“Poverty is the wolf the Church should not stay quiet about”: Catholic Archbishop in Malawi to Sub-Regional Conference

When they met in February 2020, the three-nation Catholic Bishops outlined their short-term intention to remain within their respective regional Bishops’ Conferences and the long-term one of delinking their national Conferences to form a sub-regional Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“The project envisions that in the short-term, Malawi and Zambia will continue to belong to the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) and Zimbabwe to the Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) respectively,” they said in a statement. 

In the 5 February 2020 statement that followed their three-day maiden consultative  meeting in Zambia, the Catholic Church leaders said that “in the long-term, the sub-region will be delinked from AMECEA and IMBISA respectively.”

In September 2023, ECM President indicated that the July 2024 Sub-Region Conference would deliberate on various challenges bedevilling the people of God in the three African countries of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  

The latest July 14-19 meeting of ECM, ZCCB, and ZCBC members continues the objective of the inaugural February 2020 meeting, which is to “provide a platform for Bishops to come together, fostering unity among different regions and promoting collaboration on common issues.”

In his July 16 homily, Archbishop Tambala said that the Church can address the “wolf” of poverty in the three countries through her institutions, including institutions of learning as well as social development programs among others.

He went on to recognize the rich cultural heritage of the people of God in Africa, and lamented the negative influences foreign ideologies are having on the family institution on the continent.

“We are so much blessed with our cultures; we are blessed with the extended families, clans, and tribes,” the Malawian Catholic Archbishop said, and added, “These are human but also God-given support for the family.”

Expressing his concerns about the future of the family institution in Africa amid foreign ideologies, he posed, “Sometimes I wonder if the next generations will grow in a home, will they have someone to call a parent?”

“We have a role to play to defend the family against also other types of erroneous and heretical teachings regarding the family,” Archbishop Tambala said during the opening Mass of the assembly of ECM, ZCCB, and ZCBC members organized in Malawi under the theme, “Building Bridges, Strengthening Faith, Unity and Service”. 

He lamented the challenge of secularism, “where we are faced with a culture that has kind of removed God from everyday life.”

“We have become another tower of Babel; we have become a little bit arrogant; we are playing God now; we think we know it all,” the ECM president lamente.

“Individualistic and materialistic”, he further lamented, “is a culture; this is a wolf that is in front of us.”

“How do we protect our flock from this ungodliness or mentality?” Archbishop Tambala posed, and continued, “A godless society is open to any kind of evil; this is something that we may have to think about.”

The Malawian OCD member also decried a disregard to the care of God’s creation, saying, “The tourism in the region is flourishing, but there is a wolf behind this beauty of our region and that is the wanton destruction of vegetation, forests, and plant life.”

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“It is sad to see how fast we are depleting our home,” he lamented, and recommended keen attention to Pope Francis’ May 2015 Encyclical Letter “on care for our common home”, Laudato Si’.

“I pray that as a sub-region, we would be able to face this wolf and protect our environment,” the Local Ordinary of Lilongwe Archdiocese since November 2021 said.

He also called for pastoral care among young people, who said are going through challenging situations, some of them “taking up their lives, are committing suicide.”

“We pray that we will give a hand as the Church in the region to face this wolf among us,” the Malawian Catholic Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 2016 as Local Ordinary of Malawi’s Catholic Diocese of Zomba said on July 16.