ZOMBA DIOCESE CMA IN A LAUDATO SI TREE PLANTING EXERCISE

Bishop of Zomba Diocese, His Lordship Rt. Rev Mateo Chaima over the weekend led Catholic Men’s Association (CMA) of His Diocese in a tree planting at St. Vicent de Paul (Katamba) Parish. Most of the Parishes of the diocese in a spirit of Solidarity sent their representatives to participate in the exercise.

In his Remarks after the exercise, the Bishop Said “I encourage you to turn this tree planting exercise into an annual event and be rotating in the Parishes”, Guided the Bishop Chair of CADECOM at the Episcopal Conference of Malawi. He also asked CMA in Parishes to be planting trees in their various Parishes and to do the same in their own homes. “This exercise”, said Bishop Chaima “Is our response to the teaching that Pope Francis gave us in his encyclical “Laudato Si” in which he reminded us that the earth is our common home in which we all have a divine call and responsibility to play in taking care of nature and all creation”.

Bishop Chaima also took advantage of the occasion to remind all people in His Diocese that care tree planting  is one of the Goals in the newly launched Diocesan Strategic plan which has a component of care for nature and the environment as a way of responding and mitigating the effects of climate change and the natural disasters that come with it.

Group Village Headman Mkumbura was in attendance. She hailed the Church for this initiative and asked her subjects to emulate the example and to take care of the trees planted and their own trees in their homes.

St Vicent de Paul Katamba Parish is a new Parish established three years ago and doing the tree planting in this parish was a way to support the parish community as it is settling down as a parish. It is at the moment being administered by priests of St Vicent de Paul congregation with the support of the Rosarian Sisters from the Diocese of Mzuzu.