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| H.E. Polycarp Cardinal Pengo |
H.E. Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, the Archbishop of Dar es Salaam, has refuted allegations that the Catholic Church supports three Governments system of governance as detailed in the New Draft Constitution.
Some media outlets in the country misconstrued a statement by the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) - Commission for Justice and Peace - on draft Constitution as the position of the Catholic Church in Tanzania on the New Constitution Draft.
Cardinal Pengo said the Church is a community of people with different views on civic matters.
"Each Catholic as a Tanzanian has the right to express own views on constitutional structure of the government, but there is no official position of the Catholic Church in Tanzania on the matter. Otherwise we will be dividing our faithful who hold different position,” he said.
The Church has its procedures that should be followed and that the official statements are given out through the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) Secretary General.
"There are Catholics who prefer one government system of governance, others prefer, and still others three. All of them are our Catholics. Saying the position of the Church is supporting the three government then what about our Catholics who support one or two governments system?” he wondered.
Cardinal Pengo said the church has a responsibility of provide a position on only matters of Faith and Morals.
“Had it happened that in the New constitution draft there are some phrases legalizing same sex marriage, or abortion and deny the existence of God then clearly the Church will come up strongly to give up its position," he said.
SOURCE: TEC Communications Department
