MALAWI: Bishop Mtumbuka Urges Pastoral Coordinators to Envision Future of the Church
Fr. Francis Damaseke
Bishop Martin Anwell Mtumbuka has stressed on the need for priests to envision the kind of future they want for the Church and “seriously focus on evangelization as their primary goal.”
Bishop Mtumbuka, who is Bishop chairman for the Pastoral Commission in the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) said this today in the Diocese of Karonga at the start of a three-day meeting of Pastoral Coordinators from across the country in the church.
“As pastoral agents, you have a duty. I challenge you to ask yourselves, “Do our people really know our faith? Do they live their faith? Do they proclaim and defend the faith?” he said before turning to the issue of Catechesis as a subject for urgent deliberation.
Pleading with the pastoral coordinators on the need to remind fellow priests of their primordial duty as teachers, Bishop Mtumbuka discouraged priests from being comfortable with celebrating mass alone saying; “We must regret that we haven’t attached sufficient importance on catechesis.
“We have drained much energy on administrative issues. These we must do but evangelization ought to be top priority. We must not only be satisfied and happy to merely see churches full of Christians. Rather, they must be full of changed people,” he advised.
On the youth and the emerging anti-Christian and anti-Catholic storms, Bishop Mtumbuka, representing fellow bishops of the ECM, says the Church in Malawi needs to work more on forming and preparing authentic young Christians in the country.
“There is so much syncretism and look-warmness among Catholic youth. Who is to blame? We must not only be concerned with maintenance of the Church, but self-propagation and youth formation as well,” said the prelate who also called on priests to work in a coordinated fashion especially in relation to the Church’s social media presence.
“The social media has an influence on Christian formation,” he said adding “We need a platform where we can speak with one voice and articulate our issues. The world is moving so fast in the information world”.
The Diocesan Pastoral Coordinators/ Secretaries gathered at Fr. Zulu House in the Diocese of Karonga will, among other issues, discuss matters pastoral fished from the last plenary of the Bishops Conference, the sub-region conference of bishops (Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe), pastoral guidance to the youths, the coming youth national conference in August, the Eucharistic congress, role and care for Catechists, and other equally critical issues.
