His passing comes at a time of other national challenges.
Our leaders are dispersed, preoccupied with containing various crises.
As we mourn Cardinal Pengo, therefore, it is important that we “mourn properly.”
Bishop Bagonza offers this counsel:
Cardinal Pengo and TEC are inseparable.
One cannot profess love for Pengo while disparaging TEC, or vice versa.
Where common sense falters, exercise wisdom.
The Catholic Church has been wounded by those who do not understand her structure.
In this period of mourning, let grief be honoured.
Those unwilling to mourn should grant space to those who do.
Cardinal Pengo was a custodian of spiritual integrity. If you were not with him in his final days, do not hasten to speculate about his thoughts.
Only he and his Creator know his final disposition. Our duty is to pray for him, not to appropriate his legacy.
Cardinal Pengo served under six presidents. He knew them all; they knew him only in part. Such is the Church.
Presidents, good or otherwise, come and go, but the Church endures.
Let us not diminish that enduring institution as we pass through. I have shed light on the path; do not say you were not forewarned.
Cardinal Pengo was a Christian, a Catholic. There is no Catholic who is not a Christian, nor a Christian who is not a Catholic.
The unifying symbol is the Cross. Efforts to build national unity must not divide Christians into TEC, CCT, PCT, SDA or others.
All are Christians, even if some presume superiority. In the Church, there is no “Church with its own people.”
Cardinal Pengo firmly rejected the notion of a state religion. It was inappropriate then and remains so.
Christians who claim greater holiness than the Lord Jesus or the saints should dwell where they reside.
My brothers who exalt themselves above the Apostle should live where he was born. In our Tanzania, we all wear shoes and cloaks, yet Cardinal Pengo cherished the truth as upheld by TEC.
