This week, the Catholic bishops of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe met in a consultative plenary from July 15–19 in Malawi. One of the highlights of the plenary was the issuing of a formal Declaration of Intent for establishing a new independent regional episcopal association. The declaration was issued by the bishops and signed by the presidents of the Bishop’s Conferences of the three participating countries: Malawi’s Archbishop George Desmond Tambala – ECM President, Zambia’s Archbishop Ignatius Chama – ZCCB President and Zimbabwe’s Bishop Paul Horan- ZCBC President.

The three countries share a strong historical and cultural bond, and the idea of independent associations for the Catholic churches of the three countries has been discussed for years now. It is written in the Declaration of Intent that,

“Given this bold step taken, the three conferences envision the formation of an independent Region. To this end, the Sub-region will adopt the principle of gradualism. There will be short term goals that will form the bedrock upon which at the opportune time long term goals will be achieved. There are no defined timeframes as to when the new region will be fully-fledged. The three Conferences commit themselves to presenting this project to their respective regional bodies namely IMBISA and AMECEA. The membership of which they will uphold until further notice.”

The new organisation’s name will be the Association of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (ACBC-MAZAZI), and its secretariat will be located in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Furthermore, the Bishops agreed upon the operational guidelines, the new association’s statutes, and mechanisms for allowing other members to join the association if requested. The next plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops of the three countries is planned to be held in Zimbabwe in three years.

Source: Vatican News

Photo: The Episcopal Conference of Malawi