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| Very Rev. Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo, Immediate Former Secretary General of AMECEA |
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA
Online News
Describing
his appointment to the helm of the Regional Bishops’ Conference Secretariat as
“very unexpected,” former Secretary General to AMECEA Very Rev. Fr. Ferdinand
Lugonzo said that he was barely five months old as Director of Canon Law at
Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), when he was informed of the new
appointment at AMECEA Secretariat in July 2011, an appointment he said to have received
with a lot of mixed feelings.
He
felt that the appointment was such an enormous responsibility and a big
challenge because he had not received necessary formation or preparations for
it.
“The
feeling that I was appointed to an office that probably I was not well prepared
for has accompanied me for the last seven years that I have served AMECEA,” he
revealed.
Fr.
Lugonzo had been elected Secretary General of the Association during the 17th
AMECEA Plenary Assembly, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya seven years ago. He
had just come from his home Diocese to the National Office at KCCB and had just
set his goals and started rolling his programs across the Dioceses in Kenya when
the appointment to serve AMECEA happened.
“At
that time, I had no prior experience of being Secretary to the Bishop or
Bishops Conference. Therefore, feeling that I needed the necessary preparations
in terms of who a Secretary General to such Association would be has
accompanied me all throughout my service at AMECEA,” Fr. Lugonzo said.
“The
handover I had was within a very short period and it was more of a documentation
handover. It would have been better if I journeyed with my predecessor for a
while, to help me understand better the institution’s structures and mode of
operation. I think my background in Canon Law because that is what helped me
settle in the office as Secretary General of AMECEA.”
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| Most Rev. Tarcisius Ziyaye Archbishop of Lilongwe and former chairman of AMECEA, he assisted Fr. Lugonzo in settling to his new office as AMECEA Secretary General |
The
development of various policy documents to guide the operations at the
Secretariat; entering into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Catholic
Relief Services (CRS) to provide clear indications on how to partner in the
implementation of AMECEA Pastoral Strategic Plan; entering into an MOU with the
Shalom Centre for Conflict Resolution and Management; the expansion done in the
residential house at the Secretariat so as to improve its capacity to
accommodate all the members of the Executive Board; as well as the improved
relations with SECAM, the continental Bishops Conference, are among the
successes Fr. Lugonzo accredit to his tenure.
“Another
success story is that when I took over the office, the Capacity building
program was just in its baby stage. We have helped mature this program and have
managed to carry out capacity building trainings all through my two terms of
service, and this continues,” he said, adding that towards the last days of his
second term AMECEA has signed yet another agreement with Missio Aachen in
partnership towards capacity building from the perspective of self-reliance of
the local churches.
Fr.
Lugonzo also visited all the Episcopal Conferences of AMECEA in bid to enhance
the solidarity and visibility of AMECEA within the membership.
“I
want to point out the fact that though it has not been easy, during my time we
have been able to do four solidarity visits, which are at the heart of AMECEA;
and these solidarity visits have borne fruits. We made a solidarity visit to
South Sudan when the war had just broken out and we were able to express the
solidarity of AMECEA with the people of South Sudan and the Church in South
Sudan. We also made a very successful solidarity visit to Eritrea. The fruits
of our prayer and the presence of the solidarity team in Eritrea is that we are
now associating AMECEA with the peace and reconciliation process that is taking
place between Eritrea and Ethiopia,” Fr. Lugonzo explained.
During
his tenure, AMECEA also made a second solidarity visit to the Church in South
Sudan aimed at enhancing the unity and solidarity of the Conference, being that
it is a Conference that brings together the two countries, Sudan and South
Sudan. Additionally, it was during Fr Lugonzo’s time tenure that AMECEA, in
partnership and collaboration with IMBISA, made a solidarity visit to Burundi
in the wake of the political strive that was recently in Burundi.
“Looking
into the future of AMECEA,” says Fr Lugonzo, “the mere fact that we have been
able to initiate the Mixed Development Project on our Gitanga Plot is a
milestone. It might not be complete now but my prayer is that this project is
completed because it assures AMECEA of its sustainability in future.”
∽End∽
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