MALAWI: Bishops’ Plenary takes off
week, 24 – 28th June, meeting in Lilongwe, Malawi, for this
year’s Second Plenary meeting of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi.
According to the press release of 25th June 2013
from the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Secretary General, Fr George
Buleya, the Bishops will among other things, discuss the progress of the
activities proposed for the year of faith, Annus
Fidei, which has been running from 11 October 2012 to 24 November 2013.
This was declared by Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI.
Among the highlighted activities during this
Year of Faith, the Pastoral Department of the ECM took the Catholic Catechism
to all the major universities around the country. It was an opportunity to engage
the students in Question and Answer discussions on Catholic faith matters.
Priests and nuns of various academic backgrounds formed panels to address the questions
from the youth and help them to find answers from the Catholic faith perspective.
According to Fr Emmanuel Chimombo who is the Secretary for the Pastoral Department,
the interest of the students and the organizers’ experience revealed that the
Catholic Church ought to organise more of such sessions.
The bishops will also discuss the progress
report on the preparations for the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences
in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) Plenary Meeting to be held in Malawi in July 2014.
The theme of this Plenary is “New Evangelization Through True Conversion
and Witnessing to Christian Faith”. Delegates to this Plenary will come
from AMECEA Member countries (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan,
Tanzania, Uganda and Zambian then Djibouti and Somalia as affiliate) and some
of the guests who will be invited.
In order to facilitate the smooth preparation
for the Plenary, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi set up various committees
and they are to give an update report to the Bishops during the meeting this
week. So far various committees headed by lay people have already gone to all
the dioceses to sensitise the Church about the AMECEA Plenary Assembly and seek
their monetary support.
The Episcopal Conference of Malawi comprises
of Catholic Bishops from the dioceses and archdioceses, namely, Blantyre,
Lilongwe, Chikwawa, Zomba, Mangochi, Dedza, Mzuzu and Karonga Diocese. The
Vatican Charge d’Affair for Malawi, Reverend Monsignor Hubertus van Megen, also
attends.
