Oblate News

Pope Francis names an Oblate Cardinal

On 9 October 2016, at the end of a Marian celebration for the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis named 17 new Cardinals. Among the four who are beyond the age of 80 is an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, Bishop Sebastian Koto KHOARAI, Bishop-emeritus of Mohale’s Hoeck in Lesotho.

In announcing the Consistory for 19 November 2016, Pope Francis said: “To the Members of the College of Cardinals, I will join also an Archbishop and two Bishops Emeriti who are distinguished in their pastoral service and a priest who has rendered a clear Christian witness. They represent many bishops and priests throughout the Church who build up the People of God, announcing the merciful love of God in the daily care of the Lord’s flock in the confession of faith.”

Lesotho’s Cardinal-designate Sebastian Koto Khoarai OMI is a much-loved pastoral man known for working very hard, say those who know the 87-year-old retired bishop of Mohale’s Hoek.

“Everyone in the country will tell you what a hard worker he is,” Sister Julia Mafike, a member of Handmaids of Christ the Priest, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview.

Cardinal-designate Khoarai, who will be the first cardinal from this southern African nation, “looks after children with disabilities, visits and helps people who are sick, and travels wherever he is needed to celebrate Mass,” she said.

He is humble and a person of prayer “the likes of which has never been seen before,” said Sister Mafike, who manages the diocesan center in Mohale’s Hoek, where Cardinal-designate Khoarai lives in retirement.

A member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, he was the first bishop of the Diocese of Mohale’s Hoek after it was created in 1977. He served as president of Lesotho’s bishops’ conference from 1982 to 1987.

Cardinal-elect Sebastian KOTO KHOARAI as a young Bishop

“No one in the country expected” that one of their own would be named a cardinal, Sister Mafike said.

Lesotho, with its population of 2 million people, is a mountainous country surrounded by South Africa.

Booi Mohapi, who heads the Lesotho bishops’ justice and peace commission, told CNS that Cardinal-designate Khoarai “served the most impoverished region of the country” as bishop of Mohale’s Hoek.

He is a “very caring man,” Mohapi said in early October, noting that “only a week ago, I heard that he was giving money from his own pocket to help poor families in the diocese.”

Also, “as bishop right up until he turned 80, he took good care of the priests and other clergy and religious in his diocese,” Mohapi said.

Archbishop Gerard Tlali Lerotholi OMI of Maseru told CNS the “whole country is excited, and we’re all wondering what having a Mosotho cardinal will mean to us in Lesotho.”

Despite being retired, Cardinal-designate Khoarai helps with the running of a children’s home for about 20 orphans, among the many projects he is involved in, Archbishop Lerotholi said.

He still has a lot of energy and “never does anything in small measures,” the archbishop said.

“He is a pastoral leader; always with people,” Archbishop Lerotholi said, noting that he is “exemplary in promoting Caritas’ work.”

• OMIWORLD & Bronwen Dachs • Catholic News Service