Catholic bishops meet Chakwera, mourn Chilima
Catholic bishops under the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Lazarus Chakwera to console him on the death of former vice-president Saulos Chilima in a plane crash on June 10.
ECM chairperson Archbishop George Desmond Tambala, speaking in an interview after meeting the President at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, said the bishops also pledged their prayers for the presidency and the nation, especially during the 21-day mourning for Chilima and eight others.
“We are praying for him [the President] and also the whole nation. We are praying for the families of those who passed on in the plane accident as well as the nation,” said the Archbishop of the Lilongwe Archdiocese of the Catholic Church.
In a separate interview, presidential adviser on religious affairs the Reverend Brian Kamwendo said the ECM’s visit was the second by a religious body on Tuesday as the Evangelical Association of Malaŵi (EAM) executive board also consoled Chakwera on the loss of Chilima and eight others.
He said: “Actually, in the [ECM] meeting, it was more the President who was condoling the Catholic church while in the EAM audience the President was being condoled.”
Kamwendo said the President, a former Malawi Assemblies of God cleric who quit the pulpit to join frontline politics in 2013, also encouraged religious groupings to console families of the deceased who are equally mourning their departed loved ones.
Chilima, a devout Catholic faithful died alongside eight others after a military plane crashed in Chikangawa Forest in Mzimba District on the way to Mzuzu Airport.
The President and Malawi Defence Force attributed the crash to bad weather, but investigations into the cause are underway.