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“We must respect life”: Tanzania Bishops’ Conference Official to Youth on Abortion

Fr. Beno Kikudo, Director of the National Laity Department of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC). Credit: TEC

The Director of the National Laity Department of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) has cautioned the youth in the East African nation against abortion and urged them to respect life.

In his homily during the opening of the National Conference of Catholic Youth Workers, Fr. Beno Kikudo said that all life belongs to God.

“We must respect life, honor what God has placed as a gift within the mother’s womb,” Fr. Kikudo said during the Tuesday, December 19 event held at the TEC Secretariat.

He added that many young people have been negatively influenced by the media and foreign ideologies “to see pregnancy as a distraction, then we abort.”

The TEC official noted that abortion interferes with God’s plan for his people. 

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“Aborting is not just an easy task. We are destroying the likes of Samson, John the Baptist, whom God has intended them to do something,” he said in reference to the Readings of the Day, December 19.

He continued, “Just like your parents did not know about your future, we do not know about the person who is in the womb; we do not know who they will become tomorrow.”

Director of the National Laity Department of TEC further urged youthful men to embrace their responsibilities after impregnating young ladies.

“What happens after you have intercourse is a responsibility. Many young men run away after impregnating girls. When a girl is faithful and gives birth to a child later, the young men return and demand to have a relationship with the children they bore,” he said. 

Fr. Kikudo underscored the need to appreciate life, saying, “We must protect life and know that the relationships we establish in our youth, come with responsibility.”

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He went on to appeal to parents to acknowledge the place of God in their respective children’s lives. 

“When God gives us the gift of children, it is He who takes precedence. God does not neglect generations. We have had posterity, but the seed is not ours. It is the seed of God,” the Tanzanian Catholic Priest said during the December 19 event.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.