Babu claims to have a stronger herbal therapy

                                                   

          

The renowned retired pastor Ambilikile Masapila of Loliondo District, Arusha Region in Tanzania has made a fresh appeal to patients who took a cupful of the herbal therapy to go for a second more potent one. The pastor popularly known as ‘Babu’ who announced the ‘cure’ in 2010, saying it was revealed to him by God in a dream, justified the second helping as having stronger healing powers. When launching the therapy, the pastor said it was capable of treating chronic diseases, including HIV/Aids cancer and diabetes and making barren women conceive.

                                                 

                                    

In an interview in ‘Super Mix’, a mid-morning East Africa radio show Masapila said that he has been told by God that he will start performing new miracles very soon using a herbal medicine that will be much stronger compared the ‘Babu cup’. He said currently there are still people going for the cupful at his Samunge village in Arusha. He said they are from different places including Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda and Mombasa in Kenya. The price for a single dose of the miracle cure is 500/- per person or Kenya’s 100/-. The retired pastor declined to state whether there were still some top government officials going for the cure. He refuted public claims that he has constructed an expensive house worth 200m/-, saying his new residential house was worth less than 10m/-. He clarified that he owned a saloon car and a lorry which is used to fetch medicinal plants from the forest.

                                                             

 

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare endorsed the “miracle cure” as fit for human consumption, but said further medical research was being conducted on it. Addressing the Parliament in November last year, Health and Social Welfare minister Dr Haji Mponda said that they were waiting for scientific results from a sample of not less than 200 people, conducted jointly by the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the government and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa zone based in Brazzaville. A Synovate Tanzania report released August, 2011 showed that at least 78 per cent of people who have drunk the herbal concoction administered by pastor Masapila were cured of diseases they were suffering from. Only 7 per cent of the patients said were not cured.

                                                                          

Flooding Pounds Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

                                                                                                                 

Heavy rains and dangerous flooding has killed more than a dozen people in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in East Africa, and left thousands homeless this week. The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) said the country has not witnessed such extreme rains since 1961 when it became an independent nation. The unexpected historical floods led to the loss of  lives and properties as many houses and cars were swept away in floods to the sea. Many were displaced especially children in the flood confusion. As rains continue to pound Tanzania, health officials are also concerned about the potential for a cholera outbreak. However, local police officials say they are frustrated by the refusal of some people to abandon their homes during the rain. TMA director reported that a cloud, which has formed over the Indian Ocean due to building of pressure, will continue to cause heavy rains in some areas. The situation will last for the next two days.

                                                                                                      

BBC reported that business and life in the city has come to a virtual halt, with several principal roads and bridges either destroyed or flooded. The government has provided some temporary accommodations for those who have been flooded out of their homes though some citizens claim to not received any Government attention. The Citizen reported that the Red Cross is sending food relief for stranded Tanzanians, while the Tanzania People’s Defense Forces (TPDF) is engaged in rescue operations. In the event the President of the United republic sympathised with the victims: "My heart goes to all those who have been affected by the disaster from the heavy rains which continue in Dar es Salaam."

                                                                                                            

On the outset, the city has been  a victim to floods for many years due to poor city planning: citizens have left to form residents in dangerous valley like in Jangwani and Manzese. Also poor sewage system lead to floods in the slightest of rains as the syetem blocks the natural flow of material over the surface.

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is a small chapel found in the Vatican, Rome. To many Catholics the chapel is a monument, the pope's chapel, an important symbol of faith. The chapel makes the building in which the “Conclave” meetings to elect the Popes takes place. Thanks to the extraordinary talents of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) has become one of the most famous art galleries in the western world. But the Sistine Chapel is more than the sum of its artistic wonders: it is a symbolic statement of papal authority and a UNESCO world heritage site. The Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, from whom it derives its name, in 1475. It was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin on August 15, 1483.

Michelangelo's famous Sistine ceiling depicts scenes from Genesis in dramatic and moving detail, while The Last Judgment on the end wall is striking and powerful. As if that were not enough, the side walls are covered with important Renaissance frescoes by other artists, depicting biblical scenes and contemporary popes. The art work came to be realized by painters from from Florence including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and others. It is said that the fresco project took eleven months to be completed (July 1481 – Many 1482).

The wall frescoes, though often missed by visitors captivated by the ceiling, are stunning in their artistic beauty and fascinating in their meaning. The fresco cycle consists of scenes from the Old Testament on the left wall that correspond with scenes from the New Testament on the right wall. From the famous Sistine ceiling can be see Michelangelo's work including 9 scenes from Genesis, 4 corner pendentives, 4 pairs of bronze nudes above the pendentives, 8 triangular spandrels with pairs of bronze nudes, 7 prophets (4 major: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; and 3 minor: Zechariah, Joel and Jonah), 5 sybils, and 20 ignudi, 10 medallions. Michelangelo's other great work is The Last Judgment, on the altar wall. This powerful work centers on Christ the Judge, who compels the damned to hell with his left hand and lifts up the saved to heaven with his right. Surrounding Christ are the planets, the sun and saints.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel  

LA PREGHIERA È HI-TECH SU iPHONE E iPAD

Oggi con hi-tech nei mezzi di comunicazione, in un modo particolare l’iPhone e iPad sotto gli occhi di tutti stanno profondamente e rapidamente trasformando il modo di vivere sia al mondo secolare che al mondo cristiano. Da “Apple addicted” sacerdote, don Paolo Padrini, parroco di Stazzano in Alessandria, vienne la rivoluzione della preghiera su iphone e iPad. Don Paolo è il programmatore di iBreviary, il breviario digitale che migliaia di utenti in tutto il mondo hanno installato nel proprio iPhone o iPad. Questo è un successo che porre le nuove tecnologie al servizio della preghiera. Sull’ applicazione iBreviary non abbiamo soltanto la preghiera del Breviario ma abbiamo tutta la Chiesa in preghiera nel senso che ormai sul iPhone o iPad possiamo fare varie tipi di preghiera per esempio il santo Rosario, le letture della santa messa, le preghiere per la comunità cristiana, l’angelus e altri tanti tipi di preghiera.

L’iPhone e l’iPad colpiscono tante persone per il loro carattere estremamente innovativo, soprattuto per quanto riguarda il rapporto uomo-machina, basti pensare alle sue portabilità e alla possibilità di essere sempre connessi. Anche il Breviario nasce come una raccolta di preghiere “portatile”, utilizzata dagli ordini mendicanti durante gli spostamenti. Quindi iBreviary nasce da questa forte analogia, l’idea di portare la preghiera in ogni luogo e in ogni azione della vita quotidiana attraverso l’iPhone e l’iPad così fruibile in modo veloce e user friendly.

L’iBreviary è venuto con grande successo per quanto riguarda i dati sui download e dai commenti lasciati sull’iTunes Store. Se per tradizionale il Breviario era relegato all’ambiente religioso dei monaci e dei sacerdoti, oggi grazie anche a questi instrumenti, è diventato un’opera alla portata di tutti. Dopo tre anni dal lancio, il bilancio è quindi più che positivo: i download mensili sono in aumento e risulta tral 200 applicazioni più scaricate, in Italia e all’estero, soprattutto in America dove ha avuto molto successo. Secondo il programmatore e diretore del iBreviary, l’internet e nuovi tecnologie come l’iPhone o iPad  non sono solo strumenti per veicolare dati e informazioni ma una casa, un luogo di relazione che cambia il modo di rapportarsi con gli altri. Nel futuro sarà sempre più in grado di modificare le idee, la percezione di sé e del mondo. Un po come è avvenuto con l’invenzione della ruota: non solo ha permesso all’uomo di spostarsi più velocemente ma ha anche cambiato il modo di percepire le distanze.newsletter del registro.it, nr 17, 2010, pg 40ff

The Internet, the new Radio

For some years now the "Web" has posed such a challenge to the Church and her mission. In the past the Chrch was viewed by the majority as the only authority to questiones like "who is God?", "what is love?", or "who is Jesus?" Indeed she still is and will be! But lately these questions have been addressed to the web pages like "google, yahoo, ask etc. In 2007 via google search engine millions of surfers were said to ask the above question, of which the question " who is God?" came first. The fact is the internet now receives many visitors, about 1.7 bilion people around the world visit the web according to a research done recently by CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics. Pages returned by Googles seem to have doubled ever since. This makes the web replace the native source of information used for many years - the Radio.  http://www.registro.it/.

But in this sea of information, says Domenico Lorenzo, director of the CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics, even the voice of the Catholic Church has established itself with authority as a way to meet the challenge of the time, but more as a new forum of evangelisation - the web has become for the Church the new "aeropagus". The Church faces this challenge attentive to the rigor of the contents which may be religious, philosophical, rambling or blasphemous and to the dynamics of the means of communication. The Church has learnt how to look to the internet as the ideal way - global and interactive - of spreading the Good News to every corner of the World.  http://www.registro.it/.

For many years the evangelical mission has been entrusted to the radio, which has managed to spread the voice of the Church in every corner of the World. Vatican Radio came into operation by 1931, then followed institutional and diocesan radios all over the World. The radio has been an instrument of free communication, capable of bringing the Word of God even to the more remote areas of the globe environmentally as well as politically. Surprisingly, the same function have taken over by internet with no barriers. The internet effortless overcomes the boundaries of space, and time and adds the gift of interactivity, and enables the church not only to talk but to listen and interpret the needs of the faithful. The Pope, Benedict the XVI in the Apostolic Exhortation "Africae Munus" urges the Church in Africa to be familiar with the new World of information technology and communication. The faithful should look to the media as an area to evangelise as well as a powerful tool for evangelisation. Africae Munus, 142-146

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere saint at once: But who is Nyerere?

Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, is a former president of the United Republic of Tanzania. To most Tanzanians he is the Father of the nation. He was born in 1922 in Butiama village, on the shores of Lake Victoria. At the age of 12 he attended primary school in Musoma, secondary school at Tabora boys in Tabora, and then joined Makerere University attaining a diploma in education. He taught for three years in Tabora then joined Edinburgh university in England from 1949 – 1952 for Master of Arts degree. On his return to Tanganyika he was posted at Pugu high school as a teacher, a profession he resigned in 1955 and retired to politics.

In 1954 he founded his political party TANU by uniting other smaller political groups tribal chiefs as a strategy to independence. In 1955 he was invited to give a speech at the commission of UNO, which made him even more popular politically. He became the first prime minister of the independent Tanganyika in 1961 and 1962 became president of the Republic of Tanganyika. Playing an important role Zanzibar became independent in 1963 and on 26^th April, 1964 the two countries under TANU and ASP parties united to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere still became the first president of the newly born united republic. As a president and politician pursued to create African socialism based on self reliance and equity which led to the Arusha declaration in 1967, a declaration that stood out to propagate “Ujamaa na Kujitegemea” as a political policy for the young republic, then being backed by Maoism in China. Colonial legacy, oil crisis of 1970’s, lack of investiment from outside, fall in price of agricultural products like sisal in the world market and the wounds of the war with Iddi Amin in 1978/79 led to the fall of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea in Tanzania. The expected became pipe dreams for Nyerere. However he took responsibility and resigned from politics in 1985. In his welcome address, passing the baton to his successor Ali Hassan Mwinyi, said bluntly: "I have failed. Let's face it. "

Mwalimu Nyerere died as a pensioner and a retired president on 14^th October, 1999. Few years later, in fact, at Butiama, where he was born, began the diocesan phase of the beatification of Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the father of Tanzania. Already in 21 January 2006 the Cardinal  Polycarp Pengo , Archbishop of Dar es Salaam , began the process of canonization of Nyerere. However the legitimate decision on the Catholic side to canonise him, created many concerns in the Tanzanian people of different religions to the impression that the Catholic Church wanted to monopolize the figure of "Father of the Fatherland." This is also evidenced in the will of Nyerere to be buried in the parish church of Butiama, which could not be possible. He is buried in a mausoleum, built near his house to allow all citizens, whatever their religion may be, to pay homage without the discomfort of being in a place of worship alien to their faith convictions.

The process will be long and may even end in a stalemate. This does not mean however that it is impossible, but rather a more unique than rare. Nyerere was known to be a good Catholic who apart from attending mass every day, he fought hard for the poor. He was a man of integrity and honest. He is an outstanding model among politicians to resign from politics in peace, an example of humility to acknowledge his mistakes. He lived a simple life, it is said that he never lived in a presidential palace, he wore simple clothes: with short sleeves. Nyerere had the courage to take responsibility and take the consequences, decided in 1985 to leave the presidency and retire to (partial) private life.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TANZANIA CELEBRATES 50 ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE

Early this week, the Episcopal Conference in Tanzania held a thanksgiving Mass for the 50^th Anniversary of national independence. The Holy Mass was presided by the chairman of the Episcopal Conference Right Reverend Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Ruwaich at St. Joseph’s cathedral in Dar es salaam. It was attended by His Eminence Cardinal Pengo, 15 Bishops, 30 priests as well as the faithful. The thanksgiving mass had as an intention to pray for the country’s unity, solidarity, justice and peace in the years ahead. It was a moment for the church in Tanzania to reflect and evaluate the 50 years of independence; where they came from, where they are and where they are likely to end to, if the present political and economic situation is not well considered.

Commenting on the 50 years of independence, the chairman of the Episcopal Conference related on  the present political and economic condition in the country which is characterised by conflicts among political parties, greed, embezzlement of national resources, and corruption which invoke resentment and chaos to the masses. The archbishop Ruwaich pointed out that the situation has led to creation of classes in the country: the rich go on piling riches on themselves at the expense of the poor, who are the majority. It is a pity that, today in Tanzania, a country known for peace and harmony, albinos have become a source of richness for the rich minority. This exposes the lost sense of direction, religion, humanity and morals among Tanzanians. For him there is no future for Tanzanians without the sense of God, justice, morals and equity for all - true democracy!

Along side the 50^th anniversary for national independence, the Church in Tanzania is still vigilant in prayer for the beatification of the servant of God Mwl. J. K. Nyerere, the father and founder of the nation. One of the prerequisite to beatification is the assent of the society he belongs to. But the political and economic condition in the country reveals to the contrary. The sense of justice and equity; honest and trust, unity and solidarity (brotherhood – Ujamaa) promulgated by the Father of the nation Mwl. Julius Nyerere for 25 years of his leadership is long forgotten and a darkening past. Political and religious conflicts, the ever widening gap between the haves and the have not, the critical life of the majority of Tanzanians who are economically frustrated prove it difficult for a country seeking for the beatification of her son and founder. But for a house to stand, there must be a strong foundation!

50 ANNIVERSARY OF TANZANIA

Tanzania celebrates her 50th anniversary of her political independence this year. She became independent on the 9^th December 1961 under Mwalimu J.K. Nyerere as the first president. In 1962 she became a republic and in 1964 she united with Zanzibar to become the United Republic of Tanzania under one party system. However in 1992 she opted for multi party democracy till today. Tanzania stands out as a stable country in a region that has witnessed some of the vicious civil conflicts in Africa. Tanzania is known for her snow capped mountain Kilimanjaro, one of the highest free standing mountains in the world towering above Africa at 5895m above the sea. Tanzania possesses many natural resources like minerals (gold, diamonds, bronze, Tanzanite etc), beautiful landscapes for agriculture, three major lakes: lake Victoria, lake Tanganyika and lake Nyasa  and national parks like the Serengeti ecosystem in northern Tanzania which is home to the largest memo migration anywhere.

Tanzania is internationally known for having a government that respects the rule of law, human rights and established democracy. Tanzanians have freedom of worship and express themselves and the media is totally free. Much of Tanzania’s population is engaged in agriculture producing food and cash crops like maize, beans, rice, potatoes, cassava and wheat; cash nuts, coffee, sisal, cotton, and tea. Agriculture takes about 75 % of the entire population followed by commercial activities, tourism, fishing and mining. Tanzania is East Africa second largest economy but still one of the world’s poorest countries with low income, low life expectancy, and low standard of living for her citizens and undeveloped infrastructures.

The history of Tanzania: its achievements and difficulties can be traced back to Mwalimu Nyerere, the father and first president who in the first place ruled the country for 25 years and fought for its independence. Nyerere is responsible for laying the first stones to success of the nation, establishment of democracy, peace, justice and stability. He is remembered for his socialist policy of “Ujamaa or brotherhood” which forced many Tanzanians into communal villages where food, land and income were shared. Nyerere was greatly admired into the continent but his economics were not. However his successors rectified all and opened up Tanzania to true democracy and liberty. Fifty years find Tanzania still standing and in one piece. This makes it all the more true that Nyerere remains a true political figure and model for politicians today. His process to beatification marks him as a person who fought for human values both at the personal level as well as at the social level. It all remains for Tanzania to back this truth especially now when celebrating 50 years of independence and 12 years of his death. He left behind quite a legacy!

The servant of God, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere

Tanzania celebrates the anniversary of the death of the first President Julius K. Nyerere on the 14^th every year. Tanzanians where they are remember this day with reverence. Last Sunday at Collegio San Pietro, Tanzanian Catholic students in Rome celebrated this day. Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere died on 14^th October 1999. He is the founder of the nation something that renders him to be regarded as the father of the nation. He led the country for 25 years peacefully and in the end resigned from politics and retired home. He did many important things for the country including national unity, national language, free social services, self reliance and strong nationalism. The Church in Tanzania is now working on the process to his beatification. The Church in Tanzania urges the faithful to remain in payer for the beatification of servant of God Mwalimu Nyerere.

This is a challenge to many African politicians in which case the Synod Fathers of Africa are urging politicians and those who perform their duties in the lives of the public to seek first and foremost the community’s welfare and the sanctity of life, something that may ultimately enable the continent of Africa to get holy, faithful and honest politicians who will help in the process of eliminating the cancer of corruption, graft, greed and power.

The Synod Father named Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, first president of Tanzania as a good model to other politicians in Africa in their 57 suggestions presented to Pope Benedict XVI after the second synod of Africa in 2009 in Rome. This is really an invitation to all to be salt and light to the nations. To achieve this, the faithful have to enrich themselves in the Bible, deep Catechesis and Social Doctrine of the Church, to be strengthened in faith, hope and charity.