Executive members of Malawi Catholic journalists under the banner, Association of Catholic Journalists (ACJ) on Thursday this week met Catholic Bishops who have been meeting at Catholic Secretariat in Lilongwe for their second plenary for 2017.
The Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) which is an umbrella body of the Catholic Bishops from all the eight dioceses in Malawi has been meeting since Monday, June 26 to Friday, June 30. The meeting was attended by all the Catholic Bishops in Malawi.
In a Press Release, signed by the Secretary General of the conference, Fr. Henry Saindi; on the agenda among others, the Bishops reflected on Missio Agricultural Initiative for Africa, appraise the conference on preparations for the 15th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and discussed and endorsed Order of Prayers when there is no Mass.
Fr, Saindi said the Bishops also discussed matters pertaining to priestly formation in Seminaries and received update reports from the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA).
“The Bishops will also receive progress and status reports from National Bodies and Organisations such as: Association of Diocesan Catholic Clergy in Malawi (ADCCOM); Association of Women in Religious Institute in Malawi (AWRIM); Association of Men Religious in Malawi (AMRIM) and the Association of Catholic Journalists (ACJ),” reads part of the statement.
In an interview later after meeting the Bishops, ACJ President, Augustine Mulomole said he was excited to have met the Bishops and felt blessed and motivated that they can now effectively contribute positively to their mother Church.
“We are very excited as ACJ. Meeting the Bishops, it’s a no mean achievement and we feel blessed. We have been motivated and encouraged such that we would like to move forward. We thank our Bishops for according us this opportunity,” said Mulomole.
Mulomole said the association highlighted its plans, opportunities and of course challenges before the Bishops.
The Bishops have since challenged Catholic Journalists to refrain from the bandwagon of misinforming the masses by deliberately distorting facts in their stories hence warned them against getting money or being manipulated by shrewd news sources so that they write stories in their favour.
Meanwhile, the Bishops have recommended to orient Catholic Journalists on the Catholic Social Teaching, link the association with international media bodies for training opportunities and that there has to be a healthy working relationship between the association and the ECM Communications Commission.
“The ACJ executive has been tasked to carry out a capacity building needs assessment for members which can feed into the curriculum for the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) where Diploma and Degree courses in Journalism could be introduced for Catholic Journalists to benefit,” said Mulomole.
The ACJ executive was represented by its President, Mulomole, Vice President Esther Nyanja, Vice Secretary General, Martin Mlelemba, Treasure General, Thomas Psyata and Committee member, Teresa Ndanga.