Transcript
I am most reverend Thomas Luke Msusa, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Blantyre. I come from a village, from the village called Iba in a remote area from any town or city. It’s a rural village, and the the population, that village mostly 99.9% Muslim. And my father was an imam, and, my relatives were all Muslims. I grew up, up to the age of 7 in that setting, as a Muslim.
And at the beginning, nobody would think that from that village, one would become an archbishop. One would become a leader in the society in Malawi because there were no schools in the area. Until the missionaries came, the missionaries from Italy, who belong to the Montfort Congregation, who arrived in that area, where the population, as I said, Muslims, the missionaries established schools around because he saw they saw that, most of the people were unable to do any work. They wouldn’t become teachers, nurses, and other jobs because they were not educated. So the first thing that the missionaries did was to establish elementary schools where they thought the young people would go to school. Therefore, at the age of 7, I was also called to go to that one of the schools in the parish through the intervention of my uncle who was called Luke.
He went to my father and to my relatives to ask whether I would be sent to school at the parish. But my father totally refused invitation. Said my son is a Muslim. He would die a Muslim. I don’t want him to go to school, especially a Christian school. Together, my relatives, they refused my chance to go to school. However, I ran away from the village, I went to the parish. I met my uncle who was working there. I said to him, please take me to the priest. I want to study. I want to go to school.
Finally, I met the priest who welcomed me and said, I would like to make you a leader in the society here. I want you to go to school that eventually, after education, you become a leader, you become, either a chief, but an educated chief or a teacher, or to do any other work, but through education, you’ll be able to reach there. I was so happy. I was so poor. My family was very poor.
They wouldn’t pay school fees for me. The first priest told me, I would pay for you. I would give you whatever you like, food, clothes, and anything you like. Please ask me. And he gave me a room where I will stay.
So together with my friends, we started education at the parish. One important thing which I emphasize, the parish priest said, I don’t want you to become Christians, to become Catholics. You remain Muslims, but I want you to be leaders in the future. So we are so happy. I was so happy that I had to start, yeah, studies at the parish.
Now at the age of 12, when I was going to school, in the near the parish, the parish priest was coming to celebrate mass at school. But also, since I was staying at the parish, I would see my friends going to church. I followed them, and I saw whatever they were doing in the church. Especially, I was really, captured by the way my friends were going to the altar to receive the Holy Communion, the Eucharist. And I was alone there, not receiving the the Eucharist.
I went to ask the parish priest, why don’t I receive the holy communion? So no, you are a Muslim, and I wouldn’t like you to become a Christian, a Catholic. To do so, you are supposed to go and ask your father permission to become a Christian. For sure I went to my father the village to say I want to become a Christian. My father totally refused that suggestion. And he told me not to go back to the parish, not to go back to school.
If I would do so, he would, he said to me, I will not belong to the family, you would not become my father anymore. However, I went back to the parish and I asked the parish priest that I wanted to become the Catholic accretion because I want to receive the holy communion, but also to serve at the altar. I started the catechism, and at the end of 12, I was baptized. I was so happy when the bishop came to administer to me the sacrament of confirmation. I’m so happy that I was fully a Christian, a Catholic, and I was able to assist at the altar, and I was receiving the Holy Communion.
When I continued to go to school, I saw the parish priest was called Emilion Noza. He was so, hardworking person, and he would be taking us to every part of the parish, to outstations, out churches. We were serving there. I saw the example of this priest. Eventually, one day, I asked him how I would I become like you? How should I do this?
The parish priest told me, my friend, you had to go to ask your father again if he would help you or accept you to become a priest. I didn’t go. I said, please take me to where, I can study to become a priest. The parish priest took me to the preparing the seminary.
I went to the minor seminary. Then after the minor seminary, that’s the secular school, I asked the parish priest how I would be a motocian to join his congregation. Then the journey started. Until I became a priest on the 3rd of August 1996, I was ordained a priest. I was so happy to serve.
At the same time, people at home would not be very happy to see me a priest. That was why the villagers and the chiefs from the surrounding villages at home came together to ask my uncle not to allow me to come back to the village. Because for them, it was an abomination for me to become a priest, especially to promise not to marry. That was very difficult for them to understand and to accept that I destroyed their culture. So they came together to say I should not go back to the village because I was not one of them anymore.
However, I wanted to go back to the village. Thank God that he accepted me to become a priest. So I wanted to celebrate the first mass of which many people came, including all the Muslims. The chiefs came to see to witness the first mass at home, and it was very good, and people were very happy. Now my father also came at that time, that day, to celebrate with me.
And he said, I remember that perhaps God will save me through my son whom I was refusing to become a Christian or for to become a priest. And today, God called him to be what he is. It was very, very good. So as I became a priest, I went to work in different places. I went to Kenya, Uganda, and to other different countries as a missionary.
And God continued to call me. On the 17th of January, I was appointed a bishop of Zomba Diocese. That was in 2004, 17th of January 2004. I was really called by the Holy Father that I I become the bishop of the Diocese of Zomba. I accepted.
Then on the 17th of April 2004, I was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Zomba, where I worked for 10 years. You read did the prophets of the parish priest at our parish. I want you to become a leader. I want to you to become educated so that you become a leader in the society. I saw it fulfilling.
Because I was not only a leader in the village, in our area, but a leader in the diocese. Then Pope Francis also appointed me to become an archbishop of that diocese of Blantyre. That was on the 23rd November that of 2013. And on 8th of February 2014, I was accepted, installed here in the Archdiocese of Blantyre. Then I became the chairman of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi.
Until now, I’m the chairman of the Episcopal office of Malawi. That’s not only a leader in the Diocese of Zomba, but a leader in Malawi, the Catholic church in Malawi. This is again the prophecy that that part of this say, I want you to become a leader in, in your society, in Malawi, and I see this being fulfilled. Therefore, my dear friends, I wanted to share with you this, background story in order to emphasize what I wanted to share with you about education. That’s education, that transforms a human being, a human person, to become a leader, to become someone in the society.
This is why I’m happy to share with you now. Dear friends, I am ashamed to reveal that the high school education in that place of Blantyre and indeed the entire nation leaves much to be desired. There are many learners who are really willing to go to higher school, to high schools in Malawi. They are qualified when they go to school to study in elementary schools. They are qualified to go to high schools.
But as I said, in that class of Blantyre, there are only 3 higher schools which these people would like to go, recognized by the government. Only 3 highest schools. So 40% after their elementary exams in the 8th grade, 40% of them are elected to go to these high school. But 60a6 don’t have any chance to go to the high schools, which are very, very good. Probably, they might have all the facilities that they can even get education and be selected to go to the university.
But the other schools, secular schools, or high schools, do not qualify for these young men and women, 60% of them to go there. So they go to the lower schools, which are not very, very good. That is why I would like to share with you and to invite you really to see that in that case of Blantyre, we should have a high school with all the facilities that are required for the 60% of students to go there, then they should have a chance to go to the university. So such being the case, only for the percent of students who are successful graduate from the elementary schools are selected to the 3 highest schools. Among the 60% either go for community day seminar schools or they go back home to start another life. They become farmers, local farmers, subsisted farmers, which I wouldn’t like them to do.
I would like them to I would like to see them going to the university, going to the high school first, and then they go to invest. In the 60% high schools, which are not really, qualified to be high schools, the standards are very, very low. They wouldn’t even be motivated to go there because they are not encouraged. They are not motivating because of the situation in the schools. In the long run, as I said, they go for early marriages, and pregnancies are everywhere.
These young men and women, would likely to go to school, to high school, but then without any motivation, they go for early marriages. So we see that there’s a great loss among these 60% of the students who do not qualify to go to higher schools, the best higher schools. A great loss. They are talented and they will do really build a strong sustainable society, but they are not qualified to go to high school because of the shortage of high schools. So facing this situation, a group of friends, Malawian and Americans, you get to reach out to these highly frustrated young people, formed a task force to construct a high school for 400 girls and 400 boys in the rural area of Namulenga.
We will call this high school Our Lady of Namulenga. The project, therefore, is to build a high school campus for 800 students who, because of the lack of facilities, hinder their development. The campus, because of transportation problems and, its rural location, will be residential for students, for teachers, and for all the people who will be at least assisting at the school. It will also include the essential components to achieve a modern secondary education. This is our dream of friends from America and also friends from Malawi.
The outcome will be transformational in nature. As I shared with you, my situation at home, because I went to school, I was transformed. So we would like to have the same idea that the outcome of this high school will be very transformational in nature. The students will develop their God given abilities and employ them in service of to others in their communities. Already at a similar undertaking in Ghana, I give an example.
Graduates have completed university now. They built the same standard of high school, and they went really to the university, and now they are graduating from the university. They are doctors, they are nurses, they are teachers, they are lawyers, they are in business, they are engineers, although also architects. We feel we can do the same here in Malawi. Therefore, my dear friends, I’m very happy that I have friends in America.
I have friends in America who would like to really engage in this project. One of the friends or the family, friends, is this family of, Doug and Katie Mark. One of the highlights of my recent visit along with my priest secretary, Francis Tambala, to the diocese of Juliet, Crookston, and Fargoo was to meet and initiate friendship with Doug and Katie, their wonderful family, including their first grandchild. I also I’m also very grateful to meet bishop John Falda. Relatives and friends of the Marxks, we had a most enjoyable reception there together.
That Mark family and his friends have had a keen interest in Africa that has been strengthened by their travels on the continent. Very creatively, Doug and his family have devised a matching gift program, whereby they would match dollar for dollar donations towards the project up to the amount of $250,000 for a total contribution of $500,000. This would be a huge participation in the Namulenga High School Project of $2,500,000. The country of Malawi, you know very well, is the 6th poorest in the world.
It is called the warm heart of Africa, capturing the spirit of its people. Very friendly. They welcome anybody who would come to Malawi. They are also highly gifted in every way, especially with intelligence and a thirst for education. I feel deeply my call to leadership to spearhead religious as well as total human development among my people.
That is why I’m also very excited about this high school project. Very quickly, it will impact thousands and thousands of young brothers and sisters who live with you in the one human family. Very excited. I cannot describe sufficiently my appreciation to Doug and Kate and their children for their courage in this initiative. The same appreciation also goes to all you for you are joining them.
Your contributions and support will make a huge difference here in Malawi. The poor students here need your total participation. The poor students here need to excel. They need to develop. They need to be leaders in this country.
The poor students here need you for their brighter future. He won’t really to excel in life. The poor students here need you to have another meaning in life. That’s why we need to have a high school of 800 students who would really meet the educational standards in that capacity. So for I would like to appeal to you friends through Doug and Katie that this initiative may succeed.
Your contribution will be very much appreciated. Finally, I wish to extend my warmest welcome to all of you to Malawi, especially to the Archdiocese of Blantyre. You are very much welcome to our home. Please feel very free to come and share with us your ideas and expertise in the education system of our diocese. I will be very glad to have you here anytime.
Thank you very much for choosing to listen to me and support our cause. May God bless you all and bless our cause. Thank you very much, dear friends.
