{"id":24039,"date":"2026-02-14T00:42:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=24039"},"modified":"2026-02-14T00:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T21:42:02","slug":"malawi-catholic-women-urge-minor-seminarians-to-care-for-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/14\/malawi-catholic-women-urge-minor-seminarians-to-care-for-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"MALAWI: Catholic Women Urge Minor Seminarians to Care for the Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Luke Bisani<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Members of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) recently engaged minor seminarians at Pius XII Minor Seminary in the Archdiocese of Blantyre to encourage them to take responsibility for environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n<p>During a tree-planting event at the seminary on Friday, Lucy Vokhiwa, a board member of the World Union of Catholic Women&#8217;s Organizations (WUCWO), emphasized the importance of seminarians in restoring nature that has been harmed by previous generations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not you who has destroyed nature; it is us, your elders, who are responsible for that destruction,\u201d Vokhiwa stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want you to be champions of nature so that when you grow up, you will not repeat our mistakes. We want you to be more responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vokhiwa also urged the community to embrace their responsibilities, highlighting the adverse effects the country has experienced from environmental neglect.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. George Chatsira, the rector of the seminary, praised the women for selecting the seminary as a site for tree planting during this rainy season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are grateful for the gift of trees, and we will ensure that we care for them so they grow well,\u201d said Fr. Chatsira.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. John Chitsulo, the Pastoral Secretary of the Archdiocese of Blantyre, expressed his appreciation for the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am confident that the trees we have planted will be well cared for. As I walked around today, I saw the trees we planted when I was a young seminarian, and now they have grown into large trees,\u201d Fr. Chitsulo noted.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-24041 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_0644-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_0644-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_0644-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_0644-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sylvester Chikavumbwa, manager of the Centre for Environment Affairs (CEA) at the Catholic University of Malawi, emphasized the need for ongoing care of the newly planted trees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am pleased that we have successfully planted these trees today. The critical factor now is to ensure that we take good care of them so they flourish, helping us achieve our environmental goals,\u201d Chikavumbwa said.<\/p>\n<p>In collaboration with the Jesuit Centre for Ecology and Development (JCED) in Malawi, Catholic Women in the Archdiocese of Blantyre and other dioceses are committed to planting trees to restore nature.<\/p>\n<p>JCED also provides training for women on the importance of environmental stewardship, drawing inspiration from Pope Francis&#8217;s encyclical, Laudato Si.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luke Bisani Members of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) recently engaged minor seminarians at Pius&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-malawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24043,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24039\/revisions\/24043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}