Polycarp Cardinal Pengo
Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, Archbishop of the Dar es Salaam Diocese of the Catholic Church, yesterday defended his recent advice to the church to let the public decide freely whether to participate in the planned referendum for the Proposed Constitution.
“My stand on the Proposed Constitution was made once and for all… I believe what I said is right and I cannot change my position on that… It is now up to the citizenry to work on the advice,” he said during Easter Monday Mass at Kipawa Parish in Ilala District on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.
The Archbishop said he will not change his stance on the proposed Constitution and went on calling upon the citizenry to follow what they have been advised.
However, he did not clarify whether he meant the citizenry should follow his personal advice or advice given earlier by the church, or that of political leaders in general, or all of them for that matter.
On March 10, bishops from the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) and the Council of Pentecostal Churches in Tanzania (CPCT) under their auspices of the Tanzania Christian Forum (TCF) reiterated their call on the government not to rush in holding a referendum at this moment, when the country was divided on the contents of the proposed Constitution and also other challenges pertaining to updating of the voters’ register through a biometric system.
The bishops went even as far as asking their followers to vote against the proposed Constitution if the government did not listen to stakeholders’ views to improve the registration process and postpone the referendum scheduled for April 30.
A week later Pengo advised religious leaders to let their followers be guided by their will when voting for the referendum on the proposed Constitution, a statement that brought some controversies.
Yesterday, Pengo highlighted that he had already given out his stance about the proposed Constitution.
“If you continue asking me about my stance it is like you are up for something,” he said.
In TCF pastoral letter, the Bishops said to hurry up to get the new Constitution could do more harm to the country than good.
“We cannot do referendum and general election so closely; all these are very sensitive issues that require time, education of citizens and preparation. Why rushing it?” They further said, “It is our duty as religious leaders to advice our people.”
In the Pastoral Letter, the Bishops went on to say that if the government persists to hurriedly hold a referendum, they will tell their faithful to vote against the Draft Constitution in the referendum.
The Pastoral letter that was read in all Catholic churches and also printed in the church’s run newspaper –Kiongozi was dated March 13-19.
“…we therefore advise that more time should be given before conducting the referendum or be postponed until after the General Elections slated for October 2015,” it said.
The bishops questioned the basis for some political and government leaders to force their personal ambitions.
In the same vein, speaking at Catholic Women Association held at the St Joseph Cathedral mid last month, Pengo (pictured) said, much as he did not object with the content of the circular issued by religious leaders over their stand on proposed Constitution he still advised his colleagues to let the faithful decide on their own.
“We should not make the decision for them, they have the intelligence to decide what they want, let them make their own informed decision, when time for referendum comes”, he said.
He directed the circular be circulated to all Catholic churches in the country and give room for the followers after reading the positive and negative aspects to decide to vote for or against the referendum.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
