The murder of Fr Gerry Roche in Kenya is a reminder of the vulnerability of missionaries living in remote and impoverished corners of the world. Yet the dangers have not dimmed the determination of priests, Religious and lay people to continue their work of evangelisation and practical support
The day before Fr Gerry Roche was murdered in Africa, the Christmas cards he had sent to family and friends dropped through the letter boxes of homes around Ireland. The missionary priest had written one to his sister telling her that he now considered it safe for her to send her teenage daughter to visit him in Kenya.
“She was very keen to go to stay with Gerry last year but he had said he thought it was too dangerous because there had been tribal violence in the area,” said Fr Roche’s long- time friend and fellow missionary Fr Tom Kiggins. “Although he was not blind to the dangers, I think he did feel he was safe there.”
Fr Roche of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society was murdered during the night of 10 December, when thieves broke into his house in the town of Kericho in western Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. The priest’s laptop, two mobile phones, a camera and a CD player were stolen. His wrists were tied and his throat was cut. He was stripped, with his clothes later found three kilometres away.
At 68 and having spent 41 years as a missionary in Kenya, Fr Roche had told friends and family that he was thinking of retiring to his home parish of Athea in Limerick this year, after a rewarding and happy career.
Fr Roche was no stranger to the tougher aspects of work of a missionary and he knew how frustrating and lonely the job could be. This is the front line of the Church’s work, spreading the word in some of the world’s most deprived corners. As a new report from the Vatican’s Fides agency shows, the work is becoming increasingly dangerous. The report cites 37 murders of priests, Religious and lay workers during 2009, almost twice the number who perished in violent circumstances the previous year and the highest in the last decade.
In Africa, 10 priests and Religious and one Caritas worker were killed in the past year. According to the report, however, the single most dangerous country in the world for priests and Religious is Brazil, where six were killed in 2009.
According to Fr Eamon Aylward, executive secretary of the Irish Missionary Union, missionaries in Africa would always be acutely aware of the closeness of death, but maybe cared too little for their own safety.
“Many missionaries would be assisting on a regular basis at the burials of people who have died from malaria, cholera, HIV etc,” he said. “They themselves would regularly fall victim to malaria or some other tropical disease, often leaving them delirious for days.”
He added that missionaries take their work extremely seriously and in countries where the local government structures are weak, they are the only reliable source of assistance for locals. But living in such impoverished communities can make them appear affluent by comparison.
“Even though the missionary normally lives an extremely simple and poor life by Western standards, the poverty of local people is often so extreme that the living conditions of the missionary would be seen as pure luxury in the eyes of the local people,” said Fr Aylward. “This reality often leaves the mission house vulnerable to robbery and even worse, as we have unfortunately seen in the case of Fr Gerry and others.”
Gerry Roche grew up in west Limerick, the youngest of 11 children of whom he was the only one to become a priest. He was ordained in 1968 and went straight to Kenya with the St Patrick’s Missionary Society, more often known as the Kiltegan Fathers.
Missionary work in the country has been well established since the beginning of the twentieth century, and when Fr Roche arrived there would have been well over 100 men from his order in Kenya. Today only 60 Kiltegan Fathers remain and the numbers from other orders have dropped even more drastically.
During his career, Fr Roche set up many parishes, some covering vast areas and requiring him to spend a lot of time travelling between villages. According to Fr Kiggins, he was known for his ability to make friends and galvanise local people to help build the church in a new parish.
“The poor formed his parish councils,” said Fr Kiggins, who gave the eulogy at his old friend’s funeral in Limerick last month. “They worked beside him on the building sites. He was one of them. His cook was usually some poor man with 15 children to feed rather than someone who could actually cook. His food came from his cows, his garden and the gifts of the people. Very little of it ever passed through a supermarket checkout.”
Most recently Fr Roche had been in the parish of Keongo in Kericho, Kenya’s tea producing region, where he had just finished building the new church. A memorial Mass for him in the town was reportedly attended by five bishops, scores of priests and Religious and thousands of locals.
Christianity is the major religion in Kenya and about a quarter of the population is now Catholic. However, Fr Roche was working with the Kipsigis people, many of whom would have had only the most basic sense of religion and understanding of God until a parish was set up in their area. Teaching people about Christianity and seeing how it improves their lives is the fuel driving most missionaries and Fr Roche found it immensely rewarding.
“Gerry loved the work, he really thrived on it,” said Fr Kiggins. “He was very popular and he spoke the local Kipsigis language at great speed. In fact, he did everything at great speed.”
The priest was also known as a man with a strong sense of justice, not afraid to fight for a just cause.
“He was a straight talker and was ready to speak his mind whether it was about political corruption, church practice he did not agree with or criticisms he had of our own missionary society,” said Fr Kiggins. “He attended a reconciliation meeting recently where members of feuding tribes were present and I never heard him quite so enthusiastic about any meeting.”
Fr Roche had been burgled in the past but never when he was at home. “He was a bit careless and he might leave the door unlocked when he went out,” said Fr Kiggins. “At night it was a different matter, he would certainly have locked himself in. Everybody is very careful there now, even the locals find it dangerous.”
The priest lived alone on the outskirts of Kericho and the only weapon he kept in the house to protect himself was a golf club.
“Kiltegan missionaries in Kenya never had guns but it was common to have a night watchman with a spear or bow and arrow,” said Fr Kiggins. “Gerry seemed to have felt so safe that he did not have any watchmen. Our policy was to let anyone who broke in take what they wanted and it generally worked. Sadly, not for Gerry.”
Three men have been charged in connection with Fr Roche’s murder. Robbery with violence is a capital offence under Kenyan law and if found guilty they are likely to pay for the crime with their lives.
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