Rome based Fr. Alphonse Owoudou, Regional Superior for Africa and Madagascar, arrived in Malawi this afternoon through Kamuzu International Airport for a four-day discernment visit beginning today the 13th September to the 16th September 2022 when he departs for Zambia.
Fr. Alphonse was welcomed by hundreds of people who gathered at Don Bosco campus, among them were The Principal Fr. Michael Mbandama, The Parish priest Fr. Joseph, The Vice Principal Mr. Chilupsya, Staff members and students of Don Bosco Youth technical institute and many other people from the community and the parish.
In his brief speech, Fr. Alphonse said that he has been sent by the Rector Major to start reflecting on finding the new ZMB provincial since Fr Christopher Rychcik the present ZMB provincial is completing his 6 year term.
“Here in the ZMB province, in ACC (Congo Kinshasa/Brazzaville), also in Kenya, the provincials are towards the end of their mandates of offices and so the Rector Major has sent me that we can start reflecting on finding the new provincials who will continue guiding us”, he said.
“So please start putting this in your prayers because it is God who has to show us the man he wants, to give a father for these four ZMB countries, and for me it is very important to have good provincials and good rectors especially here in Africa because Africa is a Salesian continent. This is proved by the numbers that are present wherever the Salesians are. For guidance sake, we need religious men, women, catechists, parents who believe in young people and we also need superiors to guide them”, narrated Fr. Alphonse.
The work of Regional Councilors is to promote a more direct liaison between the provinces and the Rector Major and his Council. They take care of the interests of the provinces assigned to them by the congregation.
This is the second time Fr. Alphonse is visiting another ZMB country (Malawi) after Zambia that he has previously been to and during this discernment, he will add two more ZMB countries which are Malawi and Zimbabwe.
