This story is part of America @ 250: The Questions Before Us, a series from IPM News and the Illinois Student Newsroom.
CHAMPAIGN — A birthday is a time for celebration and reflection: Where have we been? Where are we right now? And where are we going?
IPM is celebrating America’s 250th birthday by inviting people from across east-central Illinois to share what they think are the most important questions facing Americans at this historic moment.
Father Johndamaseni Zilimu is pastor of St. Matthew Parish in Champaign. Father John was born in Tanzania and moved to the U.S. in 2000. He received his doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2014.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
My name is Father Johndamaseni Zilimu. I go by Father John. I’m originally from Tanzania. I’m 61 years old. But of the 61 years, 26 years I’ve lived in this country, ministering as a priest.
I am the pastor of Democrats and Republicans. So I don’t take sides, I don’t. In politics, I don’t take sides.
I came here in 2000, before 9/11, knowing that this is a very peaceful country and nobody has any, like, hatred against this country. Then when 9/11 happened, I was a student at Parkland. I woke up in the morning, then I went to school. And after class, we were walking in the hallway and we saw on the TV what happened. We saw how it was melting down, you know, the fire and all this stuff, people crying.
So yeah, the peace was taken away! That was a shock, a big shock, knowing that we need to protect our people here. And the government has done a good job, protecting the country, but the Venezuela [military action] came back-to-back with the Iranian war.
And I’m like, wait a minute, now we don’t know if Iranians will retaliate. [Are] they going to prepare themselves to do something or not? I don’t think those people who are losing their properties, their people, they will just remain silent. That’s my worry. I don’t think they would be silent.
And the steps the government has made I think they are moving away from peace, not towards peace. You know, the Iranians or the Venezuelans… they may say, “Okay, we are done.” But then they prepare themselves to retaliate. I am worried that something like 9/11 might happen again.
Jesus Christ, when he was arrested, one of his apostles, Peter, took a sword and he chopped off one of the soldiers the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus said, ‘No, don’t do that. Don’t pay violence to violence.’ Peace is not obtained through war. No.
We are all God’s children. The people who have done horrible things, you know, towards Americans, we should be ready to forgive them. And also we should be ready to ask for forgiveness. Yeah. So forgiveness is two ways.
In the Catholic Church, we always magnify on peace. When we celebrate masses we have a part for the prayers of the faithful with intentions. And one of them is to pray for peace for our country and throughout the world.
Jesus Christ, he talked about this. He knew that without peace, there’s nothing you can accomplish. We need peace in our life. If you have a peace of mind, you can make decisions, correct decisions. You can make good choices. But if you make decisions out of worries, then you are creating more chaos in your life.
So I think the biggest question ahead of us as a nation right now is, “How can we achieve peace and harmony, not only in this country, but throughout the world?”
This story was reported by Annisyn Krebs-Carr and produced for IPM News by Charles “Stretch” Ledford. If you have an idea for the America @ 250 series or would like to be featured in an upcoming story, contact Charles “Stretch” Ledford at stretch@illinois.edu.