Tribute to an Everlasting Sister, Friend, and Confidant Dame Kathryn Hoomkwap Knight of St. Gregory the Great, M.O.N
Author: Clara Isama | Date: 03/23/2008.
Kate, Palm Sunday in the Year of our Lord 2008, the day that commemorated the Lord’s Triumphant entry into Jerusalem, is the day that you joined the Saint’s triumphant according to God’s will. Since that day I have been churning words in my mind, trying to make sense of why I write this tribute, but all to no avail.
My relationship with you started way back as products of great missionary sisters of St. Louis in Nigeria, which culminated in your bringing me into your family, where you nurtured and gave me shelter for seven months when I was most vulnerable, defenseless, and in dire need, in a strange place at the request of the late Archbishop G.G Ganaka of Blessed Memory. From this point we journeyed through life together, with families absorbed into one another building bridges, weeping, laughing, and praising the Lord together. You enriched my life in ways that words cannot express, telling it as is, and at the same time displaying that enviable grace of being firm and friendly. Kate, what can I or those whose lives you’ve touched do without you? Oh gentle soul, warrior, soldier, and defender of the faith!!!
Seeking for an answer, I re-read the paper you presented at the third Nigerian National Eucharistic Congress in November 2002, titled, “The Eucharist and the Nigerian Situation” and from it I gleaned the following:
1. “We lack a proper knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the meaning, role, and the radical living out, of the Eucharist and other Sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ, in our lives as businessmen and women, politicians, market-women, public servants, etc. Jesus is not a ceremonial dress that we wear and take off, when the event is ended.”
2. “The Eucharist is Jesus alive, in the sacramental sign of bread and wine. If we receive him in Holy Communion, he becomes part of our lives. He lives in us and directs everything we do, if we let him.”
3. “Out of shear ignorance of our faith, many of us Catholics live dual lives. We go to daily Mass or Sunday Mass and as we leave the church we leave Christ at the door of the Church and continue in our “old ways”.”
Kate you taught me that in these quotations and many more, that there is no better way, to receive Christ and declare Him as my Lord and Savior better than the Holy Eucharist. You lived and preached it, with a high level participation at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass daily. This abiding faith took you all over the world: preaching the word of God, standing for life, truth, and justice. And where events clash for you, you sent me. If not for you, who am I to have stood before the princes of the Church, carrying your message of true African stewardship to
We were planning to attend my nephew’s wedding in April and you assured me, that you must have come back from Rome before the wedding date; but guess what you are now at the Eternal Feast, before the Blessed Trinity, Mama Mary (as you fondly called her) and the Hosts of Heaven.
Kate, my family and I love you so much, it is hard to describe. That we will forever miss you, is just an understatement. But we respect the will of God in your transition. As I cried and wailed at the word of your passing, my husband and children holding me fast on a chair and crying too, said to me pointing at a picture on a wall “Aunty Kate is where he (Archbishop G.G. Ganaka) is, in Glory.”, and my thoughts led me to hope that as you were a fighter on earth for good, all we need to do, is to pray, wait and see, what God will send you to do from Heaven above for his people on Earth.
Finally, my husband Tony and the children: Nwachkwu, Awele, and Chiazo, join your families, friends, and the whole world, to salute you. Oh gracious, courageous, generous and faithful servant of the Lord!!! We join all those good people, who were privileged to celebrate and witness to your six decades of graceful sojourn on earth with you, in praising the Lord for your life in our midst. We join the Church on earth to pray that you are ushered into Glory.
Dame Kathryn Hoomkwap, K.S.G.G., M.O.N., you lived the life of the true steward duly manifested in your own words:
“The Eucharist challenges us to sacrifice ourselves as Christ gave himself to us completely, “as the bread of life, and the sacrifice on
I am a witness that you sacrificed your time, talents and treasure for the good of all God’s people. Kate, nwannem continue to reign in the presence of the Lord until we meet to part no more. Adieu my sister.
Your ever loving sister and friend,
POVERTY AND THE FAMILY IN THE THIRD WORLD
The family remains the basic unit of society in the world today. In its modern meaning, the family is that social unit comprising a man, his wife and their children. In most sub-Saharan African countries, the extended family, which is a more inclusive definition of the family, includes uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents and other distant relations. This paper has deliberately chosen to make the family its center-piece for a number of reasons.
Excerpt from: A/S-23/1 8
The Holy See delegation has participated actively in the negotiations leading to this special session of the General Assembly, a session which has raised issues of critical importance to the lives of millions of women worldwide, and which has been evaluating the progress that has been made since the Fourth World Conference on Women.
