Cardinal Czerny in Kenya: A return to the roots for the 21st Plenary Assembly of AMECEA

These days also mark a significant coincidence: on 18 July, Cardinal Michael reached the age of 80! This visit to Kenya will, in fact, be one of his final official missions as Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a dicastery which he has helped to lead since 2017 – first as Undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section, then as Prefect from 2022 onwards – with particular attention to the issues of social justice, care for migrants, and integral ecology.

Returning to Africa – and to Nairobi in particular – for an assembly dedicated to young people, and to building bridges of communion and hope, thus symbolically brings things full circle: the continent where Cardinal Czerny devoted his energy and many years of his life to serving the most vulnerable now welcomes him back, at a time when the synodal journey of the Church in East Africa is being revitalised.

The Return to Kangemi and the Visit to Lang'ata Women's Prison

Before the official opening of the Assembly, on July 17 the Cardinal visited the parish of St. Joseph the Worker in Kangemi, the community where he lived and worked for eight years as Director of the African Jesuit AIDS Network. "It is a joy to return to a community I consider home," said the Cardinal, recalling the years spent alongside the people of Kangemi. Welcomed with great warmth, he visited the works born precisely from AJAN's experience – including the Upendo rehabilitation center for children, the Uzima counseling center, and St. Joseph Technical School – meeting with staff, students, and beneficiaries, and encouraging young people to see education as a path of service and hope.

Two days later, Cardinal Czerny traveled to the maximum-security women's prison of Lang'ata, in Nairobi, accompanied by representatives of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. The visit was meant as a tangible sign of the Church's closeness to those living on the margins of society: the Prefect invited the inmates to always cultivate and share hope, despite their circumstances.

The Opening Mass and the Address to the Assembly

On July 19, Cardinal Czerny presided over the opening Mass of the 21st AMECEA Plenary Assembly at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, inviting the young people present to become "builders of authentic bridges of communion" and to live a Christian witness capable of quietly transforming society, like leaven in bread, without thereby diluting the demands of the Gospel.

The following day, July 20, the Prefect gave his address before the bishops gathered in the Assembly. In his remarks, he outlined the Dicastery's mission and invited the AMECEA bishops to reflect on the main obstacles to integral human development in their respective dioceses (such as forced migration, climate change, youth unemployment...), and on what pastoral actions we, as Church, can offer to accompany the people of God in facing them.