Rest in peace; Fr Anthony Bellagamba!

Fr Anthony and the Servant of God Maurice Cardinal Otunga will certainly be Heaven buddies

By Charles Muchiri

The late Fr Anthony Bellagamba

The Roman Catholic Church in Kenya has lost one of its own. Fr Anthony (Tony) Bellagamba, Postulator for the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Maurice Cardinal Otunga died Thursday at a Nairobi Hospital while undergoing treatment.

I have attended a number of Holy Masses that have been celebrated by Fr Anthony. He did a lot of them at the Holy Family Basilica here in Nairobi, a place that is certainly convenient with him and his office as a Postulator.

During one of his homilies, he took time to talk about just how humble the late Nairobi Cardinal and now the Servant of God Maurice Cardinal Otunga was. This is certainly one of the most resounding homilies that Fr Anthony delivered at the Basilica.

“As soon as he became the Bishop of the Archdiocese of Nairobi, he once visited a white priest’s residence,” narrated Fr Antony in his homily.

“He kept knocking at the priest’s gate several times and given his ‘common-man-in-the-street outlook, the priest almost chased him away, thinking it was just some intruder,” narrated Fr Antony.

The priest told the Holy Family Basilica worshipers of how the late Cardinal had to introduce himself that he is the newly appointed Bishop of the Archdiocese of Nairobi and that he wanted to have an audience with him.

According to Fr Anthony, this is one of the many cases of the Servant of God Maurice Cardinal Otunga, which he had come to know of, in the course of his work as the Postulator for the Cause of Cardinal Otunga’s Beatification.

And it appears like the road to Cardinal Otunga’s Sainthood was on course. And it still is. But it is now obvious that this Great African Servant of God’s Beatification process will reach its destination without the original driver; the late Fr Anthony Bellagamba.

But there is some consolation, Fr Anthony will no longer need to enquire about Maurice Cardinal Otunga from friends, relatives, fellow priests and worshipers; you can bet that the two are now Heaven buddies!

(E-mail this writer: muchirimuchoki@yahoo.com)