NAIROBI, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 (CISA) – Fr Ferdinand Lugonzo the immediate former Secretary General of Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) has urged member bishops to take responsibility of ownership of its institutions.
“…whenever an institution needs staffing, all AMECEA Members should be generous enough and show commitment by offering personnel to the Association’s institutions, otherwise the Secretary General finds himself in a very awkward position,” Fr Lugonzo said in an interview with AMECEA news.
He confessed that the greatest challenge he experienced as Secretary General of the Association was staffing the AMECEA Institutions.
The institutions include the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Blessed Bakanja AMECEA College and the AMECEA Pastoral Institute (API).
“The more we have well prepared Secretaries General for the Secretariat, Vice Chancellors for Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Blessed Bakanja AMECEA College, as well as the departmental heads, the more we cannot go wrong as AMECEA, and the more the mandates of the Association would certainly be fulfilled,” he said.
According to Fr Lugonzo, another greatest challenge the Association faces is lack of mechanisms and clear structures on how to finance its institutions and departments.
“Our departments are heavily dependent on donor funding, which is not a healthy situation. Again, in solving this, let the Bishop Members of AMECEA take seriously their statutory contributory responsibilities, again is in the spirit of ownership of AMECEA,” he added.
He thus recommends that the entire AMECEA family, and by extension all the partners who are friends of AMECEA, synergize and find practical ways to ensure the completion of the Mixed Development Project of AMECEA.
On Wednesday August 29, the Patron of AMECEA and the Archbishop of Nairobi, John Cardinal Njue led the staff members from AMECEA Secretariat and AMECEA institutions in bidding farewell to the outgoing members of AMECEA Secretariat and also to welcome the new members.
Fr Lugonzo was elected the Secretary General of AMECEA in 2011 at the end of the 17th Plenary Assembly and has served for seven years before handing over to Fr Anthony Makunde who was elected on July 23 at the end of 19th Plenary Assembly.
