Malawi govt agents spy on Catholic bishops meeting

Malawi government has deployed its agents to gather information at what is being discussed at the meeting of bishops of the influential Roman Catholic Church in Lilongwe, Nyasa Times understands.

The Catholic bishops are holding their third annual plenary meeting reviewing the general situation in the country and discussing the education policy in the Church.

The three-day meeting, attended by all the bishops and the Vatican Chargé d'Affaires for Malawi, Very Reverend Monsignor Hubertus Van Megen, ends Friday.

Malawi bishops meeting in Lilongwe

"There is heavy circulation of regime spies trying to sniff what is being discussed at the plenary meeting," a senior Catholic cleric said.

The cleric accused the state spies of  using tactics meant to stifle free speech from bishops in discussing the social-political issues at the meeting.

Father George Buleya, Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi – an umbrella body of the Catholic bishops in Malawi – says during the plenary, the bishops will also prepare for the next Association of Member Episcopal Conference of East Africa (AMECEA) meeting which will be held in Malawi in 2014.

Most Rev Tarcisio Ziyaye Archbishop of Blantyre is the chairman of AMECEA.

The bishops are also expected to chart implementation of resolutions of the mid 2011 AMECEA Plenary Meeting and issues emerging from the current ECM Strategic Plan.

The bishops are meeting at the Catholic Secretariat in Lilongwe.

Nyasa Times 28 Sep, 2011

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Source: http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2011/09/28/malawi-govt-agents-spy-on-catholic-bishops-meeting/
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