By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Is the Pastoral letter for the President or the people?
In the Calendar of the Church and its social teaching, a Pastoral Statement or Letter is significant.
Pastoral letters may deal with any subject affecting the faith, practice, welfare, or worship of the people. They are often published during certain seasons, as in Lent or Advent. Over the centuries they have become expressions of the ordinary teaching authority of the Church.
This past week, the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), a college of Catholic Archbishops and Bishops in Zambia met. As usual this would have culminated in a Pastoral Statement issued and read publicly.
Apparently, State House is said to have learnt of the stinging details of the letter especially on; the failure of government to resolve the economic crisis three years in a roll, the cost of living crisis, volatile exchange rate market, emerging dictatorial tendencies and shrinking democratic space, load-shedding, misconduct of the Police, Electoral Commission of Zambia, the expulsion of nine MPs and impending constituency by-elections, the matters surrounding the abduction of Petauke Central Independent Member of Parliament Emmanuel Banda and other pertinent matters affecting the people.
Another matter of concern was the confidential letters of apology to the Church over the misconduct of the Police in Kabwe and Ndola against the Church. The Bishops strongly felt that the President must make such apologies public as the matters were in public domain and also beyond the apology, dealt with his erring officers.
So before the Conference could issue the Pastoral Statement, State House is said to have stepped in and chose to honour a previous request for a meeting and insisted that the President Hakainde Hichilema would meet the Bishops and hear, listen and help resolve the concerns.
A hurried meeting was therefore arranged hours and prior to the release of the Statement.
President Hichilema invited Catholic members from his government led by Secretary to Cabinet, Patrick Kangwa and Defence Minister, Ambrose Lufuma, and others to join the meeting.
Efyo na Pastoral Letter yashima!
The Bishops have since headed to a sub-regional consultative meeting of the Catholic Bishops of Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe taking place in Salima, Malawi, from 15 July to 19 July 2024.
This significant gathering aims to address various pressing challenges affecting the Church and the people within the three countries, including inequality, poverty, unemployment, cost of living crisis and environmental concerns.
In Hakainde’s times the Pastoral letter is for him and him alone . It’s not for congregants. And he won’t stop at the so called Top Secret meeting he had with the Catholic Church Bishops…He will continue till he dismembers this Institution, the only remaining independent voice in Zambia…
There’s a mole in the Catholic Bishops Council who must be leaking information..This mole’s allegiance is not with the body of Christ…It is elsewhere.
Let the Catholic Church Bishops learn something from what is happening to Civil Society Organizations, the arms of government, political parties and more specifically the Patriotic Front…The Mingalatoon is now fermenting divisions in the Catholic Church.Previously there was uninamity in the Catholic Church’s approach to issues affecting the church members, and the nation at large..but the Mingalatoon
will ensure that this is destroyed and a babel Tower descends on the Catholic Church. Sad to see what is happening to my
Church, which has been a beacon of hope in Zambia for years.
But if the letter was not issued, how come you seem to be equipped with all the contents of the purported letter? did you author it? or is it the usual you trying to show relevance? in an irrelevant way.
What i see these days from any Pastoral letters is flesh and carnal mind of the likes of Alick Banda the PF cadre of a catholic Bishop.
I see no inspiration from the mind of God. It is always what they think which is their inclination to the PF crookedness. They condemn the innocent while conniving with the PF and at the same time planning with the PF on how they would use the church against the ruling party so as to influence the members to vote for Pf in 2026. Very canning indeed.