Catholic Information Service for Africa, Lilongwe — The Director of School of Post Graduate Studies at Catholic University of Eastern Africa (UEA) Rev Professor Clement Majawa has urged the AMECEA Bishops to embrace the New Evangelization strategies in order to cope with the challenges of Faith the world is experiencing.
Presenting his paper at the 18th AMECEA Plenary Assembly in Lilongwe Malawi Prof Majawa said that the new evangelization is a timely opportunity to read and interpret correctly and righteously the signs of the times and then work with Catholic Church’s methodology towards true, deeper, and profound catechesis.
“People’s faith lacks honesty, conviction, and conversion. It is “Skeletonic”, superficial, and “lapsing”, he asserted.
He stressed that new approaches of deeper evangelization are needed to satisfy Christians who feel gaps in their life and search for spiritual fulfillment elsewhere.
Noting that the modern church faces many threats that never existed before, Prof Majawa challenged the Church in AMECEA to seek new ways of reaching out to the people in their grass roots beginning at the family level.
“Several studies have cited mushrooming of churches, superstition, Satanism and devil worship among others as the emerging challenges to evangelization,” he said.
Other challenges, he noted, are, negative ethnicity and tribalism, poverty and under development and double lifestyles by some who profess Christianity.
“The Church needs to find methods of evangelization that touch the hearts of the people, fill in the spiritual gaps, and invite them to transformative conversion and witness,” he added.
According to AMECEA news, he recommended that New Evangelization ensures that proper catechesis, spirituality and witness lead to deeper evangelization.
Meanwhile the catholic bishops meeting in Lilongwe on Friday July 11 tabled the issue of homosexuality which is believed to have gained global attention.
A member of the AMECEA Communication team, Fr Andrew Kaufa said at a press briefing that the bishops had chosen to look at the topic of church intervention and family, having seen the important role the family plays in enhancing the preaching of the gospel.
He said under the family topic, homosexuality was part of the discussion.
“The church has observed that there are a number of challenges that many families from different African countries are facing which is affecting the preaching of the gospel. Many rich countries are imposing strange cultures in poor nations, an issue that calls for discussion and intervention,” Malawi News Agency quoted Fr Kaufa as saying.
He added: “As we try to search for solutions in regard to family matters, the Bishops will also pay attention to the issue of same sex which is at the helm.”
According to the Catholic Church, a family is the foundation of any society and is formed upon a man and a woman expressing love and unity.
The AMECEA conference started on July 16 and is expected to end on July 26 with a closing mass at Maula Cathedral Parish in Lilongwe. The conference has brought together more than 100 Bishops.
