Murdered missionary will be laid to rest in Kenya
THE Irish missionary priest savagely murdered by robbers after spending over 40 years serving the poorest of the poor is to be buried in the red earth of Kenya, a land he loved.
Fr Jeremiah Roche's body is expected to be released to his family and congregation on Tuesday, after a post-mortem examination is carried out. Meanwhile, the hunt continues for his killers.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that Fr Roche's family and the Kiltegan Fathers had decided together that he would be laid to rest in Kenya.
Cardinal Sean Brady, who has just returned from Rome, told the Sunday Independent: "I wish to express my great sadness on the news of the gruesome murder of Fr Roche in Kenya".
Offering sympathy to Fr Roche's family and the Kiltegan Fathers, he said his thoughts were very much with those who knew and loved Fr Roche in his parishes in Kenya and Limerick.
"Fr Roche's death is a reminder to us of the great sacrifice of those who risk their lives in answering God's call to bring the good news to the poorest of the poor around the world," he said.
It also emerged yesterday that the priest, who was murdered in a quiet rural area by robbbers for a CD player and mobile phones, had no guards.
Fr Roche's nephew, Gerry Cunningham, who works with the Department of Foreign Affairs' aid programme in Zambia, was travelling to Nairobi yesterday to go to where the priest was murdered in Kericho, 300 kilometres from Nairobi.
The priest, aged 68, had spent much of the last 41 years working in the African country. He was found stripped naked and stabbed in the throat and head.
Fr Roche was at St Patrick's Keongo parish house when robbers cut through an iron grille covering his bedroom window. The priest was tied to a chair before being hit with a blunt object and stabbed. A local woman who is a daily mass-goer raised the alarm.
His blood-stained clothes were recovered a kilometre from his residence. Colleagues said he did not have a watchman for security, as the area was quiet.
Local media described the killers as "gangsters" and "thugs" while Kericho diocese Bishop Emmanuel Okombo described the murder as "brutal" and called on the government to catch the culprits.
The priest had served as parish priest for the last two years, and was alone in the house when he was killed.
His family confirmed that he had planned to retire to his home parish in Athea, Co Limerick, next year.
His niece, Anne Cunningham, said the family were "shocked and saddened" over the news of his death.
She said he was always at mass in the morning at 6am, and when he didn't show up local people went to the house and found him. "Jerry was a lovely man. He devoted his life to his faith and the Church and he is someone whom we are all very proud of."
She said even when he was home he was working to raise money for his parish in Kenya.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen expressed his sympathy to the family also and called for a full investigation by Kenyan authorities into the murder.
- DON LAVERY
Originally published in
