Activity Report June 2011
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- Introduction
A pro-life priest is installed into the episcopate; a pro-life deacon is ordained a priest and a University of Dar es Salaam pro-life group is formed. Together with our pro-life training to young people in various parts of the country, we conducted a very successful 4 week radio program on the topic “why couples should decide to have another baby”. But, I will first get you informed about current anti-life social marketing strategies in the country, a desperate move to attract “customers” whose number is dwindling to shameful levels.
“As they are loosing; we are winning”
Thanks to tycoons like Melinda and Bill Gates who recently toured our country bringing the message of bareness by investing heavily on sterilization programs, anti-lifers have conceded that without “appropriate social marketing strategies” their anti-life programs are loosing market. Like coca cola or beer marketing approaches, the perpetrators of death have resorted to running promotional campaigns on the streets of big cities, like Dar es Salaam. How they do it … they hire big vehicles, load them with music equipment, and recruit jobless street boys and girls who can dance well to the amusement of passerby. Slowly moving from one point to another, making the loudest noises imaginable on earth, they entice people to accept that “sterilization” is good for their long term “family planning”; that “norplant” insert is ideal for “sizing up” the number of children in the family and that IUDs can bring advantages to women who “breed every year like rabbits”. As I said, these desperate population control programs try to redress a worsening situation where the number of women prescribing themselves to contraceptive family planning methods as well as sterilization programs is going down every year. People have realized that it is against their health and social well being to use contraceptives. Sterilization is simply wrong to the individual and the society. But this new situation has not come like a miracle; it is the result of yearly efforts of the pro-life movement in the country spearheaded by HLI Tanzania which has worked so hard to educate people on the physical, psychological, moral and social hazards brought by contraceptive use. We have in the past 18 years moved from one corner of the country to another proclaiming the Gospel of Life. Radio Maria and other media outlets have been very instrumental. Recently the Ministry of Health printed a brochure titled, “THE CHOICE IS YOURS”. In this brochure the MoH explains all the family planning methods in rather detail. And, to our surprise, NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING has been enumerated as NO.1 of all the methods. This acceptance by the MoH of the importance of natural family planning is a clear indication that our efforts are giving us the desired results.
Rev. Fr. John Ndimbo becomes Bishop of Mbinga and Deacon Leander Ndimbo becomes a priest
Pro-Life [HLI] Tanzania has been blessed to witness Fr. John Ndimbo becoming the new bishop for Mbinga Diocese and Deacon Leander Ndimbo becoming a new priest in the same diocese. These two holy occasions took place on June 5 and 16 respectively. At the Episcopal ordination and installation of Fr. John Ndimbo, all the bishops of the Catholic Church in Tanzania participated, making it a very colorful event. He becomes the second bishop of Mbinga Diocese after the retirement of Bishop Emmanuel Mapunda. Before his ordination Bishop John Ndimbo was the Executive Secretary of Education Department at the Catholic Secretariat and before that he was Rector, for many years at Likonde Seminary. It was during his leadership at the Seminary that he invited me several times to address the seminarians on pro-life issues. I knew Fr. Leander Ndimbo for some 8 years now, since he was seminarian at Peramiho Major Seminary. But most notably I have known him for his strong and inspirational leadership at the Chairman of the Pro-Life Group at the Seminary. It was during his leadership that the “Maisha Journal Peramiho Major Seminary” yearly publication became a reality. Two years ago, HLI contributed some funding to the production of this important journal which was distributed to all major seminaries in the country, all bishops, some priests and some lay persons. With the two of them now holding solid responsibility in the church, I trust, they will continue to be exemplary in their pastoral ministries as champions of the pro-life movement in their respective capacities, one as Bishop and the other as Priest. Join me in praying for their successful pastoral ministry.
Conference on Holy Childhood
Four thousand children from the Metropolitan Sea of Dar es Salaam, which comprises of 6 dioceses, Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam, dioceses of Zanzibar, Tanga, Dodoma, Morogoro and Mahenge met for three days, June 17 through 19, 2011 in Mahenge Diocese to participate at the Holy Childhood conference. Our representative, Agnes Shayo Hiza, who is also Radio Maria pro-life programs officer witnessed this event. The conference brought together 4 bishops as well as a good number of priests, the religious and the laity. In his homily, the Archbishop of Dar es Salaam, Polycarp Cardinal Pengo challenged children to retain their holiness as they grow up and mature into adulthood. One particular event during the conference was the baptism of a three month abortion survivor child. It is a sad story to tell… her mother had thrown her away into the bush soon after delivery. A Good Samaritan who happened to pass-by heard the child’s cry and picked her up. In fact the Good Samaritan was the local bishop, Agapit Ndorobo, who is known for his love of children and defender of life. The baptismal sacrament was conferred by Cardinal Pengo and the baptismal spiritual mother was Celina Kombani who is the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister in the government of the United Republic of Tanzania. The bishop has decided to adopt the child and to take care of the child’s welfare, including her educational needs as she grows up.
Live radio talk shows
Noting that the culture of death is creeping in knocking the door of almost every African family, where “Africans love children”, through repeated lies on the economic benefits of small family, we launched a 6 week one hour weekly program on Radio Maria explaining to people why they need to have another baby. In the program we outlined several reasons – including; need to keep up the populations of countries so as to avoid an apparent demographic catastrophe; people are an economic as well as social investment; large families are reservoirs of vocations especially to the priesthood and to the consecrated life; having babies decrease the temptation to abortion; children as driving force to saintly life on earth. In the course of the program many listeners asked questions ranging from how many children a couple should have; what age limit for child bearing; what is the appropriate age for having a baby, to babies as burden to economic development, to health of mother, etc. I received many calls congratulating me for the good radio program. Some listeners would call to ask if I would be present at the radio talk show, others wanted to know when I would visit their localities for pro-life talks.
Pro-life program to the youth and students
Three competent young members of our team conducted pro-life seminars in different dioceses.
a) I sent Remmy Ngaiza to the Catholic diocese of Njombe where I was invited to address over 2000 young people from 9 parishes. The organizer, Fr. R. Moyo requested that we address these people on issues of life, marriage, side effects of contraceptive use and abortion. Remmy traveled to Igwachanya Parish, the seminar center on June 22 and had talks on June 23 and 25, 2011. This seminar was prompted buy an anti-life group, Students Partnership Worldwide, a British based organization which works on areas of reproductive health with strong emphasis on condom use and distribution, contraception and sex education where young people are trained the art of making sexual relationships. After some years of work in this area, young people are now completely “out of hand” and as a result the HIV/AIDS infection rate has gone up, making Iringa region, where this diocese belongs, to rank no ONE in the country with an infection rate soaring at 12.3% compared to the national infection rate of 7%. So our representative made a very elaborate presentation on all the topics were allocated and showed students the films “Baby Steps” and the abortion films, “The Hard Truth” and “Slaughter of the Innocents”. He also presented a talk on the need to abstain before marriage and remain faithful in the marital covenant. This was their first time to hear an authentic presentation on the evil of contraception and abortion. From the film “Baby Steps” they learned how babies grow in the womb and more importantly “what grows in the womb is really a human being who needs our love, care and protection” On the abortion films, these young people saw for the first time the monstrosity of abortion. They saw how babies are dismembered and literally butchered to death. In the end they said, abortion is really not only an unjust and aggressive war against the most defenseless of human beings, but is the highest expression of human cruelty against another person. Those who killed their babies by abortions wept bitterly after watching the films. Those who were on the contraceptive calendar regretted to have been cheated to that extent. Finally all of them asked for counseling sessions as the emotional impacts were too great to bear.
b) In the Archdiocese of Dar es Salaam, a similar program was conducted by Agnes Gwau at Pius High School to 320 students. Agnes reports that through the nature of questions students asked she noted there was a problem of understanding sexual relationships. To them relations on sexuality must culminate on sexual activities. This is a clear evidence of the impact of sex education our government introduced in 1992 despite our repeated efforts to prove that such education leads to sexual permissiveness and finally unplanned pregnancies and the subsequently increased abortion practices among school girls. To students of this school, it appears, they understood that provided there is protection in the form of condoms and contraceptive devices – hormonal pills, injectables, inserts, IUDs and many others that are available on the market they could engage in sexual activities the way wanted it.
c) The leader of the University of Dar es Salaam Pro-Life Group, Vinsent Wilson Saba traveled to Olduvai in Ngorogoro District which lies in the Metropolitan Sea of the Archdiocese of Arusha where he had a number of very productive pro-life talks to the residents of this area who are mainly the Maasai. During his talk he learned that the Maasai are totally opposed to condom use and in fact they regard it as illicit. The Maasai are also deeply rooted pro-lifers as they consider life to begin from the moment of conception and lasts until natural death. Any attempt by an individual to take away life of a person at any stage of their life, is punishable heavily. For example, they shared that if a woman procures an abortion she is given a fine to pay a good number of cattle or goats. Sometimes the whole society has to undergo a cleansing rite before their god – “Engai” to appease his anger for the life that has been taken away belongs to “him”. He also visited the Diocese of Shinyanga for similar talks to Christian faithful at parish levels.