Mons. Angelo Romano, a Vatican Relator at the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints, has renewed hope in the cause of Sainthood of the Servant of God Michael Maurice Cardinal Otunga, noting that the process that started some 15 years ago is “still alive”.
The announcement at a fundraising dinner that was organized in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) to support Cardinal Otunga’s Sainthood cause was met by a cheerful applause from those who gathered to listen to the story of the Servant of God, who served as Nairobi’s Archbishop until his retirement in 1997 aged 74.
Relaying the news at the Friday, May 30 fundraising dinner event, the cause’s Vice Postulator, Fr. Laurence Njoroge, said that the Local Ordinary of ADN, Archbishop Philip Subira Anyolo, had received news through the Vatican-based Postulator on the cause of Cardinal Otunga’s Beatification that it was “on their desk”.
“Recently, in fact last week, there was a communication from Rome, from the Relator. And the Relator, as I understand, is the number two person in the office that deals with matters of beatification and canonization,” Fr. Njoroge said.
He added, “The Relator, through the Postulator, who is the person representing the Archdiocese of Nairobi in Rome and who must reside in Rome for this cause, informed the Petitioner that the matter of the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga is on their desk.”
The member of the Clergy of ADN told the hundreds of guests at the fundraising dinner that Archbishop Anyolo had been told that Cardinal Otunga’s Sainthood cause had not stagnated.
“That communication had not been provoked from our side. It was a communication from Rome,” Fr. Njoroge clarified, and emphasized, “In other words, the cause has not stagnated. It is alive because it is Rome speaking.”
Cardinal Otunga could be Kenya’s first in the catalogue of Saints. Declared “Servant of God” in 2010 as per the process of beatification and canonization, Cardinal Otunga’s Sainthood cause is in the phase that involves the examination and verification of documents (evidence), which the Petitioner submitted to the Vatican.
These documents are examined by a group of theologians and reviewed by another group of experts. If the review is favorable, the documents are submitted to the Holy Father for approval and subsequent issuance of a Papal decree confirming the virtuous life of the candidate to whom he confers the title, “Venerable”.
In his input during the May 30 event, Fr. Njoroge acknowledged that many years had passed since Cardinal Otunga was declared Servant of God, noting that he understood that some may be restless that the Cardinal’s Sainthood cause was not moving forward with speed.
“There are a great number of people who feel that it is perhaps taking a little bit too long for the Servant of God to be declared Venerable. We have heard those sentiments,” the Kenyan Catholic Priest, who serves as Chaplain at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) said.
Observing that it had taken 25 years for Blessed Sr. Irene Stefani (Nyaatha) declared Servant of God in 1985 to finally be declared venerable, he said about the Italian-born member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters (MC), who arrived in Kenya in 1915 and served as a medical officer during the First World War in Central Kenya. Recognized for her love and compassion, the locals nicknamed her “Nyaatha”, which means ‘Merciful Mother.” She passed on in Kenya in October 1930 aged 39 after contracting a disease from a patient she was caring for.
“I am not saying that it is going to take 25 years for the Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga to become Venerable. I am simply attempting to say that it is a process. And that it takes time,” Fr. Njoroge said.
He recalled that in October 2024, he had accompanied Archbishop Anyolo to the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints where the Under-Secretary of the Dicastery, Mons. Bogusław Stanisław Turek, had emphasized the need for Kenyans to “pray seriously” for the cause of Cardinal Otunga.
“Mons. Turek advised that the Church in the Archdiocese of Nairobi and the Church in Kenya must pray seriously. That we must pray fervently for this cause,” he said, adding that the result for Mons. Turek’s appeal had been the formulation of the prayer for the beatification of the Servant of God Michael Cardinal Otunga which is recited in Holy Masses across the ADN.
Fr. Njoroge continued, “I remember Mons. Turek talking to our Archdiocese and saying, ‘Rome needs to hear that the Church in Nairobi and that the Church in Kenya is praying.’ It is true that we have been praying and Mons. Turek said he had no doubt.”
“They in Rome know that the Church in Nairobi and in Kenya is a Church in prayer. But Mons. Turek said Rome wants to hear, and wants to know that the Church in Kenya is a Church in prayer for the cause of the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga,” he added.
Fr. Njoroge shared a personal experience while he performed some secretarial tasks for Cardinal Otunga, when the latter was at the helm of ADN. Fr. Njoroge spoke about experiencing a man who seemed “not to be listening” yet very attentive. “I once went to his house in Lavington… I had an issue or two that I wanted to discuss with him.”
Fr. Njoroge narrated that after Cardinal Otunga served him tea and biscuits as he always did with all his visitors, he started to pour out his heart to the Cardinal who appeared to be absent-minded.
“There he was, facing a certain point, and his eyes seemed closed,” Fr. Njoroge narrated, and continued, “I wondered, ‘is this man listening to what I am saying?’ But I continued, pouring out what my issues were. And as I went on and I explained to him and narrated, at one point he seemed to be asleep. When I finished speaking, he opened his eyes, and he looked at me straight in the eye and held me as it were.”
“He had powerful eyes,” he recalled of Cardinal Otunga, who passed on in 2003 at the age of 80. “When he looked at you, you were not able to look elsewhere. You stayed there. He looked at me straight in the eye. And then, blow by blow, point by point, he responded to the issues that I had raised. And he told me even more how he knew my parents, my father especially, because they had gone to the same intermediate school and to the same high school…He was telling me about myself,” Fr. Njoroge narrated.“Maurice Cardinal Otunga had appeared to be sleeping. But he was very, very alive to what I was saying,” he said, adding that there was a parallel between that day’s experience with Cardinal Otunga and what is going on in the Cardinal’s Sainthood cause.
“The cause of the Servant of God, Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, may seem to be taking time. But it is very much alive. That is what has been communicated by the Relator, Mons. Angelo Romano from Rome to the Archbishop of Nairobi,” he reiterated.
Fr. Njoroge continued, “Therefore, kindly, let us continue to pray. Continue to pray and to pray firmly that this course is going to remain alive. And that it is going to bear fruit according to the will of God.”
Fr. Njoroge’s sentiments were echoed by Fr. Peter Kaigua Ngugi, the Chairman of the Central Committee for the Beatification of the Servant of God, Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, who noted that the biggest challenge for the committee was “delays”.
Fr. Ngugi attributed the delays to the thoroughness of Catholic Church processes. “We have had delays. Delays in responses,” the Clergy of ADN told ACI Africa at the May 30 fundraising dinner event, and explained, “You place whatever is required and then it takes a whole year to get a response. But that's how the Church works.”
Fr. Ngugi shared that the Committee he chairs is also struggling with shrinkage owing to deaths of its members and transfers.
“The committee is shrinking by the day. Unfortunately, people die, and others get transferred. For example, members of the committee who are Priests get transferred to other places,” he said.
The Kenyan Catholic Priest, who lectures at Kenya’ University of Nairobi (UoN), where he is also the Catholic Chaplain said that the challenges notwithstanding, people are excited about the Sainthood cause of the Servant of God Cardinal Otunga.
“People are waiting. Everywhere you go, even outside the Archdiocese of Nairobi, people are praying for the cause of the Servant of God Michael Cardinal Otunga (Beatification). People are hopeful,” he said.
Fr. Ngugi’s role for the past two years has been to mobilize people to know the story of the Servant of God and also to mobilize resources that are necessary for the cause.
Sharing with ACI Africa the inspiration behind the May 30 fundraising dinner, he said, “In the African cultures, stories are best told when you bring people together to eat. So, when we are eating, we come and tell the story of the Servant of God.”
The dinner was also graced by UoN and JKUAT students. “We have tried to bring along us young people. We realized that if we don't tell the story of Cardinal Otunga to the young ones, the story may get lost,” Fr. Ngugi told ACI Africa, reconfirming the call the Local Ordinary of ADN made in his speech at the dinner, emphasizing the need to keep alive the legacy of the Servant of God in engagements and sharing that make known the virtues he exemplified, especially to younger generations.
Apart from dinners, the committee that Fr. Ngugi chairs has organized golf tournaments, walks, and even engaged in the selling of merchandise to raise funds.
The funds, Fr. Ngugi said, go into activities such as meetings, research, and publications of documents required for the Sainthood cause of the Servant of God.
The Kenyan Catholic Priest believes that although many people never met Cardinal Otunga, his presence is felt by everyone who hears his story. “I am lucky I met him myself. I remember meeting a gentleman, a very humble, very prayerful, a very good man,” he said of the Cardinal.
Fr. Ngugi shared with ACI Africa that he met Cardinal Otunga many times in his childhood, and later as a newly ordained Priest at a home for the elderly in Nairobi where the Cardinal resided upon his retirement.
“I met Cardinal Otunga when I was a Priest, and he told me something very interesting. I have never forgotten what he told me, because he was frail and old and I had just been ordained. He told me, ‘young man, go and minister the people of God. For me, I am now old, the only pastoral work remaining for me is to pray for you as you do active ministry’. It was a very profound statement.,” Fr. Ngugi narrated.
He added, “That was 23 years ago but I remember what he told me to date.”
“For me, Cardinal Otunga is not a legendary figure. He is a person that I met and knew and confessed to,” Fr. Ngugi said.
Asked how the Church in Kenya will feel the day that the Servant of God Michael Cardinal Otunga will be declared Venerable and then Saint, Fr. Ngugi said, “It's going to be the best day in our Church and in our lives.”