My sincere point

 

Several reactions came up from an article “Multiple burials leave priests with trauma as Covid ravages villages” published by Mactilda Mbenywe in the Sunday Standard, section National, on the fourth day of July 2021, precisely the third page of that paper.

I feel pastorally but above all dogmatically obliged to put down this apology. This is a personal response to those constructive reactions brought up during positive chats in the St Gabriel’s Alumni Whatsapp Group few weeks ago. 

Three major issues came up in those chats. One, and I quote, “not so good an article”; two, another quote, ‘weak priests’; and finally three was various ecclesiastical cum dogmatic questions good for the doctrinal growth of the Catholic Church.

In this genuine defense, we develop three major themes.

Primo; the quality of the article in question

Seemingly this article achieved two of the fundamental goals meant for any written document.

First, informative:

It sincerely and credibly informed the public of the current investigated happenings in the society. Who doesn’t know of the current Covid-19 pandemic? And as you read this apology, there are scores of corona patients in dare need of health care not only at the mentioned hospital facilities in the said article but nation and worldwide. But as they get their physical health care, some people give also the spiritual and moral health care. 

But what happens also that the article highlighted is the “multiple burials”! Rev. Fr. Nobert Migoye said, “People are dying and the numbers are increasing. Why do I bury two people every day from Monday to Monday?” In June alone, reported the article, he buried 38 parishioners! 

In deed those deaths are not normal. They are not normal, for majority of the dying are their Christians! Not normal! For one would think that since St Pantaleon Catholic Church Parish being in Siaya County, a rural home to many who live in big cities, is a burial site of those in the cities. Yes, most city people live and die in their cities and get buried in their rural homes. 

And the life of the priests during the pandemic is very well highlighted in this article. This is quiet informative, since many might think that the priests are super humans (we shall later come back to this point) immuned from the human plights. The information is that even the priests have been infected if not affected by this pandemic. The article states the data from the archdiocese having already “five priests infected with the virus in the recent past” and the fatherly concern of the Archbishop Philip Anyolo to the priests’ welfare. 

In this forum, if we are not priests, then we know many who are our close friends. They share with us these occurrences, hence could not get the impact of such information as serious. 

Look at the larger audience of the Sunday Standard newspaper. Majority of them are neither Catholics, for in the eighth Kenya Population and Housing Census of 2019 Catholics are just 20.6 percent of 85 percent Christian national population, nor knows priests very closely. Seemingly, to me, they are the first and prime target of such enlightening information. 

Second, provocative:

Any piece of writing fictional or non fictional engages the right mind to further search for right solutions hence betterment of life. This I would adamantly say was achieved in the said investigative article. Personally I received very many phone calls and emails. One that I would wish to quote in this apology came from the Kenya National Government. 

This evidence-based reporting article provoked the Kenya National Multi-Agency Command Centre on Covid-19 to dig deep into the happenings especially as pertaining the Covid-19 response and deaths. The government official at the other end of the phone call, whose identity I withhold, confessed sincerely for not having had such vital and ethical information and promised to intervene in the fight against this pandemic. The status quo would have reigned if this article didn’t see the light of the day.

Secundo; identity of a priest

Priests are male human beings chosen by God and confirmed by the Church for the salvation of human beings and sanctification of things and places. This means that no human being is born a priest. They become. Hence as human beings, they inhibit all the qualities that human beings manifest. 

They are formed to integral human and spiritual maturity, of which is ongoing. The sacrament of ordination imparts on them special graces of configuration to Jesus Christ. Consequently, they act in the capacity of Jesus Christ, continuing the latter’s work on earth. 

Being human, and not super humans, the priests have feelings emanated from their corporal nature. They feel pain, fear, anger, calm, happy, surprise, excited, disgust, joy, sadness; and like others express these feelings via a cry, laughter, dance, talks, etc. 

Being human, and not super humans, the priests grow old, weary, sick and die. But the priesthood in this human flesh of a priest neither perishes nor diminishes! The least, it can be suspended on disciplinary grounds. Hence, we have the famous scriptural dictum, ‘a priest forever’. 

What really made priests to express their feelings hence making them be labeled as “weak”? In the first place, do we even have “weak priests” or even ‘strong priests’; ‘clever priests’ or ‘stupid priests’; ‘busy priests’ or ‘lazy priests’; ‘boring priests’ or ‘captivating priests’? 

If understood as a calling or a vocation and not a career or a job then such qualifications or rather adjectives would be void of any sense. For within the conception of a vocation, it is not what he does that counts much, rather who he is counts more than anything. Those adjectives seem to put emphasis on the ‘doing’ rather than the ‘being’. In any case, they would either mean a contradiction to the ‘beingness’ of a priest or a mere tautology!

Interestingly, then “How do Christians perceive their priests beyond Corona?” This question came because the article seemed to have revealed the “weak”-ness in our priests as some had put it.  

Am quite confident to say that, the Christians, especially those touched by the priest at their most needy times, will not only see the latter as heroes but as the living saints. It is needless to say that a priest is meant to be as close to the flock as possible. This closeness should not only be physical presence but above all spiritual presence in the life of the laity.

Tertio; Sacraments

Sacraments are signs that Jesus selectively chose and gave us to impart both actual and sanctifying graces in us. Three things, which can be seen and heard, are very fundamental as pertaining to Sacraments. They actually determine the validity of a sacrament. These are the minister, matter and form. 

Matter, are the material, physical, tangible things used in the celebration of Sacraments. These include water, oil, unleavened bread, wine, etc. While form is the immaterial, nonphysical things such as the formulas or words and gestures like the laying on of hands during the celebration of the Sacraments. Minister, on the other hand, is the person (Bishop, Priest, Deacon or laity) who administers the Sacrament.

The article highlighted majorly the Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick, yet in passing the Sacrament of the Eucharist especially during the communion or reception of the body of Christ. 

The article mentions what are most fundamental to the sacrament of the Anointing of the sick, that is, oil and a priest. Even though he was “not easily identifiable” though in “his Roman collar barely visible” due to the personal protective equipment (PPE), Rev. Fr. Nobert Migoye was frequently seen carrying “a plastic bag… a ball of cotton wool and a bottle of holy oil”, at Siaya Referral Hospital. 

The same article reports Rev. Fr. Boniface Mtanda, imc saying that, “During anointment, [the priests] are given only three minutes and this changes the procedure of the ritual”. 

On normal circumstances the rite of the Anointing of the Sick would not take less than fifteen to twenty minutes in the presence of the sick or weary. This include: priest’s greetings; introduction; sacramental confession or penance; scripture reading; bidding prayers; laying on of hands in silence; prayer of thanks giving; anointing of the forehead and hands (outer part of the hands, not inner palm. It is only priests during the Priestly Ordination who receive the anointment from the inside part of the hands or palm); prayer after anointing; viaticum; concluding prayer; indulgence for the dying; then final blessing. 

But with three-minute allocation for the rite, what do you do? Argue with the medical staff that the time allocated won’t be enough? And, worse still, you are instructed not to carry anything apart from the cotton wool imbued in the holy oil of the sick. It is only the absolution formula and sacramental procedure of Penance/ Confessions that is stuck in the heads of most priests. Other six Sacraments they must at least peep on the Roman Ritual or Missal. 

Not being flexible while remaining within the sacramental norms, you risk not spiritually attending to the needy (sick) in such abnormal circumstances as mentioned by the priests in the article. 

I know beyond reasonable doubts that you must have come across the principle of Ecclesia Supplet. This literally means, ‘the Church supplies’! It is basically found in the Code of Canon Law, c. 144,1. It is a canonical notion or principle in which, depending on certain limited circumstances ‘the Church herself supplies for a required grant of power of jurisdiction or executive power of governance to a capable person to place an act, like sacramental act, validly where such a necessary grant is either missing or was granted defectively’. This merciful principle normally applies to the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Marriage and Confirmation, for they are Sacraments which require a special faculty for their celebrations.  

In this our abnormal case, since the same Mother ‘Church supplies’ or provides salvation for all and to all, a teleological and juridical principle in the last Canon, c. 1752, it seems ecclesiastically fitting not to follow, ad verbatim, the normal procedure as indicated above but dispensing the Anointing of the sick rightfully with the silent laying on of hands (form) then physical anointing the sick person’s both head and hands with the oil (matter). Since both the sacramental form and matter was used, the recipient of this Sacrament was a beneficiary of the graces emanating from the Sacrament itself. Obviously, other prayers are said with the family which constantly keeps vigil day in day out outside the health facility. 

Such kind of bravery, if shared with the entire world, and not only the Catholic fraternity, is a sign of encouragement to humanity that is in need of God especially during the heavy moments of tribulation.