MALAWI: First Ever National Conference “Successful,” Say Catholic Youth Leaders
A group photo taken after the evaluation meeting
Brenard Mwanza
The national steering committee of the first ever national youth conference in Malawi has expressed optimism that the event had a great potential in promoting the spiritual well-being of the Catholic young people.
This was in reaction to the recently organized conference which was held at Limbe Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Blantyre from 14th to 18th August 2024.
During evaluation meeting of the event on Thursday, September 5 at the Catholic Secretariat in Lilongwe, representatives expressed that the conference was well organized, and it gave a chance to young people to know more about the Catholic faith.
The committee comprised of diocesan youth chaplains, national youth executive and officials from the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM).
“We expect the youth to start implementing what they learnt from the conference. Issues of knowing, living, spreading and defending their faith start now, so we expect them to be active members who are ready to support the Church,” said Fr. Francis Damaseke, the national youth chaplain.
Christopher Kamanga, national chairperson of the Catholic Youth Council in Malawi said currently they are on the right track in the implementation of some of the recommendations from the national conference citing its replication to diocesan events.
“We want to make sure that every diocese organizes such conferences so that topics that were brought forth during the national conference are also shared to the other youths who didn’t have the opportunity to attend the conference,” said Kamanga.
Kamanga has since emphasized the youths’ commitment to defending the Catholic faith for them to be more strengthened spiritually.
The young people were taken through enriching topics such as appreciating, promoting and defending the Catholic faith and Church; the foundation of the society – family; principles of the Church’s social teaching, promoting Catholic youth’s understating of and active participation in politics, and demographic and contextual situation of the Elderly, among others.
Meanwhile the committee has pointed out that the positive and negative comments that have been presented during the evaluation meeting will help to build on the success of the next year’s event.
At the end of the national conference in August 2024, it was agreed that the event will be taking place annually and that the next year’s event will be held in the Catholic diocese of Mzuzu.
END.
