State Attack against the Catholic Church
Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba wrote;
The Archdiocese of Lusaka is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Zambia, where it is also considered its national primatial see.
Its cathedral episcopal see, is Cathedral of the Child Jesus.
It is therefore not surprising that the Church has quickly and firmly demanded for answers from President Hakainde Hichilema over this dastard attack against the Diocese premises that occurred on Monday 28th October 2024, where the premises by 05;00hrs, were secured and sealed-off by a heavily armed battalion of police officers with anti-riot gear.
Even regular parishioners and devotees were denied their routine early morning prayers.
Archbishop Dr. Alick Banda was denied entry when he arrived at 07;30hrs and he remained standing outside the Church until way after 09;30hrs, this was despite intervention by the Archbishop and Lusaka lawyer, John Sangwa Sc.
When we went live on social media and exposed the stand-off, we saw some frantic activities.
We saw the Lusaka Police Commissioner panic as he recived numeorus phone calls and later withdrew his forces.
All this senseless police action was aimed at stopping a scheduled Requiem Mass, called to honour the 10th Memorial Anniversary of the passing of Zambia’s Fifth President, Michael Chilufya Sata, who was also a well-known catholic devotee.
This Requiem Mass had been prepared for the last two months between the family, the Patriotic Front, Cabinet Office and the Catholic Church. It was initially scheduled for St. Ignatius Parish but was later moved to the Cathedral of the Child Jesus on account of space.
It was only last week that were informed that there were frantic directives from State House to move the Requiem Mass from the Cathedral of the Child Jesus to a church service at the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross “because the President was not allowed to speak in church last time” and “owing to the current frosty relationship between the Church and the State”.
As a party leadership, we refused to dishonour Mr. Sata and we insisted that the family should stand firm and hold the Requiem Mass at the Cathedral of the Child Jesus. Beisdes, that’s were we have held all the previous 8 Memorials!
Infact, we were elated when we were later informed that Cabinet Office had buckled and government had chosen to honour the wishes of the family to hold the Requiem Mass at the Cathedral of the Child Jesus.
Preparations resumed for the Requiem Mass to be held at the Cathedral of the Child Jesus.
To this effect, a final meeting between the Vicar General, a representative of the Chaplain General and the family was held on Friday, 25th October 2024 to finalise the details of the Monday program and to help ensure that the printing of the program could be done.
However, we were not surprised, that despite these preparations and agreements, two statements in quick succession, came from Ministry of Information and Media Permament Secretary, Thabo Kawana and Secretary to Cabinet Patrick Kangwa, insisting that the church service will be held, (as per state house wishes and not President Sata’s family), at the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
We understood the pressure the family were under but we proceeded to complete the preparations for the scheduled Requiem Mass at the Cathedral of the Child Jesus.
We were supported by many family members who felt that the restrictions and politics about the venue were unnecessary and the divide between the “PF and UPND” that State House was promoting over this matter was totally misplaced.
So when we arrived at the Cathedral on monday morning, the police command informed us that they had instructions “from higher authorities” and claimed that they could’nt allow another “parallel” church service besides the government sanctioned one, invitation only, service that was being held at the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross and later followed by the laying of wreaths at Embassy Park.
However, as seen by the mass turn-out at the Catholic Cathedral of the Child Jesus, and the huge following that it attracted on social-media, there was need for not only this Requiem Mass, but probably more held across the City and country.
Who sanctioned this operation to stop the Requiem Mass? Who sent the militarised and anti-riot unit to invade the Cathedral premises and seal-off the gates? Who will pay for this invasion of a sacred place?
Like the catholic church, we will wait for answers from State House.