MALAWI: Cardinal Filoni condemns Dumping of Children
By Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer
His Eminence Fernando Cardinal Filoni has expressed concern over irresponsible parenthood especially among mothers who are fond of dumping their babies upon delivery saying that it is uncalled for and the syndrome has to be checked and stopped.
visit to Mother Teresa Orphanage in Lilongwe
Cardinal Filoni was speaking when he cheered orphans and dumped babies at Mother Teresa Orphanage Centre in Kawale, Lilongwe. “These are just innocent souls and need to be loved and cared. They are the future leaders and need to be taken care of,” said Cardinal Filoni who was visibly seen touched.
Speaking to the orphans, Cardinal Filoni encouraged them to be prayerful and emulate from the life of Jesus.
The Missionaries of Charity, famously known as sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who run the home said the centre has 53 orphans and ten dumped babies whom they take care of. Many of the babies are brought by either official from the District Social Welfare or the Police.
“As a community we would like to thank His Eminence for paying us a visit. His coming is a blessing to us and we are very grateful to the Holy Father who sent with him some gifts for the children,” said Sr. Mira, one of the sisters at the centre.
She said as a congregation they believe that, life is a gift from God and so too are the children at the centre, adding that “who knows, these will be our future leaders.”
“We would want to discourage the tendency of aborting innocent children, therefore, let those that feel they cannot manage to take care for their children, bring them to this Centre rather than abort or abandon the innocent souls,” said Sr. Mira.
The National Police Spokesperson said cases of baby dumping are mostly unreported to the Police hence it is difficult to estimate how many babies are dumped within a specific period of time. He noted that the phenomenon of dumping babies is due to people not wanting to take responsibility of raising the children.
The Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic Religious Congregation founded in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which now includes over 4,500 sisters in more than 130 countries.
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