Catholics go trendy in worship

By Erick Wamanji

The room is animate when we arrive. A cacophony of lexis mixed with whimpers waft out. People here are enchanted. Through a slit on the curtain, a scene of hands held up in penance and praise is visible.

The muffle ebbs and seamlessly gives way to praise and worship hymns. For a moment, we are lost. Were it not for a statue of the Virgin Mary, no one could tell this is a Roman Catholic Church.

Charles Mutunga emerges, smiles shyly and utters: "Praise the Lord."

In Catholic tradition, this could be bizarre. Not anymore. Today, a section of Catholic Church is rapidly acquiring a ‘Pentecostal’ fibre as the Standard on Sunday found out.

Besides, they also receive the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues and perform faith healing. This group, which cherishes the gifts of the Spirit, also exorcises demons and hosts crusades — fetes hitherto uninvited in the church.

Mutunga is a member of the Catholic Charismatic Movement. This is the outfit that once caused ripples as it swept through the church.

The movement is barely 40-years-old globally. Yet, the whoosh with which it has spread remains spectacular. Today, it has permeated every nook and cranny, and the future is nothing but glitz, its devotees assert. This is a major paradigm shift in the Catholic tradition. Embracing such radical steps would initially be billed subversive and meriting excommunication.

Mutunga has two testimonies: "My sight was poor. I couldn’t even watch TV. One day, my friends encouraged me to attend a healing mass in Dandora. The prayer worked. In my neigbourhood there was a paralysed boy. Hope was lost but the prayers saw him walk again…why should I turn away from the Renewal?"

He adds: "The only problem is that some mistake ours to be a rebellious or splinter group. Others shy off saying we resemble Protestants. But we’re not Protestant-Catholics. We’re true Catholics."

This feeling is understandable. The monolith and oldest church on earth has to be cautious of any reformist ideologies. It would even be worrying if these changes emerge from the congregation and spread like bush fire.

religious revolution

Pentecostal activities have been a domain of the Protestants. This is thanks to Martin Luther King, the Middle Age’s German monk and reformist, who fronted epochal religious revolution that later guided social and political designs of mankind. But Mutunga does not understand the fuss. According to him, the Catholic Church was going through a crisis with mass exodus of members.

"The service was drab and dry. There was no delving deeper into the Bible and most worshipers’ spiritual needs went unsatisfied," he argues.

He adds: "Today the charismatic movement has turned things around. We even have members from other churches joining us for prayers. Some are even coming back to the church."

It is mid-day at the Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi, the angelus gong announces and Peter Macharia stops to venerate ‘Mary Mother of God’. He makes a sign of the cross as we bump on him. Macharia is the renewal’s prayer group coordinator here.

"The movement has come from far," he says contentedly, as we find a place chat with him.

"The first Charismatic prayer group here was started in 1977. It was new and most people shied away from it. Some even demonised us. But today, Nairobi has 50 such prayer groups and still expanding," he boasts.

He explains: "Some even feared the movement sought to create two centres of powers within the church. It was borne of ignorance. In Catholic, there is clear-cut authority. And everyone has learnt to respect the chain. That’s why there is orderliness and we stand out as formidable."

Much as the movement has covertly managed to stem the dramatic exodus of worshipers, Macharia says that was not the original objective. Experiencing the Holy Spirit and His gifts is. He insists the movement is restorative of the early Pentecostal church.

testimonies

And Macharia is a master of Pentecostal finesse. His lexicon, carefully spluttered with Pentecostal tinge, can pass for one of the many Protestant pastors strewn in town.

The lay, notes Macharia, have been excluded from participating in Mass. "The notion here is that only the priest knows, yet if the church is apostolic, each of us has a duty to evangelise."

Sylvester Gitonga agrees. Gitonga, the group’s secretary, explains the renewal helped him discover his gift — singing in praise and worship.

"I was allergic to meat. But a charismatic priest prayed for me. Now I can eat any kind of meat. Then I joined the Movement and learnt my gift of singing. I use it to evangelise," he says.

And Macharia salutes retired Bishop John Njenga for supporting the movement. The same is true of retired Arch-bishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki. That is why in Nairobi, Eldoret and Mombasa, the movement thrives. He is however reluctant to wag a finger on dioceses that are yet to embrace the new wave.

However, not all dioceses are ‘renewed’. Macharia says about half of the 30 dioceses are yet to come on board. This explains why there is no national office. According to Macharia, all the 30 bishops must endorse the idea in their dioceses to give it a national appeal. In Uganda, he notes, the movement is properly anchored, just as it is in Nigeria.