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| Group photo of participants with Archbishop Ziyaye |
The Champlain for Catechists in Lilongwe Archdiocese, Fr. Cyprian Chipala said the Catechists who converged for a week at St. Francis, Kanengo Parish under the theme ‘Lets move together’ had a chance to deliberate on and understand three important issues, which included the new Catechism syllabus to be introduced by the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), new Roman Missal and Marriage cases with the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Tarcizious Ziyaye of Lilongwe Archdiocese opened the workshop with a Holy Mass in which during his homily, he challenged the Catechists to seek God’s guidance and wisdom whenever they are discharging their duties.
“Let everything that we do in our Parishes or Out-stations be centered on prayers for God’s intervention. By so doing, we shall be guided by the power of the Holy Spirit thereby achieving our goals better,” Archbishop Ziyaye said.
One of the facilitators of the workshop, Fr. Vincent Mwakhwawa who is the National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) at ECM presented on the new catechism syllabus and said the National Pastoral Commission of ECM is in the process of producing a new catechetical syllabus for the Catholic Church in Malawi so that there is a common syllabus with harmonized number of years for catechumenate.
“The project has two phases: phase 1: collection of materials and development of a draft Catechism syllabus. This phase is done. Phase 2: is pre-testing and launching. We are now in phase two doing pre-testing,” Fr. Mwakhwawa explained adding that the Pre-testing is being done in three parish of each diocese.
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| Archbishop Ziyaye Leads the Eucharistic Celebrations during the Catechists Retreat in Lilongwe |
“In Lilongwe, the pre-test (ad experimentum) is being done in three parishes of Guilleme, Likuni and St. Patrick’s,” said Fr. Mwakhwawa.
The Catechist from the three parishes the pre-testing is taking place gave their feedback on how the process is going and they appreciated the contents of the draft catechism syllabus because it is user-friendly, with simple and effective methods, which contains relevant themes that will help nourish the faith of the Catechumens and enhance the intellectual understanding of the Catholic teachings.
Fr, Mwakhwawa also briefed the Catechists on the out-come of AMECEA Meeting; the just ended XIII Synod of Bishops in Rome on “the Family” and “Catechist: Promoters of Missionary Spirit in the Church”as well as PMS animation among others.
Other facilitators were Fr. John Makola, Fr. Peter Chatambalala and Fr. Audifansio Kapinga
Source:Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer