The Church is rightly proud of Nyerere

By Fr. Paul Crane, S.J.
(Interviewed by Hugh Kay)
THE Duke of Edinburgh arrives in
Dar-es-Salaam today to celebrate Tanganyika's coming of age. Tomorrow she will become the 29th African country to achieve independ
ence.
Today, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Rugambwa will offer open air Mass in the capital, and afterwards Premier Julius Nyerere, the 11th Catholic to head an independent African government, will unveil the Independence Monument.
Leadership
Government leaders and other organisers are insisting that the first days of freedom and celebration should be a time of peace and thanksgiving to God. In a joint statement welcoming the great day. the Catholic Hierarchy has urged the nation's I ,500,000 Catholics to take a leading role in the quest for national unity.
Tanganyika, a poor country beset by lack of water and soil erosion, has offered a high degree of moral leadership to the world.
She has attained independence by moderate means, and under the leadership of young men. Her concept of multi-racial partnership is genuine—and it works.
The Catholic Church is rightly proud of Julius Nyerere, and his mind is obviously shot through with his Christian conviction. But his approach has nothing to do with sectarianism. He is prepared to work, and does work, with all men of good will.
The Church's relations with him are very happy. She is respected throughout the country for the work she has done, and the national leaders as a whole are well disposed towards Christianity.
Federation
So far as the Catholic Church is concerned, it may truly be said that her priests are seen as Fathers, not as Europeans. Her contribution to this day's work is that she has rightly sympathised with and encouraged the country's legitimate aspirations towards independence. There are two African Archbishops, including Cardinal Rugambwa, and two African Ordinaries. There are also three African Auxiliary Bishops.
It is true that inter-racial relations have been made easier by the fact that the whites form a very small minority. There is no great settler community. But the fact remains that Nyerere's Tanganyika is prepared to take men on their merits, without reference to racial or tribal differences.
There are Indians and Europeans in the National Assembly and the Government, and the judiciary is entirely non-African, Tanganyika is also emerging as the kernel for the growth of African Federation including Uganda, Kenya, Zanzibar and even Nyasa
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