Over one hundred and twenty-five diocesan Catholic priests are meeting for their 25th plenary meeting at St. Anthony’s (Kachebere) Major Seminary in Mchinji where they are discussing various issues focused on building Catholicism through primary and new evangelization.
The priests, including three bishops, are meeting under the banner of the Association of Diocesan Catholic Clergy of Malawi-ADCCOM-and have been drawn from all the eight dioceses of the Catholic Church in Malawi.
Among other issues, the priests have observed a rise in marriage cases, lapse Christians, signs of syncretism and other emerging problems and have committed vigilance and vigorous stepping up evangelization to preserve the original teachings.
The plenary has also noted a need to reach out to non-evangelized areas so that they too are taken on board and not left behind.
The 2022 plenary is the 25th since the establishment of ADCCOM and is held every after two years since 1980.
The theme for the 2022 plenary is ‘Building the Catholic Faith Through the Primary and New Evangelization’. The plenary was opened on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022.
The plenary ended with the election of new office bearers.
Chairperson: Fr Wezi Mfune from Mzuzu and his Vice is Fr Innocent Mtapaonga from Lilongwe Archdiocese.
The Plenary elected Frs Gift Selemani of Dedza as secretary and Fr Joseph Mkinga of Karonga diocese as his vice.
Fr Francis Lekaleka of Lilongwe has been elected as Treasurer for the association with Fr Gondwe Thomas as vice from Mzuzu.
The commitee members are:
Fr Gordino Phokoso of Dedza
Fr Steven Bulambo Karonga, Fr Kennedy Malemia of Lilongwe and Fr Thupa Vitumbiko of Mzuzu