Statement by President Arthur Peter Mutharika on the occasion of the consecration of the Very Reverend Father George Desmond Tambala, as Bishop of Zomba Diocese at Zomba Catholic Secondary School ground, Zomba January 30 2016.
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
- This is a wonderful day the Lord has made! Let us give Him our thanks. This is a precious time for the Catholic Church. One of the precious times when God has given us a new Bishop! And this new Bishop is a gift to us all. And what a precious gift we have!
Your Excellency and Lordships
- My pleasure for joining you on this precious occasion is too immense for my words to express.
- But I want to express my sincere gratitude to The Holy Father, Pope Francis for appointing Very Reverend Father George Tambala as Bishop for Zomba Diocese. I wish you Bishop Tambala God’s blessings.
- And Bishop, [address the new Bishop directly], may you stay in the fold of the Lord’s grace forever!
- As for me, the Church, and our beloved country, we are proud to have you as our shepherd. I have learned that being Bishop is NOT a title of honour, but a calling to serve. Like a shepherd leading his flock, we know you will guide the people to the Way, the Truth and the Light.
- A good shepherd serves his flock to satisfy needs of the flock. A good Bishop serves and does not rule. As you lead us, let all other leaders learn from you. As a servant of the people myself, I also want to learn from you. Being a servant of the people is the wisdom of leadership.
- And this Wisdom is precious. I know Bishop Tambala likes 1 Kings Chapter 3, verses 11 to 13, where God is pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom and not long life, or riches, or the death of his enemies. I know that we have a wise Bishop.
Your Excellency, Lordships and Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
- Government cherishes the cordial relationship that it shares with the Catholic Church, and other faith institutions. This Church has played a very critical role in the development of this country. You have been the burning candle of the nation, showing the way of our feet in our social, political and spiritual growth.
- I can assure you, in the same song that I have always sung, that blessed be the tie that binds us. And my government will always listen to you, be with you, and support you. And I will always count on your support.
- The spiritual health of a country determines the thinking, the attitudes, and the character of a nation. And our collective national character determines whether we develop or whether we regress into petty existence.
- For some time now, Malawi has been suffering a disease of the spirit. Something one scholar described as pneumapathology – a disease of the spirit.
- We are a nation crying for transformation, yet we resist change every way it comes. We are full of cynicism and we have no faith in ourselves as a nation. We want change, but we don’t want to change the way we think. We want to take a positive direction, yet are blinded by negative attitudes. We want to see everything negatively.
- This is a country in which someone can sit down and create a story that so and so has killed his wife, and spread the rumour on social media. I read this story about this young Blantyre banker in one of the papers. I feel sorry for this young man and the wife who was murdered by rumour. But where is our national integrity? Where is our love for one another?
- Where is our belief in the Truth? And because most of us don’t have the wisdom to question whatever we read on social media, worsened by our Malawian hunger for rumour, we have made facebook and Whatsapp our Bible. But I will count on you the Church to teach us the old ways of believing in Truth. You are the people to heal the national spirit because the Church is the Guardian of Morality. Please heal our souls!
- And I count on you as the Church to assist Government in making a Malawian culture of Patriotism, Integrity and Hardwork.
- Make us believe that God gave us everything we need to develop. And God made us to believe in ourselves if we believe in Him.
- Make us believe, that in the beginning, God made us to love our country, and to care for the environment that nurtures our existence.
- Make us believe that God made us to be a people with high sense of integrity.
- Make us believe that God made us to achieve anything with excellence, if we do whatever we do with all our mind; with all our soul; with all our strength. And with God, everything is possible.
- And in whatever you do for your country, count my total support. And I assure you Bishop Tambala, and your clerical fraternity, that you have my personal support and that of my Government. Let us fight the good fight!
Thank you for Your Attention, May God Bless us all and Bless Malawi.
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