Nzama – The memory of the first missionaries, the gift of two new priests, and the call to recognize in every baptized person someone sent forth by Christ: these were the central themes of the national celebration marking 125 years of the Catholic Church’s permanent presence in Malawi.
The solemn Eucharistic celebration was held on Saturday, September 19, at St Mary’s Parish in Nzama, in the Diocese of Dedza, a place closely linked to the origins of the Catholic presence in the country. Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization and Special Delegate of the Holy See, presided over the liturgy, during which two candidates were ordained to the priesthood. In his opening greeting, the Nigerian Archbishop conveyed to the faithful of Malawi the blessing of Pope Leo XIV and the greetings of the missionary Dicastery.
The Jubilee recalls 1901, the year in which the missionary work began that would sow the seed from which the local Catholic Church would eventually flourish.
During the celebration, particular tribute was paid to the work of the Missionaries of Africa, commonly known as the White Fathers, the Montfortian Missionaries, and other evangelizers who came to proclaim the Gospel in a land that was then distant and largely unknown.
The anniversary, however, was not experienced simply as a historical commemoration.
In his homily, Archbishop Nwachukwu highlighted the link between the sacrifice of the first missionaries and the missionary responsibility entrusted today to Malawi’s Catholic communities. Recalling those who left their families and countries of origin, facing illness, isolation, and the uncertainty of whether they would ever return home, the Archbishop observed: “Most of them left without knowing if they would ever go back home. Their leaving was like a dying. And many of them did die.” He then quoted Psalm 126:6: “They go out full of tears carrying seed for the sowing. They come back full of songs, carrying their sheaves.”
Those words, he explained, provide the spiritual key to the Jubilee. “Today we are celebrating the fruits of their sacrifice. We are today the sheaves of what they planted”: the Catholics of Malawi are the fruits of the Gospel seed sown amidst suffering, poverty, and the gratuitous gift of self. Gratitude to the pioneers of the mission, therefore, cannot be reduced to commemoration; it is expressed through fidelity to the Gospel and through the commitment to safeguard and spread the “new life” that has been passed on.
Within this framework, the ordination of the two new priests took on a particularly evocative symbolic significance. It appeared as a sign of the fruitfulness of the mission and of the maturation of the local Church. “The ordination of these two brethren of ours, which would not have been possible without them, is a befitting tribute to the memory of their endeavours and sacrifice,” Nwachukwu said, directly linking the work of the first missionaries with the emergence of new vocations among the people of Malawi.
Addressing the two ordinands, the Archbishop recalled that the priesthood is a ministry of service. The Lord Jesus is the only High Priest, while the whole People of God, through Baptism, have been constituted a priestly people. Priests are entrusted with a specific task: to proclaim the Gospel, guide the People of God, and preside over the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. This is not a position of privilege, but a service rendered to the ecclesial community. In his homily, the Secretary of the missionary Dicastery therefore insisted on the inseparable bond between priesthood and mission: “Remember that, like every other Christian, you are primarily missionaries,” the Archbishop told the two candidates. He referred to the Father’s sending of the Son and to the mandate given by the Risen Christ to his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, even so I do I send you” . In the light of Sacred Scripture, the priest is not merely one who accompanies an already existing community; he is one who is sent to make Christ present, proclaim his Word, and lead men and women to faith and communion within the Church.
Reflecting on the ministry of the Word, Archbishop Nwachukwu urged the new priests not to forget their parents, catechists, and teachers who transmitted the gift of faith to them. He encouraged them to read and meditate assiduously on the Word of the Lord, so as to “believe what you have read, teach what you have learned in faith, and live what you have taught.”
His exhortation was forceful: “The Word of God is not your property: it is the Word of God, not to be replaced with your own word or imagination.” The priest, the Archbishop stressed, is at the service of a Word received and safeguarded by the Church; he is not its owner, nor can he reduce it to an expression of his own ideas.
Priestly ministry also requires ecclesial communion. The Archbishop recalled that the title of pastor is neither an honorary distinction nor something that can be exercised independently. It entails communion with the Bishop, the successor of the Apostles, and through him with the Successor of Peter
Commenting on Jesus’ words to Peter – “When you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” – Nwachukwu stated: “Being shepherd means abandoning totally your personal will, whims and caprices, and allowing yourself to be led in the Church.”
In the concluding part of his homily, the Archbishop proposed the biblical figure of Melchizedek as a program for priestly life. As “king of righteousness” and “king of peace,” Melchizedek points, according to Nwachukwu, to the need to make justice and peace concrete criteria of ministry. Priests must be men who heal divisions rather than deepen them. “As priests you too are called to be bridge-builders,” he said, recalling the traditional meaning of the Latin term pontifex.
This vocation to reconciliation also requires rejecting exclusive affiliations and divisions that wound social and ecclesial life. Melchizedek, the Archbishop observed, is presented in the Bible without a genealogy and without an ethnic or physical description; for this reason, he is a universal figure. He therefore explicitly urged the new priests not to allow themselves to be imprisoned by “tribalism, racism, nationalism, chauvinism, jingoism,” adding: “Never let yourselves slip into anti-Melchizedek mentalities and behaviour.”
One hundred and twenty-five years after the beginning of the Catholic mission in Malawi, the celebration in Nzama thus presented the local Church with a renewed call to proclaim the Gospel with joy in the present and into the future. The memory of the first evangelizers points not only to a foundational chapter in the Church’s history, but becomes an invitation to proclaim the Gospel with the same spirit of selfless dedication, to foster new vocations, and to build reconciled communities.
The two priestly ordinations thus appeared as a sign of a Church that, firmly rooted in the faith it has received, is called not merely to preserve an inheritance, but to continue the apostolic work with renewed missionary zeal.
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