Lilongwe, 30 November, 2021 / 9:15 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has appointed the newly installed Archbishop of Malawi’s Lilongwe Archdiocese to temporarily take care of the country’s Zomba Diocese until a substantive Local Ordinary is appointed and takes “canonical possession of the Diocese.”
In a Monday, November 29 report that made reference to the Papal appointment, the Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) said, “The congregation for Evangelization of Peoples has appointed his grace the most Reverend George Desmond Tambala, Archbishop of Lilongwe as Apostolic administrator... of the Diocese of Zomba with the authority to govern the Diocese with all the local Ordinary’s faculties until the future Bishop of Zomba will take canonical possession of the Diocese.”
Fr. Henry Saindi added, “The Apostolic Nuncio to Malawi and Zambia, His Excellency, the most Reverend Gianfranco Gallone, kindly requests us all to unite with him in prayer for the Diocese of Zomba and for his Grace who has generously accepted the request for the good of the people of God in the Diocese of Zomba.”
Zomba Diocese became vacant following Archbishop Tambala’s transfer to the Archdiocese of Lilongwe. The Malawian Archbishop had been at the helm of Zomba Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination on 30 January 2016.
“We have every reason to rejoice and congratulate the most Reverend George Desmond Tambala for this appointment,” ECM Secretary General further says in reference to the Archbishop’s appointment as Apostolic Administrator of Zomba Diocese.
