Chilima urges Catholic Church to preach without misgiving: Draw lessons from Book of John in Bible
Vice President Saulos Chilima has urged the Catholic Church to spread the gospel without fear in the country.
He was speaking on Saturday at the launch of St. Paul Parish in Mchinji.
Chilima citing the Book of John Chapter 2, said the Church has the power to bless, but also to criticize where things go out of order referring to the biblical story of Jesus when he rebuked people for conducting trade in the church.
“From today’s sermon we learn two things. First is to preach without fear by telling the truth. Secondly, we draw our lessons from the Book of John Chapter 2 where Jesus whipped people, but the same chapter also tells us that Jesus turned water into wine.
So, we look at Jesus as a both a bestowed of blessings and rebuker. As a Church, we need to do good just as Jesus did, but we must also be able to rebuke when things go out of direction,” he said.
Chilima urged the congregation to be diligent while asking the church to take advantage of the rain season to prepare their gardens early in order to plant with the first rains to make sure the country is food secure.
The Vice President made a K 1 million donation to the Parish to help in other projects taking place.
Archbishop of Lilongwe Diocese, Tarcisius Ziyaye encouraged the parishioners to foster unity among them adding that unity is the paramount pillar to progress of the Church.
“Now that St. Paul is a Parish, I wish you all the best. But of utmost importance is unity in your midst, it must prevail if the church is to stay. So, as Christians, let us be tolerant to one another and foster unity and see our church grow further,” he said
Ziyaye said encouraged Catholic faithfuls to refrain from practicing abortion describing abortion as a sin, hence it must not be tolerated by the Christian community as it is against one of the biblical Ten Commandments, thou shall not kill.
“As Christians, we cannot kill, and this is what the bible teaches us. So, I am just reminding you my fellow catholic Christians that we need to obey the commandment and please God.
If from the medical perspective there are reasons to do so, I beg that they find other solutions to problems leading to the sin of abortion other than committing the sin of killing itself,” the Archbishop said.
St. Paul was ordained as an outstation in 1999. Since then, the church has had its membership swelling up and now has over 3,000 congregants.
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