The Catholic Secretariat of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi has announced the tragic death of Rite Reverend Bishop Joseph Mukasa Zuza. Bishop Zuza died from the serious injuries he sustained in a car accident in Chikangawa near Nthungwa in Mzimba district.
Reports received from eyewitness says the car he was in overturned several times. Bishop Zuza was rushed to Mzuzu Central Hospital where he succumbed to the injuries.
“He passed on while being attended to in Mzuzu” Communications Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Father Andrew Kaufa, said in a statement to Media.
A rift between President Bingu wa Mutharika and the Catholic Church increased in August when Bishop Joseph Mkasa Zuza of Mzuzu in northern Malawi, gave a public speech in front of the president. The bishop, who is the head of Malawi’s bishop’s conference, said several times that those who believe themselves to be perfect and to have no need of advice are perfect fools.
The bishop intended the speech to be a general criticism of the way the country is led, but the president took it as a personal affront. Bingu “never missed an opportunity to attack the churches, without any respect,” Montfort missionary Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba told Fides news agency.
Bishop Zuza was concerned about some Western influences in Malawi. According to the Bishop, some organisations in Malawi are using money to entice mostly poor young people to adopt un-African lifestyles and unions at the expense of marriage between a man and a woman. “In Malawi, these organisations are using money to influence young people to promote same-sex unions, ” Bishop Zuza says.
The Episcopal Conference of Malawi is keen to see that children in families are nurtured and that they adopt lifestyles that are truly African and Christian.
