Today, much emphasis is placed on the role of the Church as a transformation and change agent and rightly so. This is one of the key roles of the Church which has been there for many ages. The transformation by the Church involves life of humankind, in making of nationhood, building of culture, structuring of society with its functions and institutions and in shaping the form and quality of political systems.
The Church which is always guided by Jesus Christ normally understood the transformation of society to be an essential part of her mission task. In most cases mission’s role has been to communicate the Good News of Christ, and to call men and women to repentance and faith, and to baptize them into the church, which involved a process of teaching them to ‘observe all things’ that Jesus commanded so that they can follow them strictly and hence transform the world. Hence Christians have assumed that this obedience would lead to the transformation of their physical, social and spiritual lives. The Claretians have always implicitly assumed that the reception and the living out of the Gospel would begin to transform both individual and community life.
The Church advocated a moral code sometimes called the Christian corporates ethic, that reflects the fact that all of society was considered a single entity or corporation. This led to a strong paternalistic obligation towards the common people, the poor and the general welfare of society for possible transformation.
Fr. Timothy Ogutuh, CMF
Parish Priest and Superior of Ngaremara Mission
Isiolo Vicariate, Kenya
