Superior General Urges Newly Ordained Quebec Missionaries to Wash Each Other’s Feet

In brief

Fr. Ergete Tesfaye, the Superior General of the Quebec Foreign Missionary Society, urged two newly ordained members of the congregation to serve one another with humility. Speaking at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Nairobi, Kenya, following the ordination Mass on September 5, Fr. Tesfaye told the men to act as brothers because no missionary owns a vocation individually.

The ceremony included the ordination of Joseph Jalango Oluoch as a priest and Dennis Mutiso Kioko as a deacon. Fr. Tesfaye told deacon Kioko that the diaconate is a permanent requirement of his configuration to Christ and referenced the Gospel account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples to define the ministry. He encouraged the new deacon to let humility guide his service and to use his work at the altar to fuel his service to people in the streets.

Addressing Fr. Oluoch, Fr. Tesfaye described the priesthood as a configuration to Christ the High Priest. The Superior General framed the ordinations within the missionary charism of the Society and cited the example of Saint Teresa of Calcutta.