{"id":7706,"date":"2025-08-04T05:49:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/?p=7706"},"modified":"2025-08-04T05:49:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:49:25","slug":"bishop-mtumbuka-condemns-parish-priests-who-show-no-love-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/bishop-mtumbuka-condemns-parish-priests-who-show-no-love-for-children\/","title":{"rendered":"BISHOP MTUMBUKA CONDEMNS PARISH PRIESTS WHO SHOW NO LOVE FOR CHILDREN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Esther Banda: TFM Lilongwe<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Martin Anwel Mtumbuka of Karonga Diocese and President of the Malawi Conference of Catholic Bishops (MCCB) has expressed deep concern and disappointment over the conduct of some parish priests across the country who do not show love or welcome children around parish premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking during the closing Eucharistic celebration of the 2025 National Children\u2019s Congress at Don Bosco Parish in Area 23, Archdiocese of Lilongwe, on Sunday, 3rd August 2025, Bishop Mtumbuka said, \u201cIt is both shameful and sad that, as church leaders, they are supposed to be at the forefront in caring for children because they are the future of the Church and of this great nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Some of the children receiving Eucharist<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Congress, which ran from 31st July to 3rd August under the theme \u201cAna ndi Atumiki a Chiyembekezo” \u2013 “Wana ni Wateweti a Chigomezgo” (Children are Servants of Hope), brought together Catholic children about 1,600 from across Malawi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Mtumbuka took the opportunity to sincerely apologize to the children and their parents, saying that bishops carry the overall responsibility to ensure that all Christians especially the young, youth, and children are properly looked after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to complain about a shortage of priests. But when people begin to complain that a priest doesn\u2019t care about children, that\u2019s unacceptable. The days of covering up failures in the Catholic Church are over,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bishop Mtumbuka speaking during the function<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He further warned all parish priests in the eight dioceses of Malawi who display such neglectful behavior, emphasizing that this must come to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis behavior is harmful to the future of the Church. We will deal with it comprehensively and decisively. By the next children’s congress, we do not want to hear about this issue again,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Mtumbuka promised both children and parents that the bishops will not fail or abandon them, but will work hard to ensure that children are nurtured in morals, faith, and academics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Congress has been a great success. I listened to the children and observed how they participated. It’s exactly what we aimed for. We have united children from across the country, given them a sense of belonging to the Catholic Church in Malawi, and showed them what it means to be one Church,\u201d said Bishop Mtumbuka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Esther Banda: TFM Lilongwe Bishop Martin Anwel Mtumbuka of Karonga Diocese and President of the Malawi Conference of Catholic Bishops (MCCB) has expressed deep concern and disappointment over the conduct of some parish priests across the country who do not show love or welcome children around parish premises. Speaking during the closing Eucharistic celebration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":48,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[59,164],"class_list":["post-7706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bishop-martin-anwel-mtumbuka","tag-pastoral-commission"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7712,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions\/7712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}