New Vice Postulator of Canonization Cause of Kenya’s Cardinal Otunga “very excited, eager”

“He sent me for higher studies; he contacted the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA in order for me to do both theology and education. When I completed my PhD, it was him that asked the University to employ me for some time in order to improve my CV,” the Kenyan cleric said.

“To meet Cardinal Otunga and to work with him and be associated with him was to be associated with a very real human being,” Fr. Njoroge said of the Kenyan Servant of God and added, “Cardinal Otunga was what God would like us to be like; a very humble, very prayerful and original man; in that sense, he was himself - no pretense.”

To him, Cardinal Otunga was a “living saint, born and gifted to us.”

“If I have met a person who truly believed in God’s goodness, it is Cardinal Otunga. One of his favorite words was ‘providence’. He truly believed in God and he loved the Catholic Church and the people of God,” Fr. Njoroge who preached at the Cardinal’s funeral Mass recalled.

Aware that it will be no easy feat to combine his role as a university don with the new Archdiocesan responsibilities, the holder of a double doctorate in Theology and in Education and Ethics was optimistic in his response.

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“The workload in JKUAT will be dovetailed in such a way that it does not impede the role of the Vice Postulator; it's the kind of a job that can be done even as I am the Chaplain of JKUAT,” he said.

He added in reference to his multiple responsibilities, “It is a symbiotic situation, one of the jobs for Vice Postulator is to write the official biography (of the candidate); I am a writer and being in an academic setting as a professor teaching ethics and in a situation of research, instead of my job at JKUAT hindering what I am doing, it should be supportive.”

Referencing the support of the university in his new assignment, Fr. Njoroge stated, “They are very excited about it. My superiors at JKUAT are always supportive of my work and very supportive of the Archdiocese of Nairobi.”

As Vice Postulator, Fr. Njoroge will represent the Local Ordinary in the process and will work closely with Rome-based Postulator of the cause, Dr. Waldery Hilgeman.

In the course of his duties, Fr. Njoroge will also collaborate with the Secretary and Administrator of Nairobi Archdiocesan office of the Causes of Saints, Sr. Esther W. Ichugu, a member of the Dimesse Sisters of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate (FMI).

In an interview with ACI Africa Friday, December 6, Sr. Ichugu who has been serving in the same capacity welcomed Fr. Njoroge saying, “We are forging ahead with the process and it is our hope that with the new appointment, the process will reach its expected end.”

Sr. Ichugu also revealed that the cause Postulator was in Kenya in November for a week-long meeting in which members “reviewed where we are and designed strategies for the way forward.”

With regard to the complex process of canonization, the sainthood cause of the Servant of God Cardinal Otunga who died in 2003 at the age of 80 is in the Roman Phase, which involves the examination and verification of documents (evidence) submitted by the petitioner. These documents are examined by a group of theologians and reviewed by another group of experts. If the review is favorable, the documents are submitted to the Holy Father for approval and subsequent issuance of a Papal decree confirming the virtuous life of the candidate to whom he confers the title "Venerable."