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Sam Kalimba

Archdiocese of Lilongwe will relocate the Cathedral from the Our Lady of Africa – Maula to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary – Likuni Parish.

His Grace Archbishop George Desmond Tambala announced this on the sidelines of the installation of Rev. Fr. Innocent Mtapaonga as Dean for Likuni Deanery on Friday, 20 May, 2022.

He said: “The Cathedral site has been changed from Maula to Likuni where the Archdiocese has a lot of land and where the project can be realized with enough space for development of other structures like offices, parking space, future shrine and other relevant additional infrastructure.”

The Archbishop read a letter from his Office to all the Catholic priests, religious and the laity. Part of the letter reads, “Sometime back, together with the late Archbishop Tarcizius Ziyaye, we as Archdiocese embarked on a very important project to build a cathedral that would offer us enough space for the much-needed Eucharistic celebrations and other liturgical rites. The project was paused after the passing away of the late Archbishop Ziyaye.”

The letter continues to inform the Church that after due consultation, and in the meeting of the College of Consultors held on the 11^th of May 2022, it was decided that the project should commence.

The Archbishop said that the initial project was quoted at over 7 billion Malawi Kwacha due to the many architectural aspects of the project and also considering the place on which the cathedral was to be built.

He said that the project budget has since been revised to allow for a cost that all parishes can afford to contribute. He said that the revised cost would be communicated to the Archdiocese soon.

His Grace said the Church is very grateful for the financial contribution that has been realized already with the help of all parishes in the Archdiocese. He also said that the Church is committed to providing regular financial reports on the project. He said that with the current funds available, the Church is confident of starting the project very soon. He further mentioned that there is going to be the Eucharist Celebration of the laying of a foundation stone and commencement of the project.

Likuni is the historical site of the first cathedral of the archdiocese of Lilongwe dating back to 1903.