by Francis Muroki, Kenya, January 1998
THEME = THE CHURCH
Difficulties encountered by Kenyan missionaries in their apostolate
"I am used to the sound of fighting and gun shots in my parish. Even during Mass, there's fighting and killing on between the police and drug-traffickers. And inside the church, half the congregation have drunk too much of traditional drink called "Kashaca" (45% alcohol), or are high on drugs". So says Father Mathew Muriuki, a Kenyan Consolata Missionary priest, working at the Jardim Peri parish, situated in the middle of a São Paulo, Brazil, slum area.
Father Muriuki, who speaks Portuguese fluently, comes from Kirinyaga district, Kenya. He studied Philosophy at the Consolata Seminary in Langata, Nairobi, and later went to study Theology at the Missionary Institute in London. Ordained priest on 28 July 1996, he was sent to Brazil in 1997 as a missionary priest. He first learnt about the culture and the language of the country, before taking up parish work. He works a lot with the poor population, especially the drug-addicts, prostitutes (mainly among the younger population), and among AIDS victims. Father is experiencing the many difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Brazil, in fighting against crime, drug-trafficking, and prostitution. These people make up his congregation. Helping them to give up these evils is not an easy task.
Although Catholicism is not the state religion, the country is 98% Catholic. The Pentecostal movements from North America are slowly gaining ground, and are spending large sums of money to woo the people to their way of thinking. These movements have a private television network and other media outlets.
The Brazilians are very religious people, and keep up the practices they inherited from their Portuguese Catholic masters. For instance, making the sign of the cross when passing in front of a church, or before undertaking a specific effort, participating in a game, etc.
"In our parish, we hold youth rallies, talk about the evil of AIDS, drugs, prostitution and teenage pregnancy. These people must be made to feel accepted by the Church. We must try to give them back their human dignity", says Father Muriuki.
Father Muriuki is not the only Kenyan missionary in Brazil. There is also Father Joakim Kamau from Othaya who works in Salvador de Bahia, and Sister Jacinta Theuri who is serving five communities in Jandira, some 100km outside São Paolo. Then there are two nurses, Sisters Felista Muthoni from Kieni in Embu, and Maria Theresa Thukani from Murang'a, both working in the Amazona forests. There's also a Kenyan seminarian, Stephen Murungi, from Muthambi in Meru, who is studying Theology at the Consolata Institute of Theology in São Paulo.
I went to visit Father Kamau at Salvador de Bahia, a 36-hour bus trip! He told me that his first experience was that of a complete culture shock. He told about how shocked he was to find that Brazilian women, unlike those of African women, dress very inadequately, wearing extremely short mini-skirts, or mini-trousers with a small strap covering their breasts. They seem to be very free with their way of approaching others, and the African priest found this very unbecoming at first, being a priest and coming from Africa!
Father Kamau said that his main difficulty was to be accepted as a "black" priest. Although Bahia is a predominantly black state of Brazil, his parishioners had not seen a black (or African) priest around. One morning, when he answered the door bell, a lady asked to see the priest. "Yes, can I help you?" he asked. "I want to talk to the padre", she said. When she found out that I was the padre, she turned and went away. The similar thing happened when an elderly man called to see the priest. He said: "You, you cannot be the priest, you are black!".
When people came to Mass and saw he was black, they would not stay. However, little by little, he was accepted and it is clear that the people love "their" black priest.
Which only goes to show that Africa has so much to offer other countries!
END
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