The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) and the Catholic Church in Kenya sends heartfelt condolences to the President and the people of Kenya especially those who have lost loved ones and friends in the Westgate hostage Crisis. It is a time of great pain and sorrow for all Kenyans as the innocent people brutally lose their lives. As a Nation we share in the trauma of our brothers and sisters who have lost their close relatives and the loved ones during the Westgate attack.

 Bishop Kasomo's Easter Message 2013

When I was a child, there were a number of activities that helped us to continue to celebrate at home what we had already celebrated in church at the Easter vigil liturgy the night before. One of my favorites was the Easter egg and Easter cake at my parents’ home. My father was quite clever at hiding them well enough to make it challenging and exciting.

Sometimes when we thought that we had found everything, he would ask us if we found what we were looking for? We would look at each other with a puzzled stare and then began to ask each other what could we have missed.

Since we were just small children, our horizon was generally was generally limited to just a few feet off the ground. Then he would say, “Look up, look up!” Slowly we would spot a colored egg or some cake sitting on a tree limb or even the chandelier in the dining room. Imagine our excitement and simultaneous frustration if we could see it, but not reach it!

Then our father would say, “Let me help you.” He would either pick us up or he would reach out and hand us the treat that we had spotted. Parents always made sure that the smallest of us got our share. Each one of us had enough treats to last for days and days. Mom might try to tell him that he shouldn’t overdo it. But he would smile and say that its OK because we had such a special reason to celebrate.

Indeed we have the most special reason to celebrate at Easter. We celebrate with joy the love of God given to us in the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter Sunday and every day of the Easter season is especially a time to pay attention to the question, “have you found what you are looking for?” Just think of Mary Magdalene when an angel asked her, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised.”

Have you started to look up, to look around and see where the joy of Easter is to be found? Just think of those who are newly baptized, and those who have received the Holy Eucharist for the first time in the Easter liturgy. And if you want to explore how far we should go in searching for the Risen Savior, think of the little ones, those who are still looking, those who have trouble finding Christ, those who can’t seem to reach up high enough.

As it was for my grandfather, your celebration of Easter is extended further when you say, “let me help you,” and then you go about lifting up someone else who needs that extra help to experience the Risen Savior. It’s OK to overdo it. It’s OK to spread the excitement and joy of Easter, especially for the sake of those who are in need of Good News.

My father was careful to make sure that each one of us had an abundant share in the gifts that had been hidden and then discovered in our search. If we didn’t find them, he made sure that we found them. God wants to make sure that each of us has an abundant share in the gifts that may seem to have been hidden. They are revealed to us in a special way on this joyful and glorious day of Easter.

My prayer for you during this Easter season is that you and your families will be abundantly blessed in your faith-filled celebration of the Resurrection. As the Father lifted up his crucified Son in the glory of the Resurrection, I encourage you to lift up others so that they may come to appreciate this great mystery of faith.

May God bless you and keep you always. Amen. Alleluia!

As of 8 PM Rome Time (19:00 GMT) Thursday, February 28^th, 2013, the See of Rome is vacant. The Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, is temporarily residing at Castel Gandolfo, in the palace used by Popes as a summer retreat. When renovations on the monastery inside the walls of Vatican City are complete, Benedict XVI will take up residence there. Though he has renounced the office of Bishop of Rome, along with all its powers and responsibilities, the Pope emeritus keeps the name he took at the beginning of his reign: Benedict XVI. He also continues to be styled, His Holiness.

  1 March 2013– The College of Cardinals is currently comprised of 207 cardinals: 117 Cardinal electors who can vote in the election of the Pope and 90 cardinals who are over the age of 80. First in the order of the hierarchy are Cardinal-bishops. Currently six in number, these were originally the bishops of the "suburbicarian" dioceses of Rome. Still today the Cardinal-bishops are assigned one of these seven suburbicarian Sees, even though they are not bishops of the diocese. Alongside the titular Cardinal-bishops of those Sees in the hierarchy of the Church (with the exception of Ostia's titular who, since 1150, has been the dean of the College of Cardinals), Pope Paul VI added, in his motu proprio of 1965, “Ad Purpuratorum Patrum”, the patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The patriarchs are not assigned any further title because the names of each of their patriarchal Sees is already included in their title as cardinal.

 Second and most numerous in the three orders of cardinals are the Cardinal-priests who are assigned the “titulos” (title) of the important churches of the Diocese of Rome.

 Last in the order of cardinals are the Cardinal-deacons who were originally the seven deacons in the Papal Household and the seven deacons who supervised the Church's works in the districts of Rome during the early Middle Ages, when church administration was effectively the government of Rome and provided for all of the city's social services. Cardinal-deacons today are given title to one of these deaconries.