positions of responsibility, and tribalism is simply an extension of that. The end result is distrust of government in general, and anger at the injustice of it all, as seen by outsiders, who are excluded from the spoils.

To solve these vices I agree with most of my Facebook pals that we do not need the Pope to come to Africa to help in solving them. Africans need to solve their own problems.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com

Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

KENYA: KISUMU CLERGY UP IN ARMS AGAINST THEIR OFFICIALS

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By Our Reporter

Members of the clergy drawn within Kisumu Town are up in arms against two officials of their umbrella body called Kisumu Pastors Ministries Fellowship and Church Network whom they accused of having duped them to pray for Governor Jack Ranguma during a thanks giving in which the Governor.

They said the duo Reverend Wendy Magan and Bishop John Kuyo took away with them all the money which were collected that day in form of offerings and told them to tell them how much the offerings were.

The agitated clergy who spoke to the press after failing to meet Governor Ranguma in his office have vowed to camp at his office daily till they are paid for services rendered.

“The Chairperson of the Network together with another man who introduced himself as Ranguma’s cousin called us for a meeting and told us to turn up in large numbers to pray for him at the Jommo Kenyatta Sports Grounds which we did on the promise that we would be paid kshs 10,000 flat rate so that we wash our clergy frock with, to date we have not received the money and they don’t pick our calls, look at us how we look like,broke,tired and whether beaten” they lamented.

Through their spokesman, the Clergy also vowed to get the said money through hook or crook and warned Ranguma of their curse if he refuses to pay the said money.

“We are telling him that should we not be paid by Friday then we will call for overnight prayers to curse him and his leadership, either he pays the said money or begin a spiritual with us as we talk to the almighty God directly “ they added.

They further added that some of them had projected to take their children to school with the said money and use the remainder for other uses and now their plans have come to hilt.

Asked by this reporter why they demand to be paid for prayers yet the prayers should be free, the clergy never gave any direct answer but quoted a verse which says that “one should eat from his sweat” and what that’s exactly what they are doing.

“If Governor Ranguma thought the lunch he gave us was our payment then he is misled, we will get him from every hole he is in, he better owns up and pays us”they added.

Contacted for comment the Chairperson of the network failed to answer any of our sms but the said Ranguma cousin said the Clergy should be patient as they are compiling their details so that they are paid.

“We have a list of those who attended the prayers and we will pay them depending on their seniority, the payment will not be the same as we have a pecking order of seniority, in fact those who are making noises do not even have churches and I doubt if they indeed prayed for Ranguma” he added.

He made it clear that the clergy should not expect any penny from the offerings obtained that day as the said collections went to logistics adding that they will eventually be paid “however long it takes”

MY HOMILY ON HOLY FAMILY

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2013

Today is the Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. The Feast is celebrated on the Sunday following Christmas, unless that Sunday is January 1, in which case it is celebrated on December 30. The Feast was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893 on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany.

The first reading taken from Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 narrates how God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them.

When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be forgotten, firmly planted against the debt of your sins —a house raised in justice to you.

The second reading taken from Col 3:12-21 advises wives to obey their husbands since they are the head of the family just as Jesus is the head of the Church. Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.

Or Col 3:12-17-Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.

And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The Gospel is taken from Mt 2:13-15, 19-23. When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,” Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.

Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled; Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there.

And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee.

He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean.

The feast of today reminds us that the purpose of every marriage is to establish a Christian family. It demonstrates Christ’s humility and obedience with respect to the fourth commandment, whilst also highlighting the loving care that his parents exercised in his keeping.

Even though parents and children always will have some level of conflict, but mutual respect helps minimize hurt feelings and animosity resulting from family tensions. Even so, children should respect their parents’ authority, but parents should also respect their children’s value and age-appropriate choices.

When parents and children avoid harsh words, belittling comments and loose tempers, conflicts can often be resolved quickly and effectively. Mutual respect encourages equality in the home.

Even though parents know more because they have more life experiences to draw from, and they have legal authority in the home, they shouldn’t use their elevated positions to dominate their children. A family that encourages mutual respect is likely to be a close family.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

MY HOMILY ON CHRISTMAS

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2013

Today is Christmas, one of the most important days of the Church year, second only to Easter itself. The day has fallen on Wednesday, the day one of the biggest and busiest, Miruka Market, attracting people from Nyamira, Kisii, Homabay and Kisumu counties is on. Miruka Market from our home is just about 270 meters away- When Christmas falls on Wednesday this market has no business.

Christmas is the feast of the incarnation, the feast of God becoming flesh and living among us, the Latin “in carne” meaning “enfleshment”- uniquely Christian teaching, the Divine choosing to become one of us- Transcendent and wholly Immanent, Emmanuel (God-with-us).

In religion, transcendence refers to the aspect of God’s nature and power which is wholly independent of the material universe, beyond all physical laws. This is contrasted with immanence, where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways.

Meaning we must rise above our present condition to reach God who is with us as we rise toward him, a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence. This is typically manifested in our daily prayers.

Transcendence can be attributed to the divine not only in its being, but also in its knowledge. Thus, God transcends the universe, but also transcends knowledge (is beyond the grasp of the human mind).

Pope Benedict VXI in his Homily at Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2005 said true gift of Christmas is joy, not expensive presents that demand time and money. We can transmit this joy simply: with a smile, with a kind gesture, with some small help, with forgiveness. “Let us give this joy and the joy given will be returned to us.”

The liturgical season of Christmas begins with the vigil Masses on Christmas Eve and concludes on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. During this season, we celebrate the birth of Christ into our world and into our hearts, and reflect on the gift of salvation that is born with him…including the fact that he was born to die for us.

The Christmas tree and the Nativity scene are popular symbols of the season and a tradition in many Christian homes. In my house I have put a small tree adorned with sweets so children can pick and enjoy the sense of Christmas.
It is also traditional to exchange Christmas gifts with family and friends as a way to honor God the Father’s gift of his only son to the world. Having received the gift of Christ, we naturally want to pass that gift along to our loved ones.

The first reading is taken from Isaiah 52:7-10. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Second reading is from Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12). In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

The Gospel is from John 1:1-14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

A Christmas Prayer!

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From: Hon. Oscar Odhiambo Lawrence

Dear God and Loving Father of Jesus, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.

Let kindness come with every gift, and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessings which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts and hearts full of gratitude. This is my humble prayer in Jesus mighty name, Amen!

Merry Christmas!

MY DAILY PRAYER: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, let me show pardon; Where there is lies, let me tell the truth; Where there is doubt, let me show faith; Where there is despair, may i show hope; Where there is darkness, let me show light; And where there is sadness, let me show joy. O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen!

MY HOMILY ON FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2013

Today is the fourth and last Sunday of the advent season. The fourth candle is lit on this day along with the first three. It is the Angel’s candle, reminding us of the heavenly hosts that proclaimed Christ’s arrival with “Behold, I bring unto you good tiding of great joy!”

In her New York Times bestsellers Going Rogue and America by Heart, Sarah Palin raises a challenge that unlike previous days when the greeting “Merry Christmas” , today this has been replaced by the supposedly less offensive “Happy Holidays”.

Good Tidings and Great Joy should therefore enable us to revisit our traditional roots and the true meaning of Christmas. It is a call to action to readers to defend and openly celebrate the joys of their Christianity, and to say to one another, “Merry Christmas!”

The first reading is taken from Is 7:10-14. The Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying: Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky! But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!”

Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.

House of David is used here as an example because David had gained a measure of peace in his reign. David was embarrassed that he lived in a fine, solidly built house while God’s “house” remained a tent.

The second reading is taken from Rom 1:1-7. This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. Although Paul chose this word slave, the vast majority of English translations prefer the word “servant.”

Paul uses the Greek original of Romans contains the word doulos, which means “slave.” It was used to refer to someone who was owned by a master. The Message captures the sense of the Greek by having Paul identify himself as “a devoted slave of Jesus Christ.” Like Paul, you and I are slaves of Christ. We need to serve him in all things, and discovering what it means to live in the freedom of his grace.

Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is from Mt 1:18-24. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

POPE FRANCIS AND MARXIST DEBATE

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2013

Brian from Naivasha, Kenya writes: Omolo Beste I read what you posted on your Faecebook timeline about Pope Francis responding to critics who have called him a “Marxist” in a new interview with an Italian newspaper, saying Marxist ideology “is wrong” while simultaneously noting that much of what he wrote in his powerful critique of capitalism is part of the fabric of the Catholic church.

Although he has admitted Marxist ideology is wrong, the fact that he admits he has met many Marxists in his life who are good people, so he does not feel offended to him it means Pope is not opposed to Marxism teaching on capitalism and ideology.

Just as Francis – the first pope ever to hail from Latin America, where he worked on behalf of the poor in his native Argentina, Karl Marx also lived and taught at the time poor people were being oppressed and exploited by the rich and wealthy people at the time.

Pope Francis has warned in “Evangelii” that the “idolatry of money” would lead to a “new tyranny.” The Pope also blasted “trickle-down economics,” saying the theory “expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.”

“While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few,” he wrote.

Brian this is a good observation. While the Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions, taking at its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs, Pope Francis warns that the “idolatry of money” would lead to a “new tyranny.”

While Karl Marx feels that religion is a system inside of a sick world, Pope Francis does not feel that way. According to Karl Marx, a world that requires illusion (religion) has something wrong with it.

Marx feels religion provides anesthesia to the masses. To him, religion is a way for people to escape from some of the suffering in their lives or to somehow feel better despite all of their suffering.

Religion he says allows people to put off their suffering because they believe it will be taken care of in heaven, or where ever, after they die. And as it would follow, religion helps people put more hope into “the year after”.

Marx is opposed to the theory that people who are religious will be better after they die. He says religion helps to maintain the oppression of the lower classed people by the people who make up the upper classes.

The second primary function of religion in a society, according to Karl Marx, is that it is the sigh of the oppressed creature. Religion brings with it a safety value. People end up being lulled into the protection religion seems to offer them, and people do feel the need to feel and be safe.

Karl Marx holds that human actions and institutions are economically determined and that class struggle is needed to create historical change and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.
When Pope Francis issued his first apostolic exhortation, declaring a new enemy for the Catholic Church: modern capitalism, he did not mean to say like Karl Marx that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism.

Pope Francis’s communitarian, populist message shows just how far the Church has shifted in five decades—and how thoroughly capitalism has displaced communism as a monolithic political philosophy.

Like Pope Francis, before he died in 1963, the pope who convened the Vatican II Council, John XXIII, did issue an encyclical, Pacem in Terris, which addressed the issue of “universal peace.” While he didn’t condemn communism, he did endorse democracy.

The following year, John’s successor, Pope Paul VI, made a much clearer statement against communism in his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam. “We are driven to repudiate such ideologies as deny God and oppress the Church.”

Many years later, the Polish Pope John Paul II was given credit for helping to undermine communist rule in his country, where Catholic churches provided a space for anti-communist artists and thinkers to hold discussions and distribute anti-regime writings.

Likewise, Pope Francis has only condemned the ethic and ideology that underlie free-market economies. He writes: “In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

This is a statement about who should control financial markets. Francis says the global economy needs more government control. He writes: “It is vital that government leaders and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons, working to ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare.

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few, consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control.

This is what Francis means when he says a new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Against background that communism does not strike Francis as a significant ideological threat anymore.

Francis is also concerned about youth unemployment which is currently at 40 percent in Italy and 56 percent in Spain—two of Europe’s most Catholic countries.

In Africa and other developing world, the issue is not only poverty and unemployment, many people are dying from diseases which could be prevented but because of poverty they cannot afford medications.

At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new, viewed as normal.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

S. Africa: Nelson Mandela’s resiliency was grounded on God’s calling

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From: Joseph Nyaringo

Nelson Mandela’s resiliency was grounded on God’s calling How did the late Nelson Mandela, a mortal man; born and bred just like all of us, strode the earth with unprecedented tenacity and peculiar character which has earned him iconic status?

Before and after Mandela, passed on early this month, great words have been spoken about the fallen hero. The powerful, famous and ordinary people have given inspiring observations about Mandela’s character and legacy; often imploring people especially leaders to emulate him.

Even places of worship have talked openly about the life and times of Mandela, his positive ideation, integrity and passion for a just and free South Africa.

As we continue to shower accolades to the departed South African patriot, we need to interrogate how he managed to endure suffering without faltering or wavering on the hands of the British Empire.

Many of us can collapse in the court room if we were sentenced to serve even two years in Kamiti maximum Prison. Mandela did it with zeal and perseverance. The mystery is how he derived the profound energy and passion to stick to a cause firmly and faithfully.

Mountaineer Edmund Hillary once said these, “people do not decide to become extraordinary.” They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” Mandela did it with tenacity and zeal; without knowing that the World will one day reverence his name with pomp and splendour as seen after his demise early this Month.

Those who thought that Mandela, will come out of jail tormented with rage to pursue revenge on his enemies were shocked when he employed a conciliatory tone. He was ready to mend fences for purposes of reconciliation, racial harmony, forgiveness and building a united post-apartheid South Africa.

We therefore need to question ourselves as to whether it’s easy to emulate the ideals of Nelson Mandela, and apply it in our everyday life because, saying is one thing and doing is another!

It’s ironical that even dictators; leading autocratic regimes have expressed admiration of Mandela, but I wonder if Mandela’s character has inspired them to build avenues of justice, freedom and equality for their citizens.

Mandela cherished freedom and justice. Through is fearlessness, he went ahead to challenge USA President George Bush, for invading Iraq during the second gulf war in 2003. He termed the invasion immoral and an aggression to a sovereign nation.

In fact, he never feared stating his position on controversial geo-political conflicts where many leaders usually remain ambivalent especially on the Israel and Palestinian conflict.

Urging people to emulate certain heroes in society is just mere talk. Mandela talked the talk and walked the walk. His faith kept him going. His jailers had every opportunity to hang him the way they did to our Dedan Kimathi and many other Kenyan freedom fighters but they would not.

From here, we need to look beyond his physical strength but also internalize on how he was able to withstand his tribulations by looking at his divine or spiritual path throughout the struggle.

God bestowed Mandela; with grace, which manifested itself through his passion for liberation and the bravery to endure 27 years behind bars. This is how God works in humans. He uses people to do extra ordinary things in all spheres of human existence. He used Mandela, to showcase his wisdom, based on love, compassion, meekness, humility forgiveness and tolerance.

These universal tenets envisioned by Mandela define the true character of God. While he never talked quite openly about his faith, if Mandela were to be a Christian Minister, a Rabbi, an Imam, a Buddhist or a Hindu Guru, he would have made the best. This is because; all these religions have a similar approach towards humanity.

They all have a consciousness grounded on love of self and love of neighbour; which Mandela, did with excellence; often mingling freely with all and sundry without prejudice or discrimination. He never respected the rich more than the ordinary poor.

In Christianity, God wants us to lead a life of denial, free of vengeance and bitterness. He wants our lives to be tampered in forgiveness, modesty, humility and meekness. As the scripture says in John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

As the fallen South African sage rests in peace, we will always revere him for pursuing the path of rekindling hopes for the afflicted through his own afflictions. Even though he is gone, he will always remain a true replica of heroes and heroines who came before him like: Mother Theresa, Matma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Like Gandhi, Mandela was never aggressive in pursuing material things like most World leaders. Even if he did, it was for purposes of benevolence. Like Mother Theresa, he was charitable and always remembered the poor. Like King, he was prepared to die for a cause in order to liberate the South Africans from racial discrimination.

Unlike men who preach water and drink wine, Mandela’s actions spoke volumes about what he spoke. We knew him by his fruits and he was a good tree, because he bore good fruits if I borrow from the Gospel of Mathew 7:16-18.

Mandela has exited the stage but those who want to bequeath his legacy should evoke God for divine Wisdom to serve humanity well. Those who are fighting to conquer oppression, injustice, dictatorship, corruption prejudice and other vices in order to rekindle hope for the downtrodden, they need to ask God for guidance.

You may never know; the prayer Nelson Mandela said to his God. This is because, extra ordinary qualities by extra ordinary men in the World mostly takes a spiritual or divine dimension. Their efforts are mostly grounded on God for strength and bravery.

From Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa and Matma Gandhi all personified divine strength in their quest to help humanity. In a more direct bearing, our own heroes like Dr. Reverend Njoya, the late Archbishop Manases Kuria, Bishop Okullu and Bishop Alexander Muge; had bravery grounded on faith in God.

Mandela’s character is further illustrated in Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5:22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. This is a reflection that it’s the power of God that worked in Mandela that made him overcome the torture, suffering, anger, hate, revenge and impatience. Fare thee well Madiba. You were born, suffered, endured and conquered. We will always cherish and relish your ideals.

Joseph Lister Nyaringo
Atlanta, Georgia

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN KENYA

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from: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013

Yesterday was a great day indeed. While Kenya was celebrating its 50th independent we were celebrating anniversary of my beloved mother Kristina Odin’g Ouko, exactly 1 year since she departed from us.

In his homily, the parish priest of Orian’g Blessed Sacrament Church, Kabondo, Homa Bay Diocese, Rev Fr Christopher Wasonga described Kristina as one of the few Christians in 19th centaury who resisted temptations of abandoning their faith to join indigenous religious cults.

Kristina received her Catholic faith in 19th centaury at the time a new religious movement known as Mumbo cult (Mumboism) founded by Luo prophet Onyango Dunde had a great influence among Luo people.

Prophet Dunde stated that the Christian religion is rotten and all Europeans were the enemies of Africans. Mumboism was considered as one of the forerunners of nationalism within Kenya.

Its followers were most active in the Nyanza region of Kenya near Lake Victoria. The cult began during the British colonial era in Kenya, when Mill Hill missionaries were active in the region.

In 1913, Onyango Dunde began to preach that he had been swallowed by a serpent in Lake Victoria. The serpent spit him out, and gave him a prophecy that he would spread to his followers:

I am the God Mumbo whose two homes are in the sun and in the lake. I have chosen you to be my mouthpiece. Go and tell all the Africans…. that from henceforth I am their God. Those whom I choose personally and those who acknowledge me, will live forever in plenty…. the Christian religion is rotten…. All Europeans are your enemies, but the time is shortly coming when they will all disappear from the country.”

In keeping with the prophecy, Dunde condemned European culture, Christianity, and the influence of colonialism. He also prophesied a golden age that would arrive with the end of the European presence in the region. Mumboism was popular among the Luo and Kisii people, but its influence spread beyond Africans who were formally followers of Dunde.

During the time some Dunde’s followers openly opposed to the colonial government and missionaries. One of the followers was Mosi Auma of Kabondo, the area Kristina was married. In Kisii region, Nyakundi of Kitutu, Omwenga of Wanjare was very aggressive to colonial missionaries.

At the time independent Republic of Kenya was formed in 1964, the minority party, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU), represented a coalition of small tribes that had feared dominance by larger ones, dissolved itself voluntarily and former members joined KANU.

KANU was the only party 1964–1966 when a faction broke away as the Kenya People’s Union (KPU). It was led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a former vice-president and Luo elder. My mother Kristina was lead the chief entertainers of the party in Kabondo and Nyamira respectively.

KPU advocated a more “scientific” route to socialism—criticising the slow progress in land redistribution and employment opportunities—as well as a realignment of foreign policy in favour of the Soviet Union.

Although Mama Kristina never went to school, she was convinced that development in Luo Nyanza and Kisii could only come about when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga became the president. This was in 1969 when Tom Mboya, a Luo member of the government considered a potential successor to Kenyatta, was assassinated.

Hostility between Kikuyu and Luo was heightened, and after riots broke out in Luo country KPU was banned. The government used a variety of political and economic measures to harass the KPU and its prospective and actual members.

Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978 and was succeeded by Daniel Arap Moi who ruled as President 1978–2002. Moi, a member of the Kalenjin ethnic group, quickly consolidated his position and governed in an authoritarian and corrupt manner.

By 1986, Moi had concentrated all the power – and most of its attendant economic benefits – into the hands of his Kalenjin tribe and of a handful of allies from minority groups who supported his government.

Moi ruled using a strategic mixture of ethnic favouritism, state repression, and marginalisation of opposition forces. He utilised detention and torture, looted public finances, and appropriated land and other property.

Moi sponsored irregular army units that attacked the Luo, Luhya, and Kikuyu communities, and he disclaimed responsibility by assigning the violence to ethnic clashes arising from a land dispute.

Constitutionally barred from running in the December 2002 presidential elections, Moi unsuccessfully promoted Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta as his successor.

A rainbow coalition of opposition parties routed the ruling KANU party, and its leader, Moi’s former vice-president Mwai Kiaki, was elected President by a large majority. On 27 December 2002 by 62 percent the voters overwhelmingly elected members of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) to parliament.

Since then the political climate in Kenya has grown increasingly unstable. In November 1993, News Network International reported that over 1,000 Kenyans died as a result of tribal violence since 1991.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

POPE FRANCIS PAYS TRIBUTE TO MANDELA

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2013

Pope Francis is among the top world leaders who have paid tribute to Nelson Mandela on Friday. Indeed Mandela was one of the world’s most ardent fighters for equality. Pope Francis in his telegram sent to South African President Jacob Zuma that said:

“It was with sadness that I learned of the death of former President Nelson Mandela, and I send prayerful condolences to all the Mandela family, to the members of the Government and to all the people of South Africa”.

Pope Francis and Mandela have not only shared a strong belief in the injustice of poverty, they have the will to protection of a fundamental human right. Protection of a fundamental human right is Jesus’ call, even if you are a public sinner you are still a human being and your rights just like any other human beings must be protected.

Like Pope Francis, Mandela strongly believed that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.

When Mandela welcomed Pope John Paul II to South Africa in 1995, he still expressed similar view of their mutual concern for the poor, commitment to equality, and undying fight for liberation from oppression.

Mandela’s faith in God was very great, a faith probably he acquired from his mother. When Mandela was 7 years old his mother enrolled him at the Clarkebury Missionary School in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. His mother was a devout Christian and taught him respect for God and good morals.

Although Mandela was a protestant, his love for humanity led him to think beyond religion. In 1993, he attended Mass celebrated by Archbishop Lawrence Henry and parish Capuchin priest Fr. Wildrid Aherne at St. Mary of the Angels in Cape Town.

He learnt that people cannot co-exist without mutual understanding, reconciliation and healing. Reconciliation he believed requires that we join hands to eradicate the poverty spawned by a system that thrived on the deprivation of the majority.

Reconciliation requires that we end malnutrition, homelessness and ignorance, that we put shoulders to the wheel to end crime and corruption. Reconciliation and forgiveness were to be the cornerstone of Mandela’s five-year term as president, with the focus always on nation-building.

Mandela never did anything before prayer. He was a stickler for praying before meals, after, going to bed, in the morning when he woke up and before doing his duties. He believed that things will never succeed without God’s intervention.

He was so humble to the extent that when people referred to him as a living saint he always insisted that he wasn’t a saint. He just did his duty justly because he believed that is what God wants.

When South Africa’s apartheid government had been brutally repressive for nearly five decades, and the country’s black majority was justifiably full of anger, Mandela never was.

Instead, he negotiated a transition that acknowledged the right of white South Africans to be citizens but no longer lords and masters. Even after 27 years in prison he was never angry.

That explains why when Mandela took office as president in 1994 he governed with the same generosity. Few could have imagined that South Africa could move peacefully to black majority rule.

Without Mandela’s leadership, without his example, stature and wisdom, the story might have been radically different. That is why he became an icon of integral leader. No wonder why the world remembers the great leader who acted without bitterness.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT AND SOLEMNITY OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2013

As indicated earlier tomorrow I shall be traveling home, Miruka village, Nyamira County in preparation of my beloved late mother Kristina Oding’s anniversary mass on December 12, 2013. I shall not have my Sunday homily on December 8, 2013, Second Sunday of Advent because I shall be co-celebrating at mass in Oriang Catholic Mission, Homa Bay Diocese.

My mother’s anniversary will be celebrated on the day Kenya shall be celebrating 50 years since independence. As Beatrice Wamuyu writes, Kenya is a melting pot of world cultures. It started interacting with other world cultures as early as 2000BC. The first Arabs landed at the Kenyan coast in about 100AD.

According to the 2009 census, there were 40,700 Kenyan Arabs, 46, 700 Kenyan Asians, 5,000 Kenyan Europeans and 2,400 Kenyan Europeans. Non-Kenyan Asians totaled 35,000, and there were 27,000 Europeans, 6,000 Americans, 112 Caribbeans and 719 Australians. There were almost 400,000 people from African nations living in Kenya, according to the census.

Foreign journalists covering for eastern Africa and beyond find Kenya haven place to report from. So when Kenya is celebrating 50 years of independence, it also celebrates the hospitality it renders to peoples of all walks of life. I am glad my mother’s anniversary falls on this day.

It will also be the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared Patroness of Latin America in 1910, and in 1945 Pope Pius XII declared Her to be the Empress of all the Americas.

She appeared to an Indian convert named Juan Diego on December 9, 1531. She left a marvelous portrait of herself on the mantle of Juan Diego. This miraculous image has proved to be ageless, and is kept in the shrine built in her honor, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As Kenya celebrates 50 years of her independence, the Roman Catholic Church is reforming. In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis not only intensifies his criticism of capitalism and the fact that money rules the world, but speaks out clearly in favor of church reform “at all levels.

He specifically advocates structural reforms — namely, decentralization toward local dioceses and communities, reform of the papal office, upgrading the laity and against excessive clericalism, in favor of a more effective presence of women in the church, above all in the decision-making bodies.

And he comes out equally clearly in favor of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, especially with Judaism and Islam. The pope wants the church move forward and alive. He wants the church that practices mercy-the prefect appeals to God’s holiness and justice.

He wants the coming bishops’ synod on family matters in October 2014 to find practical solutions based on feedback from the laity — the prefect draws on traditionalist dogmatic arguments in order to be able to maintain the unmerciful status quo.

On Sunday, December 8, 2013 will be the second Sunday of Advent. Although Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is transferred from Sunday, December 8 to Monday, December 9, the obligation to attend Mass does not transfer.

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX officially declared the Immaculate Conception a dogma of the Church, which means that all Christians are bound to accept it as true. This follows his decree in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus:

“We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”

In other words, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the saving work of God in preserving the Blessed Virgin Mary from the stain of original sin. Due to its solemnity and importance, is why it is transferred to the next day, Monday, December 9, 2013. It is so important to note that the obligation is not waived when it falls on Saturday or Monday.

In the United States and other countries, the bishops have received permission from the Vatican to abrogate (temporarily waive) the requirement for Catholics to attend Mass on certain Holy day of Obligation, when those Holy Days fall on either Saturday or Monday. Thus, in 2013, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is not a Holy Day of Obligation.

Even though in these USA, the Immaculate Conception is also their national patronal feast, the bishops conference usually waives obligations of Holy Days which are too close to a Sunday (which is always a day of Obligation).

The first reading is taken from Is 11:1-10. On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.

Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

Second reading is from Rom 15:4-9. Brothers and sisters: Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name.

The Gospel is from Mt 3:1-12. John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist.

His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves,

‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.

I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

THE BIG DEBATE ON RICH NATIONS AND THE POOR

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2013

Rueben from Kisii writes: “Omolo Beste I read your blog recently on Pope Francis urging rich nations to share their wealth with the poor. How comes Pope Benedict XVI was silence on this subject?

My second question is about Pope John II. Upon his election in October 1978, John Paul II was the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years and was expected to clean the mess at the Vatican Curia, a mess that was tolerated by Italian popes for years?”

Thank you Reuben for your questions- I don’t think you are right on Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. He was never silence on rich nations. Remember at one time he condemned corruption and illegality’ of politicians and businesses on eve of G8 meeting.

The Pope condemned the “corruption and illegality” of politicians and businesses across the world as he called for a new order based on the common good. In a detailed critique of modern social, economic and environmental problems, delivered on the eve of a summit of the G8 leaders in Italy, Pope Benedict XVI warned that globalisation risked triggering a worldwide crisis.

He criticised the UN and said a new organisation “with real teeth” is needed to prevent another financial crisis, bring about peace and reduce the gap between rich and poor.

The pope also warned ordinary consumers that their everyday choices have moral consequences, and called for greater appreciation of the potential dangers of new developments in technology and medicine.

He concluded that progress will only benefit the world if it is based on a “Christian humanism” that takes into account more than profit or self-interest.

In the third encyclical he has written, called Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict wrote: “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.

Corruption and illegality he said are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones.

Pope Benedict also condemned corruption and called on African leaders not to deprive its citizens of hope at a time of “too much violence.” Benedict issued the call during a speech at Benin’s presidential palace when he visited Africa.

He denounced corruption, warning it could lead to violent upheaval, while calling on African leaders not to rob citizens of hope on his second visit to the continent. He said there are too many scandals and injustices, too much corruption and greed, too many errors and lies, too much violence which leads to misery and to death.

On your second question, you should know that the Vatican Curia has long been seen as a mysterious, impenetrable bureaucracy that has run the Catholic Church regardless of who is pope.

Even Italian Pope John XXIII once told a group of friends: ”I am only the Pope here, but one of the rules of a bureaucracy is that those who preside over agencies can sometimes bend them to their will”.

Pope John Paul II has been operating on that premise as well, so does Pope Benedict and current one, Pope Francis. In many ways, he did not need to overcome the Curia at all; he was elected in part because conservative Curialists saw him as the right man to enforce a vision of the Church they had long held.

This is so even if some Italians in the Curia do not share the Pope’s passion for Poland or are uncomfortable with his style. All the same, Pope John Paul II has been among the most outstanding personalities during these last decades, with an impact far beyond the Roman Catholic Church and the Christian community world-wide.

During his pontificate, the Roman Catholic Church affirmed its universal vocation and strengthened its internal coherence. His commitment to social justice and reconciliation, to human rights and the dignity of the human person, as well as to Christian unity and inter-religious understanding, will be gratefully remembered.

Pope John II is also remembered for his openness and humility when he publicly apologized about Galileo on October 31, 1992. The Pope was concerned about clearing up a bad image of the Church in the eyes of the public, in which she was portrayed as the enemy of science.

He issued a declaration acknowledging the errors committed by the Church tribunal that judged the scientific positions of Galileo Galilei.

The most touching one was that of Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca who shot him on May 13, 1981. On January 27, 1983 the pope meets with him in prison and forgives him.

Agca, who had connections to a Turkish ultra-nationalist group, shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. He was apprehended immediately, tried in an Italian court and sentenced to life in prison.

Agca at first said he had acted alone. He later claimed the Soviet KGB and Bulgarian agents were involved in the papal shooting, but his alleged accomplices were acquitted in a second trial in 1986.

In 2000, with the pope’s support, Italy pardoned Agca and returned him to his native Turkey, where he began serving a sentence for the 1979 murder of a Turkish journalist.

In recent weeks, as his prison release date approached, Agca made several written statements, saying among other things that he wished to visit the tomb of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

Catholics and many non-Catholics alike had a deep affection for Pope John Paul II, a charismatic pontiff and great communicator. This is a pope who has visited more countries, met more of their citizens and spoken before more people, than any other current religious leader.

It can explain why on January 10, 1984 the United States re-establishes full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. On December 26, 1994, Time Magazine names Pope Johh Paul II its Man of the Year.

The pope made the headline again on March 16, 1998 when the Vatican released a formal apology to Jews for the Church’s failure to do more to prevent the Holocaust.

On March 12, 2000, the pope apologized for the Church’s mistreatment of Jews, non-Catholic Christians, women, the poor, and minorities over the last 2,000 years.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

Professional Women confronted by Theocracy took up Arms; Iraq & WMD’s – – another viewpoint;

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from; octimotor
to; jaluo@jaluo.com

Theocracy vs. women induced to take up arms

Perhaps readers may recall news accounts in the USA media during the early 2000’s concerning the situations of women and girls in places such as Afghanistan and other countries in the surrounding region.

For awhile the Talaban regime held sway. It operated as a theocracy.

Heavy restrictions against women seeking to hold employment outside of homes were enforced. Schooling of girls was ended for the duration of their time in power.

Eventually, using the events of the 2001 September NY City twin towers and Washington DC Pentagon attacks as the officially proclaimed motivations, US forces invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Hence the Talaban regime in Afghanistan and the Sadam Husane regime of Iraq were unseated. After such actions eventually comes a time for the invading forces to be drawn down and prepare for what is to be established afterward.

In that context it occurred to me that there could be much value gained by setting up a particular kind of recruitment campaign.

It would be oriented toward involvement of the local women who had first hand experience of having been subjected to the restrictions imposed upon them by the prior Talaban regime. They would be provided with training in military skills and then equipped, formed up as military units.

Surely you would then reasonably expect that they could then be counted on to follow their natural interest and motivation to not again be placed under the thumb of elements of that kind of regime if it would seek to come back into power.

Against that background of my prior speculations, I was surprised to find recently a related history note. It was information in a presentation by mikitary historian Douglas Dietrich. Apparently that notion had already actually occurred in a near by geographic area a few years earlier. Those conditions arose in regards to the Iran / Iraq region at beginnings of 1980’s.

Under the US – sponsored 1950’s to 1980 Iran government of Shaw Raza Palavi, extensive moves toward Westernization of that nation occurred. Under programs pursued by that regime, women, often educated in Western nations’ universities, made major inroads into occupying high responsibility positions in the professions. These included Iranian universities faculty, law offices, government civil service, management positions in businesses.

Then in 1980. came the revolution in which the Revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran was established, led by the clerics, very formally operating as a theocracy with religious law being held as supreme. Westernized socieo-econic-political forms were to be abolished.

In one of his presentations, Douglas Diettich said that the women, employed in such positions within the professions, were informed that they must end their participation in such activities, or else face execution. As a reaction to being confronted with that kind of drastic proposition, many chose to flee that country. Due to geographic closeness, having a shared national border with Iran, Iraq received a major influx of these Iranian expatriate women.

Iraq’s regime had seen the Iran revolution as its opportunity to try to grab some territory from Iran, hence beginning a war between the two which bogged down and became very costly to them both.

In this setting, a number of the women who had fled into Iraq from Iran under duress then were able to take up arms. They joined their efforts into a battle which they hoped would allow the regime of the new Islamic Republic of Iran to be overturned. The records show that their units proved to be quite effective, militarily speaking.

Tragically though, their potentials for successes came to be deemed to be not in the US national interests, as viewed by its top level foreign relations officials. This was on the basis that Iraq, and the military units composed by expatriate Iranian women professionals, were being interpreted as players who joined alliances with the then Soviet Union as the main source for their military supplies and anticipated future political support, in the event that that they succeeded militarily.

This was a time in which the US arranged to sell arms to Iran for use in its war against Iraq. Those deals were set up by members of the Regan presidency. They started as a way to leverage his election into office. They continued afterward as a an element in his actions to confront Soviet power world wide. Look into accounts under two headings. One is “October Surprise”. The other is Iran / Contra Arms Scandal.

Observe also that previously Iraq had purchased much of its military supplies from the US as well as from the USSR.

US, Iraq, WMD-s

In the Media, much attention has been placed on the question as to presence, or not, for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) in the hands of Iraq. The Younger President Bush made this the celebrated cause for the US invasion of Iraq following the Twin Towers Sept 2001 events. Afterward, the most widely published view holds that there turned out not to be any of those things found by the US & its allies.

But WMD’s – – chemical and biological agents – – actually had been in the possession of Iraq, at least for a period of time. However, these were items manufactured and sold by US companies to Iraq. with the quiet acquiescence of the US government. A witnesses to this fact stated he had been a member of a special forces team. During infiltration and recon operational mission he broke into the relevant Iraqi storage bunkers, and there read company receipts inside, and lettering stenciled on outside of the containers of such ordnance. Mr. Dietrich’s info is an additional account of this situation.

You can thus recognize that US officials would have strong motives to avoid national embarrassment which would arise if the presence these munitions were officially proclaimed by US / Allied officials. The trail of receipts which announced US origins likely would not go unnoticed if investigation followed high profile disclosure of such armaments. Thus a policy to have US forces in the field just bomb (not capture and retrieve) them can easily be understood as a tactic to remove inconvenient evidence.

Douglas Dietrich states that he served as an enlisted man in the ranks of the US Marines during the Elder President Bush’s Persian Gulf War. He reports being an eye witness, within sight of the event in which one of the largest storage areas containing chemical agents and bio-agents was exploded by US fighter-bomber aircraft attack. He reports that he saw the rising flaming clouds,and soon afterward experienced the strange odors stemming from some of those agents being dispersed with the winds, hence becoming a source for chronic health problems effecting the troops who had been there.

By contrast the US official position was and continues to be that our troops were not subjected to exposure to chemical and or biological weapons agents. But this is counter to the facts of the matter. A result is a rather new medical illness. This is the much talked about ‘Gulf War Sendrome’.

Some of these veterans face a very difficult predicament. A former army nurse from that theatre of conflict speaks out now advocating their cause. The veterans’ medical system has been skewed with intent to keep benefit expenditures low. It often asserts that the vets seeking treatments are officially deemed to only have psychological difficulties. In reality, though, these folks are subject to many important medical physiological pathology conditions due to exposures to exposures to toxic materials.

Signed, -om-

THE CATHOLIC TEACHING ON DIVORCE

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2013

The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste reader from New York who has requested that we hide her identity writes: “Sir, I have read your article on German bishops and I fully support them that divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to receive Holy Communion.

Even here in USA the divorce cases are high. I have been divorced for 9 years now and got married to another man but our Pastor here insists I cannot be allowed to wed in the church again or receive the Communion because during our first wedding we vowed that only death can separate us.

I filed the divorce case and the court allowed us to divorce. We have formalized our marriage civilly but the Pastor says the Catholic Church maintains that our first marriage is still valid and therefore cannot be allowed to wed with this man in the church.

I am fed up and sometimes I just regret why I became a Catholic. Sir I am deeply stressed and confused, yet I desire to continue receiving the Holy Communion. Otherwise thank you very much for raising this issue. Please I request you hide my identity”.

The sentiments of this lady from New York are the same with many divorced and remarried Catholics. Many would like to be allowed to receive the Communion. This is not possible because while the Catholic Church teaches that divorced Catholics can receive the sacraments, Catholics who have been divorced and remarried civilly cannot.

In the Catholic Church we do not talk of divorce but an annulment. Divorce and annulment is not the same thing; they differ in two ways: First, divorce is a civil law decree from the state, whereas an annulment is a canon law decree from the Church.

In other words, the state issues a marriage license; and the state issues a divorce decree while the Church celebrates the Sacrament of Matrimony; and only the Church can issue a Decree of Nullity (otherwise known as an annulment). This is because the Church does not believe in divorce.

The main reason for getting an annulment is that the sacrament of marriage wasn’t valid. Unlike divorce, an annulment is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place.

Most annulments are based on canon 1095. It gives three conditions that would make a person unable to contract marriage from mental incapacity: (1) who lack the sufficient use of reason; (2) who suffer from grave lack of discretion of judgment concerning essential matrimonial rights and duties which are to be mutually given and accepted;
(3) who are not capable of assuming the essential obligations of matrimony due to causes of a psychic nature.

Canon 1096 further states thus: 1. For matrimonial consent to be valid it is necessary that the contracting parties at least not be ignorant that marriage is a permanent consortium between a man and a woman which is ordered toward the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation.

Error concerning the person also renders marriage invalid (Canon 1097). For example, a man may marry believing the woman to be the mother of his child, a fact which later proves erroneous. If that was the direct and primary reason he married her then his consent was conditioned by that quality.

Or, a woman may believe she is marrying into a certain family, and that quality of her fiancé is the principal and direct reason for marrying him. The motive may be specious, but it determines her consent.

Marriage based on a condition concerning the future can also not be contracted validly (Canon 1102) A condition can also be made based on past and present behavior, even though it concerns the future. For example, a man marries a woman with a past drinking problem based on her promise to live soberly.

A marriage is also invalid if it is entered into due to force or grave fear inflicted from outside the person, even when inflicted unintentionally, which is of such a type that the person is compelled to choose matrimony in order to be free from it (Canon 1103)

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, offenses against the dignity of marriage included adultery (Cat. 2380). Adultery refers to marital infidelity. This is when two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations – even transient ones – they commit adultery.

Adultery is an injustice (Cat. 2381). This is because he who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on which it is based.

On divorce, since the Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble (Cat. 2382), it explains why Catholic teaching is against the divorce.

It explains further, why divorce is a grave offense against the natural law (Cat. 2384). Divorce claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death.

Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society (Cat. 2385). This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

Pastors must know that, for the sake of truth, they are obliged to exercise careful discernment of situations and should not act rigidly. Where the Pastor cannot solve it is always advisable he refers the matter to the canonists.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

GERMAN BISHOPS STILL INSIST DIVORCED SHOULD RECEIVE COMMUNION

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From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Wilson from Nairobi writes: “Fr Omolo Beste I read from your blog online news that German bishops want divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, how possible is this going to be?”

Yes Wilson, it might not be possible as yet to allow them, however the German bishops argue that since Germany is one of the countries with high rates of divorced and remarried Catholic cases, they should be considered to receive the Communion.

Among the bishops who are lobbying for the Communion is Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Stuttgart. He told a group of German laity this week that while the indissolubility of marriage is “non-negotiable” for the Catholic Church, the German bishops are going to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion, despite clear instructions to the contrary from the Vatican’s doctrinal chief.

Speaking to the plenary session of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), LifeSiteNews.com quoted Bishop Gebhard Fürst to have said that the Church must “take into account the concrete reality” of many couples and families.

“It belongs to the self-understanding of the Church to help people who fail in different situations,” he said, adding that “the expectations, impatience and anger are great” among Catholics on the issue in Germany.

The statement was a reiteration of guidelines published in October by the Archdiocese of Freiburg to admit the divorced and remarried to the Sacraments without previous annulment of marriage “under certain circumstances.”

The German bishops are reacting on recent comments made by Pope Francis that there was widespread anticipation that the Church was about to alter its position, a position quashed by an article by the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

They are basing their guidelines following recent launched survey by Pope Francis, asking Christians to explain how they feel on the current official total ban on the use of contraceptives, “in any circumstance”, the ban on gay or lesbian Catholics having “intimate sexual relationships” and the prohibition on divorced Catholics who have remarried to receive holy communion.

Before the release of the survey, he conceded that in terms of abortion “it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty”.

However, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the CDF has reiterated the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and that those who have remarried after divorce are objectively in a state of grave sin, namely adultery and therefore should not be allowed to receive Comminion.

The German bishops had already issued “guidelines” for parishes that allowed such individuals to decide for themselves whether to receive Communion based on subjective criteria.

The guidelines recommend that “in justified individual cases divorced should be allowed to return again to the sacraments…A personally responsible decision of conscience and a conversation with the chaplains are prerequisite.”

Recently, General Anzeiger, a newspaper in Bonn, hinted at why this issue is so prevalent in the German Catholic Church, noting that with 180,000 divorces a year, nearly a quarter are subsequently remarried civilly. Recent statistics have shown that about 25 percent of all newly concluded marriages are remarriages.

In another development, a new statement by the German Bishops’ Conference, Catholic physicians and hospitals can now prescribe and administer the morning-after pill (MAP) in cases where a woman is a victim of sexual assault as long as it does not cause an abortion. This is despite that the morning-after pill is a known abortifacient.

Of recent, German bishops have been making headlines. Pope Francis recently authorized a leave of absence for bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst from his position for the time being.

Tebartz-van Elst has been a target of protests for allegedly spending close to $40 million in renovations and new construction on his residence and diocesan offices and for allegedly making false statements in court.

Reuters quoted Pope Francis recently to have said that he believes in God, not in a Catholic God. “There is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation,” the pope is quoted to have said in the interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Pope Francis plans to do so by being more involved with the community. “The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.”

Just 2 days ago Pope Francis renewed his attack to unfettered capitalism, saying rich should share wealth. He has called for power to be moved away from the Vatican, in the first major work authored by the Pontiff since he was elected earlier this year.

In an 84-page document, he called for global leaders to fight poverty and inequality, attacked unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny” and called upon politicians to share their wealth and guarantee all members of the public “dignified work, education and healthcare”.

He said: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills”.

He asked how it is a new story when a stock market loses two points, “but not when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure”.

In the ‘apostolic exhortation’, Pope Francis says he preferred a Church that was “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets”, as opposed to “a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”.

The 224 page document, called Evangelii Gaudium, is the first major work written entirely by Pope Francis since he was made pontiff. Pope Francis wrote: “Money must serve, not rule! He wants priests, bishops and religious to focus on serving the people, especially the poor.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002

an article
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-strongly-reaffirms-no-communion-for-divorced-and-remarried-catholic

survey
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pope-francis-sends-out-survey-to-ask-catholics-about-gay-sex-abortion-and-contraception-8941336.html?origin=internalSearch

guidelines recommend
http://de.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/11/23/d:_bischof_f%C3%BCrst_sagt_reform_zu_/ted-749323

KENYA: PLEASE LEAVE THE HARD WORKING BISHOP OGONYO NGEGE ALONE

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From: LEO ODERA
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:49:13 +0300
Subject: PLEASE LEAVE THE HARD WORKING BISHOP OGONYO NGEGE ALONE
To: jaluo@jaluo.com,

BISHOP WASHINGTON OGONYO NGEDE IS AN UPRIGHT PERSON WHO DON’T DESERVE THE NEAR INSULT COMMENTS

I personally knew Bishop Dr Washington Ogonyo Ngede, the head of the organization, ‘Power of Jesus around the …’ from about 40 years ago.

The Bishop is an upright and honest person who got into priesthood from an humble background. He worked hard founded the church which he is heading.

I was disappointed and dismayed when I read two comments written in jaluo.com website. The two comments, one in Dho-Luo vernacular and the other one in English appeared to have come from an insane persons suffering from petty jealousy. All the heads of Christian churches are known to be using motor vehicles bought with money raised by their flocks. Therefore there is nothing wrong for the folliowers of Bishop Ogonyo Ngede have decided to do fundraising for the purpose of purchase a bran new car for their leader to easy his travellings while on the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus around.

Of the authors of the two comments, one calling himself Jamach Piere Yindo and the other Onyango Otare. I am sure they are not members of the Bishop’s church. All the churches including tho old ones and well long established churches including the Roman Catholic and the Anglican Bishop are usuing the church facilities like vehicles etc. But we have heard or read no other comentators jealous because of the state of the art black Toyota Prado car Bishop Ogonyo Ngede is uysing. For close to more than two decades Bishop Ogonyo Ngede has been keeping a fleet of sleek cars, all well maintained at the expense of, church members.

It is also wrong and amounting to the campaign of hate for the two authors to drag in the names of highloy respected persons like Raila Odinga and another humble man of God, Bishop Silas Owiti, into their dispute with the Bishop.

Bishop Ogonyo Ngede has served the Kenyan community in general and the Luos in particular diligently with dedication. This is why we can now be proud about the magnificent church building standing by the roadside near Kachok/Nyalenda in Kisumu City. His tireless efforts also the church spreading iuts wing into many rural locations inside Luo-Nyanza and beyond.

Since its inception and when the God called him to the Ministry in 1977, the church has since established close to 200 churches affiliated to it, all built on permanent materials. This is no mean achievement.

Personally I am not trying to gag those who want to criticize the Bishop, but I believe in constructive and not destructive and subversive criticisms. Such criticism must be genuine and based on truth. The two critics of Bishp Ngede, judging from their names must be the servants of satanic idols.

I AM TOLD THAT Jamach PiereTindo is a sexist and is a sexist maniac, if so then my passionate message to him is that he should seek the salvation from Jesus Christ . But they should leave the hard working Bishop alone.

Leo Odera Omolo