All invited to Final Oath Mass for 2 Glenmary students

Glenmary News

All invited to Final Oath Mass for 2 Glenmary students

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Two students, Charles Aketch and Richard Toboso, will make their Final Oath to the Glenmary Home Missioners during a 5 p.m. Mass May 25 at St. John Neumann Church (12191 Mill Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45240).

The Glenmary oath commits them to a lifelong practice of poverty, chastity, obedience, and prayer. As Glenmary Home Missioners, they also commit themselves to their fellow missioners and to the proclamation of the Gospel in rural areas and small towns of the United States.

The public is invited to attend the Mass.

Charles hails from Kisumu, Kenya, where he learned to value community life from living with his parents and seven siblings. He attended Mass regularly with his grandmother, whose faith served as a strong example. After training for some years with another community, Charles found a passion for Glenmary’s way of missionary life and started over, desiring to serve the people of the rural South and Appalachia in the United States.

Richard grew up in a strong Catholic family in Kakamega, Kenya. He is the fourth of eight children. His mother provided a constant example, the family valued community prayer, and his brother introduced him to altar serving. As a young boy, Richard looked up to a missionary priest from Ireland who served in Kakamega. Despite the struggles of missionary life, the priest was a role model, in part inspiring Richard to pursue missionary life.
This Final Oath is not a sacrament of the Church but a unique sacramental that joins the men to the Glenmary community for life.

Additional coverage of the Final Oath ceremony and Mass can be found in the upcoming summer issue of Glenmary Challenge magazine.