kenya – Madison Catholic Herald

To the editor:

Good Friday service with the reading of the “Passion” and the “Veneration of the Cross” had a deeper meaning for me this year considering the events happening in our world today.

Approximately six weeks ago, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya and a few days ago, Al-Shabab, another Islamic extremist group, murdered 148 university students and personnel in Kenya who professed to be Christian and not Muslim.

This follows a pattern that has been happening frequently throughout many parts of North Africa and the Middle East. In addition to the killings, these groups are destroying churches and priceless artifacts dating back to Biblical times.

Making a world of difference

Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, is home to some 10,000 people living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.

Sunday Mass at St. Mary’s Church in Mukuru is packed. At the Offertory procession, with the gifts of bread and wine are baskets of vegetables, flour, rice, bread, and other necessities for the less fortunate members of the parish.

Spreading the Good News

Then, at the end of Mass, the new words of dismissal — “go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” — come to life immediately as the missionary priest and others navigate narrow dirt paths, spreading the Good News of God’s love to the sick and those suffering in any way.

World Mission Sunday 2011: Celebrating, sharing faith joyfully in Kenya

The settings couldn’t be more different. One, Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, home to some 10,000 living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.