Taking account of the truth that, the Church is an evangelizer, but she begins by being evangelized herself (Evangelii Nuntiandi n.15), the 177 Catechists from Arusha Metropolitan in Tanzania, willfully decided to live up to this truth by making a Missionary Pilgrimage for their own spiritual and missionary nourishment. Their pilgrimage took place from 7^th to 10^th October, 2024 visiting different religious and historical contexts, which gave them the opportunity to remind themselves more about their call as missionaries. Since this pilgrimage is organized within October, for sure, for them, this was one of ways of giving special attention to the missionary month of October, among other intentions.

The pilgrims visited three important places through which they were able to achieve the expected fruits of their spiritual journey. These places are: Pugu (the place where the Benedictine Missionaries entered for the first time). Another historically important place is Bagamoyo, where the first Mission in East Africa was officially established on June 17, 1868. This area also has a Holy Cross which has been visited by millions of believers for the purpose of praying. This cross was installed by Fr Horner (white Fathers) in 1868. In addition, there is also a Shrine of the Virgin Mary built by zealous missionaries in 1878. The last place that these Catechist Pilgrims visited is Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), where they were able to conclude their pilgrimage by the celebration of the Holy Mass. It is in this Holy Mass, the head of the Catechesis Department Fr Liston Lukoo strongly encouraged them that every catechist should be John the Baptist of today who has been given the responsibility of preparing the way for people to obtain salvation. Subsequently, they were encouraged to be firm and leave aside their defects so that they can be credible witnesses their faith as John the Baptist did when announcing that people should prepare the way of the Lord (Mk 1:3). Similarly, they were encouraged to help priests in justice and truth, while rendering a humble service in the footsteps of John the Baptist who said: “He who comes behind me is great, so I cannot loosen the ties of his shoes (Ref. Jn 1:27, Mt 3:11)

In fact, this pilgrimage was really successful because within the days they had set aside to pray and visit these key areas, they were able to remind themselves in depth about the missionary work, that is, the way the missionaries used great efforts to spread faith that did not exist in Tanzania before. They also reminded themselves about the History of the Tanzania Church, where it came from, what challenges it has faced and how it has managed to overcome those challenges and thus continue to stand strong until today. Therefore, in their position as catechists, they awakened their zeal to evangelize diligently considering that to a great extent, Christianity has already spread in their areas, and so the task before them is to ensure that people, in a special way children – who are the future of the Church, get proper catechetical instructions from them.

Furthermore, the catechists were able to receive various presentations from the officials of the different directorates and departments of TEC, which certainly aimed to encourage them and give them a better understanding of the breadth of their responsibilities in the context of the local Church of Tanzania. In a special way, the PMS National Director (Fr Alfred S. Kwene) had the opportunity to briefly explain the meaning of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) along with its evangelistic responsibilities. In addition, after explaining these Societies, he asked every catechist to be a good ambassador in motivating people to celebrate well this year’s Mission Sunday (20.10.2024) through prayers and offering of material support in favour of the evangelization works of the Holy Father (Solidarity Fund) because they are also the direct beneficiaries of those contributions through the Society of the Propagation of the Faith.

(From PMS National Office – Tanzania)