“God is working, and there are many good people,” the 63-year-old Catholic Church leader said, and highlighting one of the pastoral tasks of the Clergy, added, “The problem is if these good people fall asleep. Your work now is to wake them up so that the world continues to have the fragrance of God and goodness exceeds evil.”
He urged the Priest-elect to “always turn to God, pray, speak to God through His word” whenever challenges are brought to his attention “because you will be meditating, and you will hear God's voice through those challenges.”
The Local Ordinary of Mtwara Diocese, who began his Episcopal ministry in February 2013 as Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam expressed his awareness of the fact that “leading people sometimes can be difficult especially due to their different personalities, desires, and challenges.”
He went on to encourage the Priest-elect to foster optimism because “people are wonderful, they may talk about the world being full of evil, but the evil in this world cannot defeat goodness.”
“Being a Priest does not mean you should not have friends. Friends are people, human beings. As Jesus said, I no longer call you servants but my friends. So, you live with them in friendship and fraternity, but prioritize God,” Bishop Mdoe said.
He went on to caution the Priest-elect against the temptation to domineer, saying, “A Priest is not a leader who monopolizes everything. No, you don't stop God's charisma from working. Our mission is to share, as we discuss in our synods, and encourage participation.”
“There is no missionary who is sent alone. Jesus started by sending seventy; He prepared a group and sent them. Missionary work means unity. You may be sent alone but create fellow missionaries and believers around you,” the Tanzanian Catholic Bishop said.
He called upon the Priest-elect to entrust himself “to the hands of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Apostles, the Mother of the Church”, who, Bishop Mdoe added, encountered “many challenges in being the mother of God, but through the virtues we know in her, she managed all these and continued to be the mother of God and our mother.”
“As God entrusted her to John, this mother is entrusted to you too. Receive her as your mother.” Bishop Mdoe told the Priest-elect.
Irene Wambui contributed to the writing of this story
