In 2019, he relocated from Venezuela to be based in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to serve as IMC Regional Superior in Kenya and Uganda. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop for Isiolo Diocese on May 4.
In his July 27 homily, the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya encouraged the IMC Bishop-elect to continue offering himself to the Church regardless of the challenges.
“Peter, you are called to give your body and blood for this Church; and you have done that already in the past. You have never said no, but always yes, even to the most difficult challenges and vocations,” Archbishop van Megen said, adding, “May that courage remain with you. May God continue to encourage you, to console you as a true Consolata, and may God’s spirit be with you.”
He went on to encourage the Bishop-elect to trust in God’s graces and build on the blessings of people of God, including the Church’s “body of elders”.
“Don’t be afraid; the Church has recognized in you the gifts of prophecy, and the church will put its hands on you, and the body of elders has laid their hands on you,” Archbishop van Megen said.
He continued, “Devote yourself to the public meaning of the scripture; to preaching and teaching.”
The Dutch-born Vatican diplomat emphasized the need to pay attention to the Holy Spirit in teaching scriptures. He said, “It’s not so much about what I think is good. It’s not so much about my convictions, but it is much more about what the Holy Scripture is teaching us, what the Holy Spirit is telling us through the word of God.”
“You have to read, believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach. It’s first and foremost about knowing the Holy Scripture by heart,” the 62-year-old Nairobi-based Vatican diplomat, who started his service as Apostolic Nuncio in Sudan in 2014 told the Bishop-elect.
“The word of God and the Eucharist go together,” he went on to say, and counselled, “As you will become a Bishop, these words of Christ ‘This is my body’ and ‘This is my blood given for you’ become even more true because they are not only words that come true sacramentally, but they should also become true in each and every one of us.”
Born in May 1975 in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi, Bishop Makau began his religious formation as a Consolata Missionary at the Consolata Seminary in Nairobi for Postulancy and philosophy.
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