By the Office of Communications
The Bishop chairman for Social Communication and Research commission who represents other bishops in the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Rt. Rev. Montfort Stima has appealed to communication coordinators of the Catholic dioceses and archdioceses to make a positive impact to the society in matters concerning evangelization. He said this today during a final session of a meeting of these coordinators of communication which took place at Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) in Lilongwe. The bishop said that when reporting, Catholic journalists should read the signs of times because today, we have issues of suicide, covid-19, climate change and also about the floods which have to be addressed.
Further to that, he asked all stakeholders at this meeting to be analytical when they receive the news because not all news that come from different sources is right. He reminded them that in today’s world, the issue of democracy deteriorates the truth of the story. “In spiritual and moral issues, we have to communicate the gospel of Jesus and stand for the Church. By remaining silent to such issues, we indirectly taken part in scattering the sheep of the Lord,” said the bishop.
He also made a remark on the just ended tropical cyclone Freddy which has left people mourning for their relatives and others being displaced. On this, the bishop said that people have to look at it with eyes of faith and learn something. He used one of the lessons found in the encyclical letter written by Pope Francis in 2015 of Laudato Si, which talks about the nature, to say that once people fight and destroy the environment, the destroyed environment fights back.
This meeting of stakeholders of communication coordinators of the Catholic dioceses and archdioceses of Malawi was organized by representatives from the Association of Member Episcopal Conference of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) led by Fr. Andrew Kaufa as the Communications coordinator at AMECEA and it was also conducted by directors of Catholic media houses found in some dioceses and archdioceses here in Malawi.