“We go home re-energized”: Kenya’s Catholic Bishops Say after Engaging Pope Francis in Ad Limina Visit

“We have had a very beautiful experience representing our country, representing respective Dioceses in Kenya. We go back home re-energized after encountering the successor of St. Peter and expressing our unity and our communion with the Holy Father and with the universal Church,” he said. 

The Kenyan Catholic Archbishop further said, “We have had a beautiful experience in which we were encountering Peter. We have had a beautiful encounter with the Holy Father, and a beautiful encounter with the Cardinals that look after the various offices that help the Holy Father in doing his pastoral work.”

Relaying the Holy Father’s message to Kenyans, the Chairman of KCCB, who is the Local Ordinary of Kenya’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu said, “The Pope in a very special way sends his Apostolic blessings to all the people, all the Christian faithful in Kenya.”

Credit: Vatican Media

The main aim of the Ad Limina visit, he said, was for Catholic Bishops in Kenya to express their solidarity with Pope Francis.

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“We must express our union with our Holy Father because we are only complete together with the successor of Peter, the Holy father in this case Pope Francis,” the KCCB official said.

He expressed his gratitude to Kenyans for their solidarity with their Bishops through the visit, saying, “Thank you very much for your prayers as we travelled to Rome. And as we come back, we continue to bless and pray for you.”

Credit: Vatican Media

Earlier in August, addressing Catholics before the KCCB members embarked on their Ad Limina Visit, Archbishop Muhatia said the visit was obligatory for all Bishops in active ministry including Diocesan Bishops, Auxiliaries, and Apostolic Administrators. The only Bishops exempted are the retired ones, he said at the August 14 press conference. 

“Every Bishop or head of Bishop has already prepared a report of what has transpired in their jurisdictions during the nine years,” Archbishop Muhatia further said. 

KCCB members had their last Ad Limina visit in April 2015, thus nine years ago instead of the usual five-year gap. Archbishop Muhatia attributed the lapse to COVID-19 restrictions as well as the health challenges that the Holy Father has had to deal with in the past.

Credit: Vatican Media

He said that each of the Catholic Bishops in Kenya had already submitted their respective reports to Rome and that they include “the challenges that are facing the Church and some of the solutions we propose as Bishops.”

At the August 14 press conference, Archbishop Muhatia said that KCCB members were eager to engage the Holy Father on the growth of the Catholic Church in Kenya that he said could be seen in the “explosion in vocations” in the East African country, with more young people expressing their desire to become Priests and women and men Religious.

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