TANZANIA: Desecrated Geita Cathedral Has Been Cleansed: Bishops Kassala Insists on Right Answers to the Incident
Sarah Pelaji- Tanzania
The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace of Geita Catholic Diocese, which had been desecrated, was purified and restored to its status with the celebration of the Holy Mass held on March 18 this year.
The blasphemy took place on the 26th of February on the eve of the first Dominica of Lent where a person who is still in custody, invaded the Geita Catholic Cathedral, broke the door and desecrated the various equipment of Holy worship, and thus the Bishop of the Diocese Flavian Kassala had to close the Church and do ‘Penance’ for 21 days.
The Mass was presided over by the Archbishop Emeritus of Dar es Salaam Archdiocese His Eminence Polycarp Cardinal Pengo and was attended by Bishops, priests, nuns and believers from various Catholic Churches in the country.
The Mass began by blessing and purifying the Church as a building, believers, altar and Tabernacle.
The Bishop of the Geita Catholic Diocese Rt. Rev. Flavian Kassala has expressed his gratitude to the Government, Bishops, Priests, religious, Leaders of Political parties, Leaders of various Institutions, all believers and the Media for joining the Geita faithful for showing them solidarity during difficult times.
He thanked the police force for their closeness with the diocese since the incident occurred because the criminal went to the church hiding. Immediately after informing them, they arrived and cooperated with them and managed to arrest the criminal.
However, he said, the Church is still insisting the security force for a detailed investigation on the incident because it still doubts whether only a drunkard can do what he did because he did it strategically and systematically.
“He intended to hurt us and indeed we got severe pain. So, we believe he was in his right mind, he intended and reached the time to fulfill it.
We request that this issue be followed up based on the information provided by the Church.
Our testimony and some of the damage we have witnessed and even some priests risked their lives to deal with the incident.
The church has the first big evidence for this man and some of the actions he did show that it was not just drunkenness because if he was drunk, he would not have been able to do such an act of being able to jump two meters high to destroy the machine which keep records,” Bishop Kassala said while adding:
“He may be possessed by a demon or a person with advanced training and you will forgive us for thinking like that
For us, we rely on the police force, let’s not rush this matter but follow this matter in detail. As long as you have him, I believe the work continues, but our request is to understand why we should be treated like this?”
He said that the Church can forgive him but it will give forgiveness while understanding the nature of the criminal.
“We need assurance from the security force that we are releasing someone who will promote safety for others. Forgiveness includes justice and justice is to help these believers get answers to their questions,” Bishop Kassala has noted.
In addition, he has thanked God for the great things he is doing apart from that evil event but God never allowed the Church to go into the evil that could happen.
He has thanked all the Bishops of the Catholic Church as they have been close to his Diocese in prayers and support that have been received from all the Catholic Dioceses in Tanzania.
He said Bishops showed their solidarity, comfort, prayers and sacrifices during that difficult time he went through.
The Diocese recognized generosity from friendly Catholic Dioceses outside the country and other large donations that made it possible to repair the building of the Church as quickly as possible.
He has thanked the government and especially the President of the United Republic of Tanzania Samia Suluhu Hassan who conveyed her condolences to them as well as continued to give instructions and encouraged them.
He thanked all the lay believers of the Geita Diocese for their solidarity that showed great maturity especially in taking up the issue and increasing faith
However, he noted that the donations that have renovated the Cathedral as a building has not come from Catholics only but from all Tanzanians.
“Despite the differences in our religions, we are united in renovating the Church because we have received donations from believers of all Christian denominations and religions. Thank you, Tanzanians,” Bishop Kassala noted.
He has said that the cost is high until now for the first time the equipment they ordered from Italy cost 15,000 Euros including the purchase of the Tabernacle and worship equipment which in Tanzanian money is about sixty million.
There are still costs for the maintenance of the building which the Tanzanians paid to restore the status of the Church Building, so he thanked them all saying: We are returning it to God for your contribution.
