The new bishop was welcomed in the cathedral by Archbishop John Njue, who for eighth months had been the Apostolic administrator of Isiolo. He then surrendered the bishop’s staff to the Nuncio who handed it over to the new bishop seated on the cathedra of St Eusebius of Isiolo.
The introductory speech of Archbp Njue, the homily of the newly installed shepherd, the speeches of the many guests at the end of the ceremony had some common points:
- the recognition of the peculiar reality of Isiolo wit hits multicultural and multi religious reality and difficult environment;
- the importance of the event (an African Bishop to such a challenging vicariate) as a sign of trust and maturity of the Church in Africa becoming more and more missionary to herself and to the world;
{mosimage}- the challenges facing the new bishops and his young church: self-support, self-ministering and self-propagation;
- the call to the Church of Vercelli, Italy, the mother church of Bp Locati which has always supported the vicariate, “don’t abandon Isiolo”; the same appeal was addressed to the Consolata Missionaries, the religious family the new bishop and first evangelisers of the area;
- the appeal to unity, ecumenism and religious dialogue and the fact that the Bishop is the bishop of all, not only of the Catholics; a Muslim leader, welcoming “our bishop”, aptly reminded everybody that according to all Faiths we will be judged not by our wealth, houses or power, but the love we had for one another;
- the fond and affectionate memory of Bishop Luigi Locati whose “presence” was strongly felt by all.
Bishop Mukobo quoted the words of St Augustine, “with you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop”, to stress the need to walk in unity and his responsibility to be the true shepherd for all.
