Love, Make Time for, Keep Safe Your Children: Catholic Archbishop in Tanzania to Parents, Warns about “dramatic world”

He underscored the important role parents and guardians play in the upbringing of their respective children, saying that they “have the first responsibility to raise, protect, defend, and guide your child. Anyone else will build on the foundation that you, the parent and guardian, have laid.”

Therefore, Archbishop Ruwa’ichi emphasized, “if you are a parent, if you avoid your children, then know that you are avoiding your basic responsibility.”

“Many parents today will look for a good school for their children; and the child is left there to struggle with caretakers at school, and parents are spared the trouble,” he observed, challenging parents and guardians to draw inspiration from Jesus Christ, who insisted that children be allowed to approach him and be in His company.

“Jesus loves children; every child is a friend of God, and every child deserves to be loved; he deserves to be protected; he deserves to be defended; he deserves to be satisfied with the best values,” the Local Ordinary of Dar-es-Salaam since August 2019 said at the newly established Holy Trinity Parish that is under St. Thomas More Deanery of his Metropolitan See.

He emphasized the need for parents and guardians to pay keen attention to the needs of their children as expressed by the children themselves.

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“Create time to listen to your children; know what went on in their lives today, what has made them happy, what has brought them sadness of humiliation, and so on. If you do that, you will be carrying out a good and holy mission,” the Tanzanian Catholic Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in May 1999 as Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Mbulu in his native East African nation appealed to parents and guardians.

He went on to urge parents and guardians to participate in the sacramental life of the Church, saying, “Do not be afraid of the Sacraments of the Church; receive them when you are well prepared because those Sacraments connect you with God.”

The Sacraments of the Church, Archbishop Ruwa’ichi further said, “bring you divine life, divine power and divine healing.”

“All the Sacraments that have been instituted by Christ are channels to give us life, blessings and God's grace,” said the 70-year-old Catholic Church leader, who celebrated his Episcopal Silver Jubilee on May 16.

The Catholic Archbishop, who has also previously served as Local Ordinary of Tanzania’s Catholic Diocese of Mbulu, Catholic Diocese of Dodoma, and Catholic Archdiocese of Mwanza cautioned parents and guardians against anxiety, and urged to grow their trust in and serve of God.

“Continue to trust and serve God; do not be anxious,” he said, and urged parents and guardians to manifest a mature personality and a moral lifestyle in the upbringing of their children.

Archbishop Ruwa’ichi added, “Make good use of the Church ministers who avail to you the Sacraments of the Church; grow strong in the faith so that you know how to face the challenges of life as a Christian, and not as a pagan.”

Nicholas Waigwa contributed to the writing of this story

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