People’s spiritual hunger

Someone recently hit out at priests. Well, that is not news. Pillorying priests goes back to the days of the prophets.

Anyway, the man was unhappy that large numbers of people are now turning to professional counsellors for help instead of priests. That, in his view, shows that priests have failed in a key area of their ministry, namely healing. The person who made that observation is himself a priest. Now that is news.

Some two decades ago when I was completing high school, I can’t recall seeing counselling listed in the careers booklet issued by the Ministry of Education to help students choose university courses.

But right now I doubt there is a Kenyan university or sizeable college that does not train counsellors. Besides, there are many specialised institutions offering the course.

What’s more, Kenya’s fast growing media seems to be cashing in on the huge demand for counselling. Every newspaper does not only have an agony aunt/uncle, but also regular extensive write-ups on relationships and other personal issues. The top rated radio programmes here are call-in shows where listeners seek or offer advice on a range of personal matters.

That must surely be clear evidence of a deep spiritual yearning among people. There are other pointers. Self-styled “prophets” and “apostles” are emerging every other day, setting up “ministries” and pulling crowds with promises of instant solutions to various problems. Those joining the movements are largely dissatisfied Christians deserting churches they have been members of probably since childhood. They are looking for proper spiritual care.

Weeks back a young priest friend working in Nairobi told me he had decided never again to go back to his village for holidays. He had just returned to the city without a day’s rest. Immediately when people around his village realised he was home, they turned up at his gate everyday with all sorts of requests: “Please Father come over and say Mass for us,” “Please come and talk to our son,” “Please Father spare a minute to talk to my husband…”

There are simply not enough priests to cater to the needs of everyone. Moreover, can the needs be met at a one-hour Sunday Mass at a church crammed to the rafters?

My vast rural diocese officially has some 450000 faithful in just 16 parishes, and about 30 priests. Quick math: an average of over 28000 Christians per parish. How effectively can a priest or two minister to those people?

If he decided to fully attend to the youth or couples only, the priest would not find time for anything else.

Now, as the Lord Himself said, truly the harvest is huge but the labourers few. Certainly we must continue praying for more workers in the vineyards. Other than that, there are ways to ease the hunger, chief among them urgent formation of lay pastoral agents to help the priest.

In many African Catholic settings, the people of God are in the hands of the catechist in the sub-parish. But many of those catechists are ill-prepared to respond to the spiritual and other needs of the faithful.

Secondly, in the 1970s eastern African bishops initiated a great pastoral idea called “Small Christian Communities” or “SCCs”. These are units of Christians in a neighbourhood. They are the church located between the family and the sub-parish. SCC leaders are best placed to attend to their little flock in a variety of matters that do not require a priest. But those leaders are often not properly formed or facilitated and are themselves helpless.

And thirdly, there are leaders of various lay movements. These too haven’t been adequately formed or supported to offer proper care to members. The result is that members of those movements do not find the healing they seek.

So the professional counsellor, the relationships expert, the talk show host/hostess and the evangelical “prophet” have emerged to fill a gap created by too much emphasis on the figure of the priest. Isn’t it time church authorities shifted attention to the priesthood of properly formed lay leaders to address this urgent pastoral challenge?