Catholic Archbishop in Malawi Urges Priests to Celebrate Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year as “ambassadors of hope”

“You are serving people whose hope is ebbing out due to economic and social challenges,” the Local Ordinary of Blantyre Archdiocese told the Priests, and added, “Some youths are gradually abandoning their ambitions as they are unable to receive quality education. You need to understand their situations in order to liberate them.”

Archbishop Msusa continued, “I am aware that there are so many people living in miserable situations like the youths, the elderly who lack support, and men who are struggling to feed their families.”

“From a recent Catholic Men’s conference, I learnt that over 500 men committed suicide in 2024 compared to about 80 women,” the Catholic Church leader said referring to statistics on cases of suicide in Malawi.

He queried, “Why are most men giving up on life? Is it due to addictions linked to poverty?”

“These people have been entrusted to us for pastoral care, so be in touch with them and their life situations,” the Catholic Archbishop added.

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He went on to encourage the 70 Priests, who concelebrated the anticipated April 14 Chrism Mass to follow the “manifesto” of Jesus Christ, the High Priest.

“We have Jesus, the High Priest, as our model. Therefore, we should all adopt his manifesto by being concerned with the disadvantaged,” Archbishop Msusa, who has been at the helm of Blantyre Archdiocese since February 2014, said.

He called unity among all pastoral agents, including the Clergy, women and men Religious and the Laity serving across the Malawian Metropolitan See that has 48 Parishes.

Reflecting on Malawi’s General Elections scheduled for September 16, Archbishop Msusa reminded Priests of their prophetic responsibility: to guide, not politicize.

“Encourage the faithful to vote, but do not choose leaders for them. We must remain above partisan politics and avoid aligning ourselves with political parties or individual politicians,” he warned. S.M.M.).

Also speaking during the April 14 event, the Chairperson of the Association of Diocesan Clergy of Blantyre, Fr. Godfrey Mtchera, called on Priests to be “light in darkness,” especially in this critical pre-election period.

Fr. Godfrey thanked the Laity for continually supporting the Clergy in various apostolates.

Fr. Frank Mwinganyama contributed to this story

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