Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Nearly two years after the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) at the Vatican issued a decree that the Religious Missionary Congregation of the Apostles of Jesus (AJ) be under a Pontifical Commission of inquiry, the team mandated by the Holy See has made clarifications that the Institute was never closed or suspended of its operations but is under rehabilitation.“The Decree explicitly uses the term “... to rehabilitate," and not to "close or suspend” the operations of the Institute,” the Pontifical Commisary Fr. Raphael p’Mony Wokorach and Secretary to the Commissariat Sr. Eugenia Campara stated in a jointly signed statement.
They further disclosed, “It has come to our attention that some of the interpretations being given don't reflect the mind of the Church about the Decree itself regarding the Institute of the Apostles of Jesus.”
The Commissariat made clarifications as some individuals and media houses reported “without paying attention to its finer details, thus giving rise to a somewhat incorrect interpretation of the same.”
“They have made interpretations in a way that shows a very gloomy future of the congregation like it is closed, it is not functioning and it has stopped its operation,” Fr. Wokorach told AMECEA online in an interview and added, “They are not talking of the real spirit of the Decree and that is what we want to clarify and say exactly what we are doing at the moment.”
The statement dated Friday, April 24, specified that the Holy See, through CICLSAL, issued a Decree “which called for internal reforms and a re-organization of the life of the members and of the Institute…following earlier events in the Institute and particularly those from the Institute's last General Chapter of 2014, and after inquiry through an Apostolic Visitation to the Institute for the period 2015-2018.”
The co-signed statement highlights that the focus and attention of the Holy See to the Institute is on the “governance, administration of temporal goods, religious discipline and life in common, and the re-establishment of the formation program for initial and on-going formation of members.”
In this regard Fr. Wokorach who is Ugandan-born and member of the Comboni Missionaries (MCCJ) said during the interview, “We never closed missions. We closed formation houses - the minor seminary and suspended the formation while the rest of the activities are on-going.”
“The members of the Institute are still actively ministering in their different missions and in their religious communities here in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, South Africa and Botswana); in Europe (Italy, Germany, and England); in the USA; Cuba; Australia and Papua New Guinea,” reads an excerpt of the statement.
They further highlighted that priestly ordination and perpetual profession of some members of AJ have taken place during this period of rehabilitation, an indication that the Institute was not closed or suspended.
“The Roman Dicastery permitted the sacred ordination to priesthood of 14 deacons of the Institute who were awaiting their priestly ordination on August 19, 2019; and later, 16 members in perpetual profession were ordained deacons on March 19, 2020 together with the ordination of five priests,” the Commissariat leadership stated and added, “The 14 deacons may become priests sometime later this year. This attests to the hope of a continued life in the Institute through the new members ordained for the missions.”
In the statement, they also acknowledged all the support from both the local and universal Church and asked for continued collaboration so that this “time of special grace from God,” for the Apostles of Jesus “to grow stronger and build a sense of identity with its Charism for a renewed life of witness to the Gospel.”
The commissariat overseeing the progress, comprises of four members from different Religious Institutes: Fr. Wokorach a Comboni Missionary; Sr. Campara a member of Daughters of Saint. Paul (fsp); two Pontifical Assistants Fr. Angelo Bettelli a member of Canossian Sons of Charity (FdCC) and Sr. Jacinta Auma Opondo a member of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna (FSSA).
The team is carrying out its mandate in collaboration with the local Ordinaries where members of the Institute minister all over the world, and also “gives regular updates of the progresses being made in fulfilling the directives of the Decree” to the same local Ordinaries and the CICLSAL in Rome.