Priestly ordination of Patrick Elias Lipenga from Malawi

Mgr. Peter Musikuwa, bishop of Chikwawa diocese, presided the Eucharistic celebration and the ordination ceremony.

It was a beautiful and joyful open air celebration, as the parish church was too small to accommodate all the people who took part in this important event, in spite of the intense heat, typical of this area of the lower Zambezi River.

Many Comboni missionaries, diocesan priests and sisters took part in the celebration together with Christians from Nsanje parish and other parishes. People travelled from Zambia and from various places of Malawi to be present on this special occasion.

During the homily the bishop reminded Patrick Lipenga, who was accompanied to the altar by his father and mother, of the dignity and also of the responsibility and duties of a priest. The bishop said that the priest should strive to be like Christ, who came to serve and not to be served, and, following his example, the be like the good shepherd who is willing to give his life for the salvation of all.

At the end, Fr. Dario Balula Chaves, provincial of the Comboni Missionaries in Malawi/Zambia, thanked God for the gift of a new priest to the Church and the Comboni Institute. He said that the ordination of the new priest was the best way to conclude the celebration of the 40 years of presence of the Comboni Missionaries in Malawi and Zambia. He also said that, though the Comboni Missionaries did not have a permanent presence of missionary work in Chikwawa diocese, a group of Comboni Missionaries and Comboni Sisters did work for some years in Nsanje for a specific project of social and spiritual support to the thousands of refugees who in the nineties were running away from the civil war in Mozambique and seeking refuge in Malawi.

Fr. Patrick Elias Lipenga was born on 10 November 1980 in Msomali, Chikwawa, Malawi. After completing the secondary school, he joined the postulancy in Balaka, Malawi. He did the novitiate in Lusaka, Zambia, and the theology in Kinshasa, D. R. Congo. After one year of missionary service in Lilongwe, Malawi, he was ordained deacon on 19 July 2013 in Msamba parish and priest on 16 November 2013 in Nsanje, Malawi.