Nyeri frenzy planning nun’s beatification
What you need to know:
- At Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, where the main event will be held on May 23, a contractor was designing and building pathways while mobile phone Safaricom’s workers were busy erecting a booster to enhance internet services.
- It is at the dais where Pope Francis’s representative, Tanzanian Archbishop Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, will read the beatification decree. John Cardinal Njue will be the main celebrant in the first ever beatification ceremony in Africa.
- The altar at Our Lady of Consolata Cathedral in Nyeri Town, where the remains of Sister Irene Stefani will be interred, is ready.
The altar is made of aluminium and has a bullet-proof glass.
A day after the National Government took over preparations for the beatification of a Catholic nun who worked and died in Nyeri, it was a hive of activity yesterday at the four venues where the event takes place.
The beatification of Sister Irene Stefani, a Consolata missionary who came to Kenya in 1915 and settled at Gikondi Village, Mukurwe-ini, takes place from May 22 to May 24.
At Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, where the main event will be held on May 23, a contractor was designing and building pathways while mobile phone Safaricom’s workers were busy erecting a booster to enhance internet services.
Father Peter Githinji, the event coordinator representing the Catholic Church, said yesterday that final touches were being put on all venues.
“Here at the university, we are putting up a dais that will seat about 200 people. This is the point where the celebration will take place,” he said.
BEATIFICATION DECREE
It is at the dais where Pope Francis’s representative, Tanzanian Archbishop Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, will read the beatification decree.
John Cardinal Njue will be the main celebrant in the first ever beatification ceremony in Africa.
Pope Francis had initially assigned Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation Causes of Saints at the Vatican, to preside over the event.
“We are burning the midnight oil to make sure the three other venues at Gikondi, Mathari and the cathedral are ready in time,” Father Githinji said.
The altar at Our Lady of Consolata Cathedral in Nyeri Town, where the remains of Sister Irene Stefani will be interred, is ready.
The altar is made of aluminium and has a bullet-proof glass.
Before the remains are interred, the ceremony’s main celebrant will consecrate it on May 24.
International visitors have started arriving, with the first group coming from the US.
The church yesterday welcomed the decision by the government to take over the preparations, saying the ceremony would put Kenya on the world map.
“The Kenya will be hosting the Vatican State in Nyeri and that is why the national government presence is essential,” Church officials said.
