By Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer
President for National Directors of Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in African English speaking countries, Fr. George Olusegun Ajana has commended the Catholic faithful in Malawi for their hard working spirit in ensuring that they migrate from dependency syndrome to independence.
Fr. Ajana, a Nigerian, was in Malawi for the World Union of Catholic Women Organisations (WUCWO) Conference that Malawi hosted from August 31 to September 4 and later on visited some development projects that are being supported by PMS.
One such project is the Church and Father’s house-building project under construction at Mponera’s St. Benedict The Abbot Parish of Lilongwe Archdiocese.
“I am impressed with the way the faithful here in Malawi are working on various projects. Gone are the days that we should be depending on donors or Missionaries. We must stand alone as Africans and develop the Church and society at large,” said Ajana.
He said apart from PMS supporting the Parish with Iron sheets, Parishioners have done their part in molding bricks and contributing sand which is a sign that Self Reliance is maturing and such a spirit must be encouraged.
“This is a welcome development. We must be able to be in the fore-front and those willing to support us should just be there to complement the already initiated efforts,” said Fr. Ajana.
Vice Chairman for the Parish, Martin Koloko said they were thankful to PMS for their support towards the construction of the Church which was officially opened by His Grace Tarcizious Ziyaye of Lilongwe Archdiocese on December 5,2015.
He said the coming in of the new Parish has enabled the growth of its members and that the challenge of travelling long distance to find another parish is no longer a case to worry about now.
“To be frank with you, the Parish has grown in terms of its numbers now. For instance, we have 1000 plus faithful that enter into this parish alone and on the other hand 13outstations and 53 small Christian communities. In total, we have 40,000 Christians, the whole Parish,” said Koloko.
He added, “we had been travelling to Madisi Parish which is a nearby Parish and its located at a distance of 20 kilometers away from Mponera. This affected most of the Parishioners especially the elderly and children as it was difficult to walk to that Parish”.
Meanwhile, the Parishioners are working tirelessly to ensure that they finish the seven roomed priests house so that all the priests reside here at the Parish. Said Koloko.
He said in the meantime, the Parish Priest, Mosignor Francis Sonkhani is putting up in what used to be a store room and that he does not have an office hence would like to have both the priest’s house and parish offices including a multipurpose hall in place.