Converts coming now in greater numbers than ever

By DOUGLAS HYDE
0 UT of the appalling suffering and horror brought to the Kikuyus of Kenya by the Mau Mau terrorists among them has come great good.
The martyrdom of as yet unknown numbers of good Kikuyu Catholics is already bearing fruit.
The Catholic community has been immensely strengthened and converts are coming now as never before.
That is the heartening story I got last week from Mr. George Mwicigi whom I met in London when he stayed for a few days on his way to Canada. Mr. Mwicigi is the Catholic son of a senior chief in Fort Hall district, one of Mau Mau's two great strongholds.
I had last seen him in East Africa in the days when the Mau Mau terror was at its height. Now, he says, Mau Mau is to all intents and purposes nearly finished.
It is no longer an organised force; only isolated gangs of terrorists, the disorganised remnant of a once powerful organisation, are left.
The martyrdom of Catholics appears to have come to an end. No Catholics have been murdered for months and normal Catholic life is now possible.
Remember ?
Twelve months ago the eight schools—formerly run by Jomo Kenyatta—which came into the hands of Fr. McGill (the Irish Holy Ghost Father to whom CATHOLIC HERALD readers last year sent £2.800) were almost empty because parents had understandably withdrawn their children for fear of reprisals.
To-day they are packed to overflowing with Kikuyu children who are being taught the Faith in the very classrooms where once the seeds of Mau Mau were sown.
Other schools are likely to become available to Catholics, if they are in a position to run them, both in the district in which the Holy Ghost Fathers operate (the Zanzibar diocese) and in Fort Hall (the Nyeri diocese), the other " Mau Mau" district which is in the care of the Italian Consolata Fathers.
There, the Bishop, Mgr, Cavallera, priests, nuns and lay leaders are building up a. network of Catholic action organisations of a type which did not exist before.
Still in camps
There are still Kikuyu Catholics in the internment camns waiting to be cleared. In Fort Hall a priest goes regularly each week into a camp of 2,000 people, who have been interned on suspicion, to say Mass and hear Confessions. He is accompanied by a layman—a school teacher—who gives them a weekly talk. This active participation of the laity in the work of the Church in the new situation is one of its most significant and encouraging features.
From among those who were drawn into the Mau Mau organisation and also those who suffered at its hands, converts are coming in increasing numbers.
Those Catholics who were forced or deceived into taking the obscene Mau Mau oaths have returned chastened, but strengthened too. They have been through a profound experience. They have been face to face with something unspeakably evil and diabolical and now appreciate their Faith in a new way.
Great distress
But although the people have been spiritually strengthened by their recent experiences, they are in great material distress.
Many are suffering from hunger. from lack of clothes and the barest necessities of life. Because of the emergency, whole populations have been moved, and the people are left uprooted and unable to support themselves.
Priests and nuns are working amongst them seeking to sin those in greatest need. but they often lack the things which the people desperately require. As a consequence, people are dying of malnutrition, especially olo people and children.
The Catholic community has emerged from the crisis in better standing with official circles than ever before. This is because fewer Catholics than any other group were drawn into Mau Mau, and Catholics as a body co-operated most fully with the officials. even thong': they shared Mau Mau's aim ,f a "liberated" Kenya.
Urgent need
The Kenya Government has now promised them that during next year and the following one the number of Catholic schools will be doubled. But again the opportunity may not be fully exploited unless more funds are available.
Mr. Mwicigi made a strong anneal for material aid of all kinds and, in particular, for the prayers of the British people on behalf of Kenya's Kikuyu Catholics.