President Lazarus Chakwera on Monday summoned the country’s Catholic bishops to a meeting at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre, three weeks after they issued a Pastoral Letter faulting his administration.

Both State House and the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) confirmed the closed door meeting in separate interviews last evening, but kept a tight-lid on the agenda and what transpired during the meeting that lasted about two hours.

Chakwera and the First Lady pictured with bishops Peter Chifukwa (L), Thomas Msusa (2L) and Peter Musikuwa (R) in a file photo

Presidential press secretary Anthony Kasunda confirmed the meeting took place, but referred The Nation to ECM on what the two sides discussed.

While also confirming the meeting, ECM secretary general Father Henry Saindi said the issues discussed during the meeting remained private and confidential.

“I can only confirm that the bishops met the President, but the contents are private and confidential,” he said.

Saindi: Issues discussed remain confidential

Saindi stated that the meeting was initiated by the President as a follow up to another private meeting the two sides had in January 2021.

On Monday’s meeting comes after the Catholic bishops in the country issued their 29th Pastoral Letter under the title ‘Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Living Our Faith’.

In the letter, the bishops deplored corruption and poor governance under the Chakwera administration as vices that have left Malawians stuck in the doldrums of poverty and underdevelopment.

But Saindi said the meeting with Chakwera had nothing to expressly do with the March 6 2022 Pastoral Letter.

Kasunda: The meeting took place

The meeting started around 9am and finished just after 11am. It was attended by six bishops out of the seven currently available.

The Catholic Church in Malawi has eight dioceses, namely Archdioceses of Blantyre, and Lilongwe and the diocesses of Mzuzu, Dedza, Mangochi, Chikwawa, Zomba and Karonga. Zomba presently does not have a bishop after Bishop George Desmond Tambala was elevated to Archbishop of Lilongwe.

But commenting on the private meeting, political scientist Ernest

Thindwa said while Catholic bishops were not accountable to the public, he felt they “have a moral responsibility as well” to ensure the people are informed about how they engage the President.

He said: “We wouldn’t take them to task that much, but one would expect that perhaps some of the issues discussed were sensitive or else there is that desire on the part of the Executive or the President to be guaranteed that whatever they discussed should not be divulged to the public.

“We can also speculate that may be the President made a request to the bishops not to divulge whatever they discussed because essentially once that gets into the public domain, the public expects some action on the same.

“Previously, there has been no meaningful action, so perhaps, that may be one way of ensuring that the Executive or the President is not put under extreme pressure in terms of delivering within a specific time-frame on the issues that have been discussed.”

On January 19 this year, ECM also added its voice to the calls to fight corruption, saying government needed to be fair in its graft fight.

ECM, which is a local assembly of Catholic bishops from all dioceses in the country, said in a statement titled ‘A Call for Relentless Fight Against Corruption’ that authorities needed to ensure that no one was “pressurised, intimidated or influenced” in the pursuit of justice.

The ECM statement came a day after Public Affairs Committee met the President and raised a number of governance concerns, including loss of public trust in the manner the current administration is handling corruption issues.

ECM pleaded with government to build a more just and transparent Malawi that benefits all citizens.

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