“I feel fulfilled”: Kenyan Spiritan Priest on Priestly Ordination of Nine Confreres He Recruited as Vocations Promoter

Fr. Fredrick Musunji (Left), greeting Bishop John Mbinda. Credit: Holy Ghost Fathers Kenya/Fr. Paul Hoang CSSp

“I feel fulfilled in my mission,” Fr. Musunji told ACI Africa during the June 14 interview.

He went on to recall the recruitment process of the new Priests after they had completed their Secondary School studies. 

“I searched for them in their homes. We discussed with their parents, and when they accepted, they gave me their sons,” Fr. Musunji recalled, adding that he stayed with them at the Postulancy for a year “before sending them to philosophy.”

“So, I saw them from the beginning when they admired or had the desire to join the Congregation, but they had not much root in it,” he further recalled, and reiterated, “In their initiation to the Congregation and Religious Life, I’m the one who started with them.”

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The native of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Kakamega, who is currently serving as Director of St. Luke’s Primary and Junior Secondary School at Tanglubei in the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru described the mission of a Vocations Director as “not so easy”.

“It's not so easy visiting young people and convincing them to come and join Religious Life and the Congregation,” he said, adding that over the years, he experienced some disappointment.

“There were many but some dropped out along the way; and I feel somehow disappointed,” Fr. Musunji shared.

Credit: Holy Ghost Fathers Kenya/Fr. Paul Hoang CSSp

He recalled that the nine ordained Priests did not all start as a cohort. Among them, there are those who came in 2013, 2014, and 2015,” Fr. Musunji said. 

“I'm very happy to see them going through and I thank God for that. When I look at them, I remember what I was telling them in formation, that we need you to come and help us so that we may continue spreading the word of God all over the world,” he recalled.

He went on to urge the newly ordained Spiritan Priests take prayer seriously, saying, “One thing that makes success to any missionary life is prayer; they should not forget prayer.”

“They will face a lot of challenges; it is part of missionary life,” Fr. Musunji noted, adding, “When you look at Jesus Himself, His mission was not so easy.”

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