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Bishop Ordains Rev. Anthony Ogutu Onyango to the Priesthood

With his mother, Dr. Rosebella Onyango and other family members and friends from around the United States and from Kenya praying for him in the front pews, Rev. Anthony O. Onyango was ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ by the Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton, Bishop of Belleville, on Saturday morning, June 11, 2011, the Vigil of the Feast of Pentecost. The new priest’s vocation was confirmed by the Bishop when he formally called him to Holy Orders in the Sancta Trinitas Unus Deus chapel at his residence in early May. During that time of prayer, they read and discussed various scripture passages on the priesthood that were used in the Ordination Liturgy. Bishop Stanley Schlarman, Bishop Emeritus of Dodge City, Kan., Father John W. McEvilly, the Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, priests and deacons from the Diocese and many priests visiting from other dioceses and the Society of African Missions also participated in the Ordination.

Father Onyango, a native of Nairobi, who initially studied to be a priest in the Society of African Missions, became a seminarian for the Belleville Diocese at the Bishop’s invitation. During the past four years, he completed his formation for the priesthood at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He has gained pastoral experience at St. Augustine of Hippo Parish in East St. Louis, St. Mary Parish, Belleville, Holy Trinity Parish, Fairview Heights, St. Francis Xavier Parish, Carbondale, and the Blessed Cardinal Newman Center at Southern Illinois University. When he was asked about these diverse pastoral experiences he said that, “In each of these assignments I saw different aspects of the life of a priest as someone who is called to serve the members of the community of faith. This Christian service takes different forms depending on the pastoral situation. Sometimes the service is praying, or teaching, or counseling. Other times it is simply listening and providing practical assistance. These assignments also gave me a partial view of the variety of pastoral situations a priest may encounter in southern Illinois.”

A particularly moving part of the ceremony takes place when the candidate lies prostrate on the floor of the Cathedral sanctuary while the entire congregation prays the Litany of the Saints for him. However, the central moment of the prayer-filled liturgy of Ordination is always the moment when the Bishop silently imposed hands on the head of the ordinand and then, after all of the priests present have imposed hands, proclaims the Prayer of Ordination. A central moment in that prayer contains these words:

“Grant, we pray, Almighty Father,
to this your servant, Anthony, the dignity of the Priesthood;
renew deep within him
the Spirit of holiness;
may he henceforth possess this office
which comes from you, O God,
and is next in rank to the office of Bishop;
and by the example of his manner of life,
may he instill right conduct.”

This basic Rite of Ordination is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The priest’s ministry as one who calls upon and invokes the Holy Spirit was the theme of the Bishop’s homily addressed directly to Anthony who sat facing him. “Come O Holy Spirit, fill the heart of your faithful servant, Anthony, and enkindle in him the fire of your divine love.” He quoted chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, “And afterwards? I will pour out my Spirit upon all mankind. I will display portents in the heavens and on the earth; pillars of fire and clouds of smoke. Your sons and daughters shall be prophets, your old men shall dream dreams, and young men shall see visions” (Acts 2:1-12, 14, 16-17, 22, 36). “The Holy Spirit, the heart and soul of the Church, today calls you, Anthony, to see visions. Ordained at Pentecost, you, like all priests, will be a man of epiclesis, of invocatio, invoking and calling upon the Spirit to make the divine presence felt in the world. This is at the heart of your sacramental ministry.

“The Second Vatican Council makes clear that the entire Eucharistic Prayer which we will pray together momentarily has the character of an epiclesis, a calling forth of the Spirit so that Christ will become sacramentally present on the altar. Always be mindful in your ministry that, in a sense, the Church does not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has the Church! In all of the sacraments you are ordained to celebrate, Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Marriage, the Anointing of the Sick, you will do so by invoking the presence of the Spirit. You will call upon the Spirit confident that your prayer will be heard. During our lectio divina in my chapel, we meditated on the scriptural foundation for that confidence, “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins…You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 5,10).

Turning to Gospel John 20:19-23, Bishop Braxton reminded the entire congregation of the intimate relationship that Christ had with His apostles. He has the same relationship with priests today. “Jesus said, ‘peace be with you.’ Then He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ It is by this intimate presence of the Spirit that newly ordained priests shall see visions as men of epiclesis, invocatio.” Building on this theme the Bishop talked about the ordinand’s great devotion to Blessed John Paul II. “When the Holy Father went to Nairobi on a pastoral Visit, you had the privilege of serving for him and meeting him personally. This made a powerful impression on you and you began to study his writings. His writings reveal clearly that his life and ministry were illuminated by the Spirit. In the last of his Holy Thursday letters to the priests of the world, completed in Gemelli Hospital on March 13, 2005, just days before his death on April 2, the frail Pontiff wrote, “My Dear Priests! Jesus said: ‘Do this in memory of Me’. The Eucharist does not simply commemorate a fact; it commemorates Him! Through his daily repetition in persona Christi of the words of the “memorial,” the priest is invited to develop a “spirituality of remembrance.” At a time when rapid social and cultural changes are weakening the sense of tradition and leading the younger generation especially to risk losing touch with their roots, the priest is called to be, within the community entrusted to him, the man who faithfully remembers the entire mystery of Christ: prefigured in the Old Testament, fulfilled in the New, and understood ever more deeply, under the guidance of the Spirit, as Jesus explicitly promised: “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26).

At the conclusion of his homily, the Bishop commented on the prophetic words of Pope Paul VI to the Church in Africa. ‘The Catholic Church in Africa is young, vital, growing and strong in faith. In the past the western world sent missionaries to you. But now you shall send missionaries to the west. You are destined to re-evangelize a world overtaken by secularism and materialism. Prepare yourselves well, for you are the hope of the Church.’ “The Diocese of Belleville has already experienced the great gift of the pastoral service of dedicated fidei donum priests from Africa. We are deeply grateful for this enriching gift.” He then challenged his future priest to be completely faithful to the Church, to the priesthood, to chastity and to charity and to the spiritual disciplines every priest needs (prayer, spiritual direction, retreat, reconciliation, the Liturgy of the Hours, and silent moments before the Blessed Sacrament). “If you should encounter anyone who seeks to undermine these commitments in any way, anyone who is cynical about your resolve to always be faithful to the call you have received from the Holy Spirit and the Church, turn aside from them and take your leave from them with grace. Do not debate with them. Do not dispute them. Do not discuss their ‘issues’ with them. No! Turn aside from them and take your leave from them with grace!”

After Communion, the Bishop led the assembly in the Diocesan Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood. He stressed the urgent need for every Catholic in the Diocese to pray and work for vocations if there are to be priests from our local communities. He then asked all to pray for Monsignor Paulin J. Dobkowski and Father Leo S. Reinhardt, two distinguished priests of the Diocese who died on May 12 and June 3.

The Ordination Mass concluded as the Bishop knelt to receive the First Blessing of Father Anthony Onyango. He then kissed the hands that he just anointed with Sacred Chrism as a sign of reverence for the Priesthood, a great gift to the Church from the Holy Spirit.