MALAWI: Catholic Women of Malawi and Mozambique In a Cross-border Exchange Visit
Sam Kalimba
The visitation of Mary mother of Christ to her cousin Elizabeth has been used as a model whenever there are Church groups’ exchange visits in this part of the world. Christians even created a song out of it that is chaunted upon arrivals or departures as a form of reception and send off respectively. On Friday May 24, 2024 at St. Andrea Kaggwa Parish in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe from around 3 pm CAT when women from the Catholic Parish of Nkantha in the Diocese of Tete in Mozambique arrived. They came for a learning visit.
It was a ten-member team of the Executive Committee of that Parish’s Catholic Women Association. This reporter got hold of the team’s Chairlady Mrs. Germena Matias on Sunday May 26 after they participated in liturgy. She said that their 3-day stay was meaningful and that would transform their way of doing things as they return to their base.
“We came here on Friday. We have learnt a lot from the leaders of the Catholic Women Association of this Parish. It was good that we came here. It is not the first Parish we have visited in Malawi for learning purposes because our Parish is relatively new. For the good part of our lives, we lived a life of having Mass if we were lucky once a year. So, surely, we have a lot to do to catch up with how these things are done in the Church. Although they say ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, we will do our part to lay the foundation for our youngsters to take over from us based on what we have learnt from these women. We have learnt how to host visitors of different levels, how to be women of faith in our families, how to mobilise resources for the Church and families and many more,” said Mrs. Germena Matias.
According to her counterpart from the host Parish Mrs. Lilian Ngwira, the visit was orchestrated by a team of clergy which was hosted by the Parish during the consecration of an auxiliary bishop.
“As you are aware, the Archdiocese of Lilongwe received a lot of guests from around Africa and beyond during the consecration of Bishop Vincent Mwakhwawa and some were allocated to our Parish. We hosted Bishop Diamantino Guapo Antunes prelate of Diocese of Tete in Metropolitan See of Beira in Mozambique, his Vicar General and one priest who came from Nkantha Parish. They celebrated Mass on Sunday before they left. At the end of the Mass, the Catholic Women Association only prepared and offered a simple present in form of a cake for them. Few weeks later we received a letter of intent to have the executive of our counterparts. It was that priest who came with the Bishop from Mozambique who wrote us. We took the letter our Parish Priest Monsignor Patrick Thawale who gave us a node to host the women,” said Mrs. Ngwira.
She said that the women from Mozambique were humble, friendly and eager to learn.
“We have also learnt a lot from them. Their humility and friendliness are best to none. We hope to visit them at their backyard towards the end of the year to support them further and reaching out to larger numbers than ten,” she said.
Rev. Fr. Matthews Potani who is a curate at the hosting parish celebrated the Sunday Mass of May 26, 2024 and in his send-off remarks he recalled having celebrated Mass with Christians from the visiting parish. He said that when he was serving at one parish on the borders of Malawi and Mozambique, he used to offer pastoral services to Christians around that area.
“It is very encouraging to hear that these Christians now have a parish. I remember having gone there several times. The second time I went I asked them when else they had Mass and they had told me that it was the last time I went, and it was over 12 months already. So, we used to do a lot more pastoral works including baptism for children. We took all details and find means to send to their parish, which was at a longer distance than our parish. I thank God that they now have Mass daily,” said Fr. Potani.
The Diocese of Tete borders the Diocese of Dedza and Archdiocese of Lilongwe and covers about 100,715 square kilometers. Nkantha Parish is on the South-Western border of Malawi and Mozambique near Mchinji District.
Recently, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi Bishops from Archdioceses of Blantyre and Lilongwe, and Dioceses of Dedza, Mangochi and Zomba visited their counterpart prelate of the Catholic Diocese of Tete on a solidarity visit.
The peoples along the border areas of Malawi and Mozambique share a lot in common including language and culture.
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