Demetria Banda
The Catholic Church has urged Members of Parliament and parents to take a leading role in protecting children as gift from God.Bishop Thomas Msusa
Archbishop of Blantyre Archdiocese, Most Rev. Thomas Msusa made the call on Sunday, 2nd January 2022 at St. Michaels Bangwe Parish in Blantyre during National Celebration of Missionary Day for Children on Epiphany Sunday.
Epiphany Sunday is a day set aside by the local Church for the celebration of Missionary Children. Children are given a chance to take an active role in Liturgy: singing, reading the Word of God, making announcements, leading liturgical dance, making offertory procession among others.
Archbishop Msusa advised Parliamentarians to avoid enacting laws that would harm children, citing the proposed Pregnancy Termination Bill which allows abortion. He further asked the legislature to always consider the plight and needs of children when enacting laws.
“The sixth commandment states, ‘Do not kill’, and it should be followed. Malawians did not send people to parliament to enact sinful laws. Abortion should remain illegal because it is not morally right. The Catholic Church recognizes that life begins at conception and our Parliament should not accept anything coming from outside legalizing killing.
Parliament should rather focus on passing bills that protect the mothers and equip hospitals with doctors, medicine and other essential facilities to enhance their capacity and minimize maternal deaths.” Archbishop Msusa said.
He stressed that parents should take proper care of children both physically and spiritually by not denying them their right to education and allowing them to take part in missionary work. He added that Children should not be abused in any way because they are a gift from God and they deserve to be protected and cared for with love.
Blantyre Diocesan Pontifical Mission Societies Director, Father Mathews Thawani, representing the National Director of PMS, praised Christians of Bangwe Parish and parents for allowing their children to take part during the event. He further urged Christians to work together for the holistic missionary formation of Children.
“Children need to be taught to pray, share with others the little that they have because this is a day of prayer for Children in the whole world and a day for collection of money for supporting holistic growth of Children in the whole world,” he said.
The Master of Ceremony, twelve-year-old Peterson Majamanda, said the event helped him realize the importance of sharing love of Christ with others, especially helping his less privileged friends.
“When I go home, I will be helping my friends and also praying for them so that they can have food, shelter and clothes” he said.
This year’s Missionary Day for Children was celebrated under the theme ‘You will be my witnesses to the ends of the world’ extracted from Acts 1:8.
The Missionary Day for Children promoted by the Pontifical Mission Society of the Holy Childhood became a universal celebration after Pope Pius XI made the Holy Childhood Mission Society universal in the Catholic in 1922 to promote missionary formation for children: to empower children so that they can play their rightful role in the Church and society: children evangelizing children.