Pengo tells believers to endure suffering, refrain from revenge

    Dar es Salaam. The head of the Catholic Church in Tanzania, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, yesterday urged Christians to continue practising their faith without fear.

Presiding over the Pentecost feast holy mass -- of the commemoration of the descending of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles of Jesus and which is normally celebrated 50 days after Easter -- during which the sacrament of Confirmation was also administered at the St Joseph Cathedral yesterday Cardinal Pengo urged worshippers not to skip going to church despite increasing attacks against churches.

The last fatal attack happened on May 5 in Arusha where a bomb was thrown when the faithful had gathered for the inauguration of the new church building at St Joseph Parish in Olasit, Arusha.

The Holy See nuncio to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Padilla, and Arusha Archbishop Josephat Lebulu were present. The bomb attack caused the death of three people and injured 60 others.

Both Archbishops Padilla and Lebulu escaped unhurt.

Cardinal Pengo yesterday compared current situation facing believers to the persecutions of the first Christians immediately after the ascension of Jesus Christ.

“We must persevere in the same way the first Christians did. That is why today you have received the Holy Spirit in the same way the first Christians received Him to give them courage,” Cardinal Pengo noted.

“If we the old believers shy away from our faith for the fear of death you should encourage us,” he counselled, adding: “But if it is necessary do not hesitate to call us ‘betrayers’, that is, if we value our lives more than our souls.”

One person has been charged in connection with the Arusha incident and four others are still held by the Police.

But yesterday Cardinal Pengo alleged that the Police seem to have failed to crack down on the culprits of the incident.

However, he emphasized that the alleged police failure to ensure security of the churches shouldn’t stop believers from attending the houses of God.

Cardinal Pengo’s homily yesterday came only a day after President Jakaya Kikwete had also spoken against the attacks on churches and growing religious-based tension.

Speaking at the installation of Jacob Chimeledya as the new head of the Anglican Church in Tanzania in Dodoma on Saturday President Kikwete said terror groups that terrorise churches and clerics in the country have a link with foreign groups.

Mr Kikwete also made a reference to the persecutions of the first Christians by Saul who later converted into Christianity after an encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus.