• As Pope Francis challenges politicians to be inspired by Gospel values
Malawi’s three Members of Parliament (MPs) namely Lingson Belekanyama of Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), Charles Tikhiwa and Gereson Solomoni, all from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party recently participated to the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN) Conference held at Villa Tusculana in Rome where among others they also had an audience with the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Speaking in an interviews upon returning from Rome, Episcopal Conference of Malawi’s (ECM) Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Officer (CPLO) Fr. Henry Chinkanda who was also part of the trip said the conference was crucial to the Malawian Parliamentarians because such meetings are designed to encourage, support and offer fellowship and formation to Catholics in elected offices from all over the world.
“Besides offering a learning opportunity to all participants, a series of issues emanating from the various political situations in the countries discussed,” said Fr. Chinkanda.
He said among others, participants to the conference discussed on several topics including developing a global pro-life strategy to end the culture of abortion, Mass migration in global perspective-root causes and solutions, the risk of genocide of Christian minorities and religious intolerance in some parts of the world and understanding some foreign policies that adversely affect society particularly the poor nations.
“It was gratifying to see over one hundred high-profile Catholic politicians from over thirty countries exchanging views on how best Politicians can be handled as a vocation in the service of God’s people.
One thing was clear that, the politicians that gathered in Rome expressed holy anger at realizing that most of the misery, poverty and wars that adversely affect humanity in the world are caused by bad Politicians,” said Fr. Chinkanda.
He said it is up to the Church to accompany, and form the politicians to have sound conscience that would uphold and respect human life and opt for a culture of life and a culture of death.
During the audience with the Holy Father, Pope Francis in his speech stressed the important role Catholic Politicians can play in shaping the social and economic situation in the world.
“Addressing the audience in Italian, he (Pope) repeated several times saying, Voi potete fare tanto” meaning that politicians can do a lot in working for the common good if only, as leaders, politicians would allow themselves to be inspired by Gospel values,” said Fr. Chinkanda.
The International Catholic Legislators Network Conference takes place once every year and it attracts politicians from all over the world. ICLN is a non-partisan and entirely independent network of Catholics in elected office that have desire to integrate Christian faith and principles with their political responsibilities.