Will Cardinal Otunga be Kenya’s first official saint?

Two kilometres off the Karen-Dagoretti road is the Resurrection Garden where Maurice Cardinal Otunga is buried.

The exquisite gardens and trimmed grass would have made for a perfect picnic site were it not for the spiritual atmosphere that envelops the area.

Faithful in their hundreds have been visiting Resurrection Garden to pray for their spiritual needs. There are two chapels — one for general services and a smaller one built over Cardinal Otunga’s grave.

Right from the entrance you are reminded of the hereafter with the words written atop the huge gate: “Mlango wa Mbingu (Gate of Heaven)”. It is indeed an invitation for whoever goes in there to think about life after death.

The interest in the site, and the growing prominence of the man who was a key figure in the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya until his death in 2003, come as sainthood beckons.

BEYOND DOUBT

Cardinal Otunga stood head and shoulder above many of his peers in life. In death, the living are pursuing his sainthood — if it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that prayers through him produced at least two miracles.

He has already taken key initial steps in the long journey that would culminate in him being declared saint – the highest recognition the Catholic church gives his followers who have lived an exemplary life.

Once declared a saint, one’s name is included in the church’s public and official prayers. Churches can then be dedicated to such individuals and mass celebrated in their honour.

The reality, however, is that the road to sainthood is not fast and easy. There is also a possibility of Cardinal Otunga not being declared a saint in our lifetime.

But the archdiocese of Nairobi is determined to ensure the man hailed in life and death as a role model for his humility is recognised as a saint.

Bishop David Kamau, the auxiliary prelate of Nairobi Archdiocese, one of the enthusiasts of Cardinal Otunga’s canonisation — that is, being officially declared a saint — says the process is in its third stage.

The cardinal is on the way to becoming venerable if all goes well.

When declared venerable, Cardinal Otunga will be recognised publicly.

“The church allows private prayers for now, but it cannot allow public intercession. That would be like a cult,” says Bishop Kamau.

Two steps have been completed since 2009 when the archbishop of Nairobi, John Cardinal Njue, appointed a tribunal to collect and investigate the “heroic acts” of Cardinal Otunga.

CONGREGATION FOR CAUSES

The first stage is called “Recognition”, where a local bishop decides a candidate is worth attention and reports the name to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The second involves being declared a Servant of God, which means many believers had reported their prayers being answered through the candidate’s intercession.

Cardinal Otunga remains to be declared “Venerable” and “Blessed” before he is confirmed a saint.

Among the “heroic acts” the Catholic Church looks for in the candidates to sainthood are love, faith and hope, justice, humility, kindness and patience.

The archdiocese of Nairobi has forwarded to the Vatican testimonies from 170 credible witnesses who lived, worked, and met the cardinal.

“If the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican is satisfied, they will vote, and he will move to another level called Venerable,” says Bishop Kamau.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints looks into causes for sainthood and will also continue investigating the life of the cardinal.

They will question and scrutinise everything he did before he can be called “Blessed” — a stage at which at least one miracle can officially be attributed to the candidate’s intercession. At this stage, his name will be added to the church’s calendar to be remembered at public masses.

Bishop Kamau, who speaks fondly of the cardinal he worked under for many years, says he believes there are many Kenyan saints in heaven, but the church is concentrating on Cardinal Otunga because he lived a public life for all see.

“We want people to emulate him. He loved people. He lived a simple, selfless life and he was virtuously poor,” he said.

That explains why the cardinal retired to the Nyumba ya Wazee (home for the aged) in Kasarani, when he left the position of archbishop of Nairobi to Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki.

“He did not own anything,” Bishop Kamau recalls with a sense of admiration.

CARDINAL'S MOTHER

When, for example, the cardinal’s mother became very old, he had not built a personal residence where he could house her.

He instead asked his rural parish in Misiku, western Kenya, to take care of her until her death. Considering that he was one of the most powerful religious leaders in the country with access to a lot of resources, such examples of humility showed by Cardinal Otunga continue to attract more admirers.

According to Bishop Kamau, his power and authority did not come from the office he occupied, but the humility that disarmed everyone he met.

In 1962, Otunga was among the few African bishops who attended the Vatican II council in Rome – that was convened by Pope John XXIII – whose journey to sainthood is underway.

He was at the conclave in the Vatican’s Sistine chapel in Rome to elect Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II.

Born in January 1923 in Chebukwa village of Western Kenya as a son of a Bukusu chief, the man who would later become cardinal was the first priest from his community.

He attended Mang’u High School, and studied philosophy at the seminary of Kakamega and theology at the Gaba national seminary in Kampala, Uganda.

He was transferred to Rome’s Pontifical Urban University where he was ordained a priest in October 3, 1950. He obtained a doctorate in theology at the same university.

On returning to Kenya, he lectured theology for three years at the major diocesan seminary in Kisumu.

Cardinal Otunga wanted to be an ordinary priest — saying mass, listening to confessions, praying for the sick, and helping the needy.

However, the church authorities saw in him more than that. He was elected bishop, archbishop and later named cardinal, serving in Mombasa, Bungoma, Kisumu, Kisii, and Nairobi among other places in Kenya.

Even after he was named cardinal in 1973, he remained a simple priest – listening to everyone who needed his ear, and treating them with respect and cordiality.

“He loved his priests. Your problems would be solved the moment he looked at you,” says Bishop Kamau.

When Cardinal Otunga makes through the next phase, he would be the first Kenyan to come that far.

The epitaph on the black marble gravestone summarises the life of the man:

“A disciple of Jesus Christ, he served his people with deep faith and love for all as a humble priest, a compassionate shepherd, leaving to Kenya and to the whole world, an example of a true model of sanctity.”

"It reads a mouthful, but how do you capture the life of such a towering man such as Otunga in fewer words.

THE CUSTODIAN

It is to this chapel that hundreds of people from across the country and the world go to pray mostly on weekends. Fr O. Santoro, a Consolata missionary who is the custodian of the place, told the press sometime back that about 15,000 people register in the visitors’ book every year.

Saints in sub-Saharan Africa are hard to come by.

The most prominent are the 22 Ugandan martyrs, who earned their gate-pass when a Buganda king murdered them in cold blood in 1886/1887.

There is also the Sudanese former slave-girl turned nun named Josephine Bakhita, who was declared a saint in 2000.

The nearest Kenya has previously come to getting a saint has been the 288 Mombasa Martyrs, killed for their faith in 1631.

A commission set up by the Archbishop of Goa, under whose jurisdiction the area was then, failed to set off the process of sainthood. Interest in the case has been revived.

Jason Berry, author of Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, explains the process of canonisation thus: “After a revered figure has died, members of the parish or religious community appeal to the Vatican to open a cause for sainthood. Someone like a bishop or religious order superior adds his or her endorsement.”

However, Kenya should not celebrate yet, Mr Berry warns: “The process of documenting the person’s life is slow [as] the Congregation for Causes of the Saints in Rome has a great many cases.”

in an e-mail interview with Lifestyle, Mr Berry says only in cases like that of Mother Teresa and John Paul II is the process accelerated. The people nominated are those whose lives embodied great virtue.

Probably that is why Bishop Kamau of the Nairobi archdiocese is already excited about Cardinal Otunga’s prospects.

“Miracles are already happening. But we need more,” he says confidently.