By Luke Chimwaza
The first ever meeting of Seminary Alumni of all the seven Minor Seminaries in Malawi took on 20th November,2021 at Mtima Woyera Catholic Parish in Lilongwe where delegates agreed to have the Association established to oversee the operations of diocesan Seminary Alumni Associations among other things.
The meeting which was held after Holy Mass led by Right Reverend Peter Musikuwa, Bishop of Chikwawa was attended by representatives from all the Minor Seminaries from all Catholic dioceses in the country. Among others draft Constitution and possible guidelines for the Association were discussed which will be presented to Bishops’ Council in February 2022 for scrutiny and approval.
In his speech after monitoring the discussions, Bishop Musikuwa who also chairs the Pastoral Commissions at the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) said the ex-seminarians fits well in the Church and the birth of their Association will help to realise their role in the Church.
“Ex-Seminarians are key people in leadership and development of the Church, we understand that each Seminary has Alumni Association, however operations of those Associations were lacking monitoring mechanism- some Associations were doing well in their dioceses while others not, as ECM, if this Association is approved and launched, we expect it to help provide platform whereby Ex-Seminarians from all the Alumni Associations will share ideas on how to develop their former Seminaries, dioceses and relationship between themselves”. He said.
Honourable John Bande who is an Alumnus of Mzimu Woyera Minor Seminary in Chikwawa said they have come together to connect all Ex-Seminarians and to help build strong diocesan ex seminarian Associations, to support development policies in Seminaries and in Catholic Church in general.
“We have individual Associations in all the seven dioceses, now we thought we come together as a national body so that we can support our church better, so that we encourage individual Associations in coming up with development projects in those individual Associations” He said.
Meanwhile, only Ex-Seminarians who belong to Alumni Associations of their Seminaries are members of the Association of Ex-Seminarians and these Seminaries include Pius XII in Blantyre Archdiocese, St Paul the Apostle in Mangochi diocese, Mlale in Lilongwe Archdiocese, Mzimu Woyera in Chikwawa, Nankhunda in Zomba, St Kizito in Dedza diocese and St Patrick’s in Rumphi which represents Mzuzu and Karonga dioceses.