YOU CANNOT USE PUBLIC EMBARRASSMENT AS PROOF THAT A MAN MUST RESIGN.
A Pastoral Note on Justice and Conscience!
I have noted the verified statement by Hon. Dr. Clement Andeleki calling on His Grace Archbishop Dr. Alick Banda to step down while his case is pending.
With pastoral respect, we must test the logic.
When a citizen is charged, his name is placed on the public record, and he is then told to resign because of the disrepute arising from that very charge, we create circular justice.
You create the storm, then you condemn the man for being wet. That is not accountability. That is circular justice, when publicity itself becomes the verdict.
Let the court decide guilt. Don’t use publicity as the verdict.
Three truths remain:
1. The Church does not belong to Parliament. Under Canon 377, only the Holy Father appoints and removes a Bishop. A Bishop does not resign to an MP or to public opinion. The proper channel is the Apostolic Nuncio.
2. A charge is not a conviction.
Archbishop Banda was charged on 28 September under Section 319, pleaded not guilty, on K80,000 bail until 3 November. Under Article 18, he is presumed innocent. DEC itself warned against inflammatory commentary.
3. If publicity alone empties the pulpit, no church will be free. The Catholic Church is our national conscience. If public disrepute becomes grounds for resignation, tomorrow no pastor, no imam, no chief will dare to speak.
So let us be just:
Let the courts decide the case. Let the Church keep its prophetic voice. But let no politician run the pulpit, and no pulpit run the courtroom.
No one is above the law. But publicity must never be above justice.
We are One Zambia, One Law and One Free Church.
Rev. Peter K. Nsama.
12 October 2026.
This is very confused thinking. The bishop was not arrested for political reasons. He is being given the opportunity to clear his name in regard to a stolen government asset. Trying to twist the narrative to portray the government as trying to silence dissent will not work. The issue is the stolen vehicle, not dissent.
The Catholic misleadership should advise the bishop to for now cease from religious activities. There is already someone serving a prison sentence for the same case and the possibility of the bishop coming out innocent is very slim. How did the asset end up being registered in his name?
Any institution whose currency is public trust has the duty to maintain or preserve that trust. The Catholic church is being reckless with that currency and will lose it. They will be reaping what they sowed.
This man embarassed himself. He called it on himself this embarassment. Who share the police notice that the Police made to him in private? Who called the clergy and the public to join him in public appeal for suport for a crime he found himself in private? Did he publicly tell us that he was being given something that was npt his? Something that belonged to a public institution?An organisation that is regulated in its operations. The Bishop and clique of misleaders should just face the law as it has been set out. Stop trying to appeal to public and emotional sentiment to circumvent the law. The law is set out in tje same manner the 10 commandments are set out. If its the clergy’s norm to make excuses to find ways to disobey God’s laws.