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Kenya gets the first Comboni Pokot Priest

Kenya gets the first Comboni Pokot Priest

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News from the Comboni North American Province

Monday, November 7, 2016
After 34 years of working among the Pastoralists-Pokot in Kenya, the Comboni Missionaries got their first Comboni Pokot priest on 29th October 2016. Approximately, three thousand people converged on the grounds of Amakuriat Mission to witness this historical event. Comboni Missionaries first came to Kenya officially in 1973 from Amudat mission in Uganda. Brother Dario Laurencig was the first Comboni missionary to step on the soil of Amakuriat Mission, the home parish of the newly ordained priest, in 1982. The newly ordained and first Comboni priest Abraham Sireu Ang’Irotum was then only a few months old.


Pokot songs and dancing
punctuated the celebration.
 

Thirty-four years later, dressed as a Pokot warrior, deacon Abraham Sireu Ang’Irotum was presented by his father for ordination.

Bishop Morris Crowly, Kitale diocese, presided over the Eucharist. In his homily the bishop thanked the parents of Fr. Abraham for raising him up and offering him to the Church.  He advised the newly ordained confrere to study and to make prayer a priority in his priestly life. “Don’t let us down”, were the bishop’s parting words to Fr. Abraham.

Fr. Joseph Maina, the provincial superior, on behalf of the Comboni Missionaries working in Kenya thanked the bishop for accepting to ordain Fr. Abraham. He further thanked the Pokot Parish community and Fr. Abraham’s parents for letting their son become a Comboni missionary priest. Besides, he announced that Fr. Abraham has been assigned to the Germany Comboni Province. He also encouraged and pledged support to the newly ordained.

Pokot songs and dancing punctuated the awesome ordination celebration. The same spirit of joy continued also on the next day at Fr. Abraham’s thanksgiving mass. Fr. Barry of Kitale diocese delivered the homily. He underscored the miracle and gift of Fr. Abraham’s ordination. He urged the Pokot faithful to support their sons and daughters when answering to their call of vocation by beginning to send them to school. A group of Pokot nuns (vocation team) from different Institutes added variety to the thanksgiving mass. They spoke about and shared their experiences as vocation promoters. Their appeal was unanimous: It’s time for Pokot youth to consider seriously religious life and priesthood.

The presence and speech of Brother Friedbert Tremmel at the thanksgiving mass was also loaded with meaning. He represented the provincial superior of Germany where Fr. Abraham will be going for his first assignment. It was Bro Friedbert, among others, who accompanied Fr. Abraham in Amakuriat mission as a youth. Now that Fr. Abraham will be going to Germany where one of his mentors comes from, shows that the Comboni missionaries’ work among the Pokot has not been in vain.

“Fr. Abraham’s ordination is the greatest sign that the Pokot’s faith has grown”, says Fr. Dino Rebellato 83, a Comboni missionary who has spent 40 years working in Kenya.
Fr. Andrew Bwalya


Bro. Friedbert Tremmel and Fr. Abraham Sireu Ang’Irotum.