By Fox Correspondent
THE Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) has been meeting this week and it is understood that the Conference has prepared a strong and stinging Pastoral Letter.
The pastoral letter has included issues affecting the people such as load-sheding, impending by-elections, cost of living crisis, hunger affecting over 6.8 million people and other pertinent issues.
However, State House has quickly maneuvered to undermine the Pastoral Letter by seeking to meet Bishops in a pre-emptive manner in order to moderate the concerns raised by the Conference and in attempt to force them to issue a lukewarm pastoral letter.
Further, President Hakainde Hichilema wrote an apology for incidences where the Police stormed a meeting where former President Edgar Lungu was paying a courtesy call on Bishop Clement Mulenga of Kabwe Diocese.
The Police also stormed a church meeting in Ndola where United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) leaders were scheduled to attend. The police also roughed up and arrested an old parishioner who was taking pictures.
The police have also denied political parties and citizens from holding public meetings, processions, demonstrations, and rallies.
Further, there has been an out-standing issue where UPND Secretary General, Batuke Imenda labeled Archbishop Alick Banda as Lucifer of Zambia.
All the Bishops have felt strongly that these are public and public interest matters and can not be dealt with in in private and confidential letters as done by President Hichilema.
Today, all the Bishops have gone to Hichilema’s pre-emptive meeting at State House except for Archbishop Banda.
Hichilema insisted that the meeting with the Bishops at State House will be off-camera and the details will be held under a secret and confidential banner and the outcome will not be published.
It is understood that Archbishop Banda has stayed away from the meeting at State House.
The Bishops are also headed to Malawi to a sub-regional meeting to discuss the matters affecting the peoole of the region.
The subregional consultative meeting of the Catholic Bishops of Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe will take place in Salima, Malawi, from 15 July to 19 July 2024.
This significant gathering aims to address various pressing challenges within the three countries, including inequality and environmental concerns.
that keynote speeches, panel discussions, and interactive workshops would be integral parts of the meeting, designed to address the theme “Building Bridges: Strengthening Faith, Unity, and Service.”