Many days, you will find Father Charles Oloo Ochiel in his office at the Catholic Pastoral Center. He is usually working on cases for the diocese’s Marriage Tribunal or studying ways to make the Church’s Marriage Tribunal system work in his homeland.
Father Oloo is from the Diocese of Kisumu, Kenya, Africa. It is a diocese that includes the city of Kisumu and the surrounding countryside.
He is working and studying in Sioux Falls to see how a Marriage Tribunal is set up and how it works, with the goal of establishing a Marriage Tribunal in his home diocese.
Kisumu is the largest city in western Kenya, with a population of 185,000 and is the third largest city in that country. His diocese is one of 29 in Kenya.
Father Oloo says the country is predominantly Christian (60%) with 40% of Kenya’s 32 million residents practicing Catholicism (about 12 million).
In his home diocese, they have never had a Marriage Tribunal because of culture and a lack of degreed canon lawyers.
Not having a Marriage Tribunal is permitted by the Vatican according to what is called “inculturation,” where adaptations and adjustments of Church practices are allowed to fit the local culture.
Father Oloo thinks often about how the development of a Marriage Tribunal will be received by the people. He calls it an “interesting question.” But the 40-year-old priest is confident that through efforts to educate the people of his diocese, the new Marriage Tribunal for his home diocese will work.
Father Oloo is now working toward his doctoral degree in Canon Law while in this country and later, in Rome. At the same, time, he is gaining some practical experience in working with a Marriage Tribunal.
Besides his work with the Marriage Tribunal, Father Oloo resides at St. Lambert Parish, Sioux Falls, and serves there or in other parishes each weekend.
He looks upon his time in Sioux Falls as a great opportunity. “It is both a learning process and a very rich experience,” Father Oloo said. “When it comes to faith, we share a great deal.”
But he also sees the differences too. They remind him of home and what waits when he returns.
He thinks it will take a lot of work to make establishing a Tribunal successful. “I think there is quite a task ahead of us in this area,” he said. He recognizes it will not just happen by itself.
But Father Oloo, who just observed his tenth anniversary of ordination as a priest, believes a task like his never can happen without divine intervention and guidance. Each day he eagerly embraces that prospect as he studies, learns and works to make his diocese better and more consistent with the Church.