MOTHER MARY KEVIN KEARNY AND HEALTH CARE From The Third Mother Mary Kevin Memorial Lecture, September 13th 2024
MOTHER MARY KEVIN KEARNY AND HEALTH CARE
From The Third Mother Mary Kevin Memorial Lecture, September 13th 2024
Sam Orochi Orach (MD)
I.INTRODUCTION
This paper was presented as a lecture at the Mother Mary Kevin Kearney Third Memorial lecture on September 13th 2024, at the Sharing Youth Center in Kampala. When Prof. Paul D ’Arbela of Uganda Martyrs University, Mother Mary Kevin Postgraduate School, called me a few months earlier to convey a request to give this memorial lecture, I had an instant acceptance for three reasons. First, I have been a silent admirer of the life of St Francis of Assisi. This started when I found people with strong devotion to St. Francis of Assisi selling religious items related to him around the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua1, Italy, around 2010. I wondered why many items related to St.Francis of Assisi were being sold on the compound of and around the Basilica of St. Anthony. Up to recently, I have also been wondering why some health facilities or schools started by Little Sisters of St Francis were named after St. Anthony, instead of St. Francis or St. Clare, both of Assisi. However, I have recently learnt that among Francis’ early followers was St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)2.
In 2012, I spent one week on the hill of Assisi and visited the tomb of St. Francis in the Basilica, the “Cripta di San Francecso” in the Basilica Inferiore di San Francesco, every evening for prayer.
I also visited where the relics of St. Claire were kept, a walking distance away from the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. One can see that from the pictures in the Basilica, St. Francis wanted to imitate the life of Christ. My wife and I, together, also briefly visited Assisi in 2014, and went to the tomb to pray. The rest of the story is for another day.
Secondly, as I always do when asked to make presentations or lectures, I also this time asked why I was the one chosen at this time to give the lecture, after the big shoes of the two Professors.
Although Prof. Paul D ‘Arbela explained, I was inwardly more motivated to accept because of what my father told me when I was young, that, “If among many, you have been asked to speak, it means God has chosen that at that time you are the right person to speak. It does not matter what anybody says about what you have said. So, don’t disappoint the people requesting you”. This gave me the extra courage to step into the shoes of my very senior elder in the medical profession, Prof. Paul D ‘Arbela. I am greatly humbled. The third reason was that I could simply not turn down a diplomatic call from my elder. I have learnt along my lifetime that a request from an elder is a diplomatic directive. In our medical training, we were taught to listen to and obey instructions from those above us.
As I prepared this lecture, from the beginning I struggled to figure out how to add just a little value to what had already been so well presented at the previous memorial lectures by the two renowned Professors, Prof. Paul D ‘Arbela and Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka. I prayed that the Holy Spirit might guide me to find something useful to write and add on to theirs. It is, therefore, my prayer that you will indeed find something to take home as you read this article.
