The Archdiocese of Nairobi has clarified that it never requested the Vatican for early commencement of the process to beatify its former archbishop, the late Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga."No request has been made in the past years for early beatification," Cardinal John Njue, archbishop of Nairobi, said on Saturday. The archdiocese has been waiting for the expiry of five years since the death of Otunga as required by law.
There has been no delay, Cardinal Njue said. "We are on time."
Njue, who was officiating at a commemorative mass on the fifth anniversary of the death of Cardinal Otunga, also discounted claims that the Vatican had rejected a request by the archdiocese to start the process early. Not even a petition to initiate the cause of beatification had been presented to him as required, the cardinal said.
Last year, then Archbishop of Nairobi Raphael Ndingi Mwana 'a Nzeki, told reporters that the Vatican had turned down a request by the archdiocese to start the process early. "We were advised to wait for five years, and we accepted the advice obediently," he said.
The cause for beatification may be opened at least five years after the death of the candidate. But the Vatican has power to waive the five-year rule, as it did in the cases of Blessed Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal Njue celebrated this year's memorial mass at Resurrection Garden in Nairobi, a retreat centre where the body of Otunga is interred in a chapel. Retired archbishops Ndingi and John Njenga (Mombasa) attended the mass.
The cardinal said the requirements for beatification were clearly spelt out by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Once he received and accepted the petition to open the cause of beatification for Otunga, he said, a postulator will be appointed to lead a team that will compile the details of Otunga's life. A dossier on the candidate will then be presented to the Vatican.
Cardinal Njue said it is a long process that also requires lots of resources. "This is not something that will happen overnight. It is a process. Sometimes it takes years."
Njue described Otunga as "a great man and shepherd", a defender of the dignity of human life, and a humble but firm advocate of justice. His life was testimony to the fact that "all of us have been called to holiness; it is our fundamental vocation."
The best tribute Christians and other people of good will could pay Cardinal Otunga is to emulate the values that he lived for, Cardinal Njue said.
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(Source: allAfrica.com)