MALAWI: Salvaging Saints from a Plane Crash
Sam Kalimba
Can anything good come from a plane crash?
It was going to be a normal Monday June 10, 2024 for the late State Vice President of the Republic of Malawi, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima and men and women who served him. He went for morning Mass at his local parish and was to attend a burial ceremony of a fallen lawyer who once served the nation as a minister of Justice between 2012 and 2014. His plane never landed anywhere else and crashed on the Vipsya Plateau in an 1147.8 square kilometer-man-made forest reserve in Northern Malawi.
The nation was engulfed with great sorrow and her social media awash with fears and theories. Of the nine aboard the plane, three were Catholics, Saulos Chilima, Patricia Dzimbiri and Lucas Kapheni.
Very little has been said about the spirituality of Lucas Kapheni who until his death was Guard Commander for Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima who also died in the accident. Rev. Fr. Steven Likhutcha a diocesan priest from the Catholic Diocese of Zomba working as catholic Chaplain of the Malawi Police Service in Lilongwe, presided over the burial ceremony Mass on Thursday June 13, 2024.
Came Friday June 14, 2024. It was time to burry one Patricia Dzimbiri who once served the nation’s as First Lady until 2004. She was then married to Dr. Bakili Muluzi, first multiparty president who reigned from 1994 to 2004. Former President Muluzi is a Moslem and married late Patricia as a second wife in his second term. She divorced the former president, returned to Catholic faith and continued to live her life as an ordinary citizen. She became a member of parliamenet of her consituency on an indpendent ticket until 2019 for one five-year term. Later, she joined a political party that the late Vice President Saulos Chilima founded. In 2019 elections the party did not accept results of the election and contested in courts. After the nullification of the 2019 presidential elections, their party formed an alliance with another party and the alliance won the elections. Dr. Chilima became Vice President of the Republic and Patricia was working in the Office of the Vice President. Despite all the glory outlined here and not, Patricia Dzimbiri is on record to have lived a life of an extraordinary life not befitting that of a former first lady and member of parliament.
While still mourning, the Church was raedy to accord her a dignified send off but this was cut short as there came revelations that she had written a program of her burial in advance.
In her email to a daughter of one of her best friends she charged her with the duty to organise her funeral when that time would come. She alluded that there was no one to handle her burial. This to many gave an indication that inside her heart there was no room for arrogance. All her five children she had with the former president are in Europe. Co-director of ceremony at the burial of late Patricia, Malawi Defence Force’s Major Alexander Reize Phiri did not hesitate after so many speakers gave testmony of the humility and care for others spirited life of the the late was, to almost order Archbishop Thomas Msusa and Bishop Montfort Stima to declare Patricia Dzimbiri a saint.
“From what we are hearing from close friends and family members, this woman is supposed to be named saint. I ask you bishops to consider declaring her saint today,” he comanded amid hand clapping and uluration from the mounring crowd.
According to Rev. Fr. Joseph Kimu who preached during the ceremony, late Patricia Dzimbiri was also a Choir member. He said that he saw her participating in a choir festival.s
“At one of Radio Maria Malawi’s fundraising festivals I saw a familiar face. I asked my nearest neghibour in the pew and he confirmerd that she was the former first lady. I searched for her contact details to organise a radio program on the theme ‘It is possible to be former first lady and later to serve the Lord’. She accepted and since then she became a Radio Maria Malawi volunteer as a producer and announcer of a program called ‘Today’s Saint’,” said Fr. Kimu.
During her stay in Lilongwe until her death, she used to sing with one of the choirs at St. Patrick’s Catholic Parish where the Vice President used to congregate.
As burial ceremonies of each of the bodies of the victims of the plane crash were taking place, the Catholic Church in Malawi arranged for three Masses per day for the late Vice President. Different priests cerebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s Parish as the remains of the Vice President Saulos Chilima were at a mortuary and continued at his official residence when the remains got there. On Saturday June 15, 2024 the remains were moved to Malawi Parliament House to accord the citizens a chance to pay their last respect but Mass continued to be said there.
During the arrival of the remains from the mortuary, Mass was said in St. Patrick’s Parish church. Right Rev. Vincent Mwakhwawa Auxiliary Bishop of Lilongwe presided over the Mass but Parish Priest for the Parish Rev. Fr. Henry Zulu gave a homily. It was in his homily that Fr. Zulu openly told the nation that according to parishioners of the parish, late Saulos Klaus Chilima was a saint.
“We prayed together with the late Vice President but what we saw is a life of a saint. On the day he met his fate, he was here with us during morning Mass and he knelt here as I shared with him the body of Christ. He did ordinary things extraordinarily. He used to sit over there and his prayer books are still intact there. He is our saint and we will keep those prayer books as part of relics,” said Fr. Zulu.
However, during the official ceremony to mark the sending off of the remains of the Vice President to his home village on Sunday, which was declared a Sunday for all Catholic Churches in Malawi to pray for the repose of the soul of the late Chilima, Right Rev. Alfred Chaima prelate of the Catholic Diocese of Zomba said in his homily that what was mentioned earlier on the was not official as sainthood is declared by Rome. Nonetheless, he said that all what it meant was that the Vice President displayed good deeds, a thing that cannot be removed from their memories.
It was on Monday, 17 June when the remains of the late Vice President were to be interred. Prelate of the Catholic Diocese of Dedza, Right Rev. Adrian Chifukwa presided over Mass but Most Rev. Tomas Luke Msusa gave a homily. His Grace, Archbishop of Blantyre did not wait for anything but to ask the Church in Malawi to consider starting the rightful process to request for the beatification of Saulos Chilima based on what he described as having lived the beatitudes. He was preaching the beatitudes according to Mark Chapter four. He already cited some indicators that would be used for the cause. He clearly guided that it takes five years after death of someone before starting the process and hence urged all Malawians to accord the Vice President a decent burial for the realisation of the wish. He said this amidst tension and potential violence from reactions to different conspiracy theories that followed the nature of the plane crash that took the nine lives including that of the Vice President. As part of uniting the nation, Most Rev. Msusa said that only God knows what happened in a manner that put the nation on a standstill.
“Just as every one is looking for the truth, I also sought it and I have news from someone who was there during the plane crash,” he said while everyone remained calm to hear more. “I went in a church, prayed and God wondered as why I was asking him the reason for accepting this to happen. God said that why didn’t I ask him the reasons he gave his only begotten son to be crucified. He said the only good reason is to let his name be glorified forever. So, if you want to know from someone who was present in Chikangawa during the crash, you have God. He was there and knows exactly how and why it happened,” preached Archbishop Msusa.
After Mass, burial ceremony went on well and no violent scenes were reported. The State President of the Republic of Malawi Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has since appointed Dr. Michael Bizwick Usi as country’s Vice President. Dr. Usi was a running mate to Dr. Chilima in the 2019 nullified presidential elections and gave in to the latter when their party needed to form an alliance with the Malawi Congress Party of the incumbent president Lazarus Chakwera.
End.
