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Sacrament of Holy Orders Goes Beyond “liturgical service”: Catholic Bishop at Ordination in Kenya

Nicholas Waigwa

By Nicholas Waigwa

Nairobi, 06 March, 2025 / 1:51 pm (ACI Africa).

The Sacrament of Holy Orders transcends “liturgical service” and reaches far into serving humankind, a Catholic Bishop has told the two Deacons and 24 Seminarians he ordained in Kenya.

In his homily during the Saturday, March 1 event, Bishop Rodrigo Mejía Saldarriaga urged those in Holy Orders to approach their apostolate with the spirit of integral service and not just liturgical service.

“This sacrament of Holy Orders at the level of Diaconate, the level of Priesthood, at the level of the Bishop, and Archbishop, is service to the people of God, integral service, not just liturgical service, but integral service to humankind,” Bishop Rodrigo said during the event held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN).

With the Institution of the Holy Orders, Jesus Christ gave to the Church the richness of service in all kinds to humankind, the member of the Society of Jesus (SJ/Jesuits) said, and added, “This is the service to which we are open. Jesus Christ, when he washed the feet of the disciples, was inaugurating the spirit of service for the Priest.”

The Vicar Apostolic Emeritus of Ethiopia’s Vicariate Apostolic of Sodo said that a Priest is taken from the people to be at the service of the same people. 

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The 86-year-old native of Colombia who began his Episcopal Ministry in March 2007 emphasized the importance of selfless service to humanity that goes beyond the apparent liturgical responsibilities. 

“We know in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that there are the corporal, spiritual works of mercy, body and soul,” he told the SJ members he was about to ordained, further noting that members of the Clergy “have to be open to any kind of service that apparently has nothing to do with the liturgy.” 

The Bishop, who retired in January 2014, reminded the new Deacons to remain steadfast even in the wake of discouragement and challenges in their pastoral duties.

On the mission of the Deacons in the Catholic Church, Bishop Rodrigo explained that a Deacon assumes the responsibility of teaching, governing, and being an instrument of the grace of God for the people.

“These three responsibilities are the same of the Bishop, of the Priest, and of the Deacons, but at a different level, with different ministries, at a different degree,” he clarified, terming the combination of these three dimensions as “the great variety and richness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”

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Reflecting on the three responsibilities, Bishop Rodrigo explained that the responsibility of teaching is prophetic and involves proclamation of the gospel in the world. “They are exercising their responsibility of teaching. Not only that, catechesis is also part of their ministry.”

The ministry of leadership is not a ministry of being heads of the community, he clarified, and added that in exercising this responsibility, Deacons are expected to offer guidance, counsel, companionship, and become helpers of the people of God.

“It is the leadership of pastors, and this is the pastoral dimension of this diaconate: to accompany the people of God, to counsel the Christian, and in that, all the ministry of spiritual accompaniment is included,” he said during the March 1 Ordination.

As instruments of the grace of God for people, especially manifested in the liturgy, Bishop Rodrigo said that Deacons are “extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, participating with the Priest, but also distributing the Eucharist, bringing the Eucharist to the sick, being really instruments of grace.”

He said that the wisdom of Christ and the wisdom of the Church, is to restore a new sacrament of Holy Orders, integrating the roles of Deacons.

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He invited the newly ordained to emulate Jesus Christ, who in giving the sacrifice of his own life on the cross, offered a universal priesthood, not for a tribe, not for Israel only, but for the whole people of God.

“Let us pray today in a special way for this group — 24 Deacons, two Priests — that is 26 ordinations in a church. So we are holding the national record today, but let us not rejoice because we have the record; let us rejoice according to the words of the gospel and pray that their names may be written in the book of life,” he implored.