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Apologise to Catholic Church, FFTUZ advises Shikapwasha

Apologise to Catholic Church, FFTUZ advises Shikapwasha
Written by Margaret Habbuno
Monday, August 31, 2009 3:50:03 PM

FEDERATION of Free Trade Unions in Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Simukoko has observed that it is sad that the government views criticism from the Catholic Church in a negative way. Simukoko said it was also sad that Zambian leaders believed that leadership is about being arrogant.

"Government should look at what the Catholic Church is advising them about and learn to amend where it has been told to work on. If the Catholic Church points out irregularities, they should amend them and not respond by insulting the church the way [information minister Lieutenant General Ronnie] Shikapawasha did in Parliament," Simukoko said in an interview last Tuesday.

"The leaders in government have misinterpreted leadership by saying one has to be arrogant if you are a minister or hold higher position in government. This kind of attitude is very bad in a democracy like Zambia."

She said a leader should be humble and choose the kind of words to use to society.

"Honourable Shikapwasha should just think through and apologise to the Catholic Church because he will not lose anything by so doing," she said.

Simukoko observed that there had been calls for Lt Gen Shikapwasha to apologise to the Catholic Church for his remarks on the genocide in Rwanda and the role which he claimed the church played in the massacre in that country.

However, she said Lt Gen Shikapwasha had not been brave enough to swallow his pride.

"What kind of a reverend is he who doesn't want to apologise to the Catholic Church? He is not even remorseful over the insults he made in Parliament. There have been a lot of messages from a cross section of society urging him to apologise but it seems he has failed to swallow his pride. I would like to tell Honourable Shikapwasha never to step a foot in any Catholic Church in the country or appear near it because he has failed to relate with the church," Simukoko said.

Simukoko also wondered whether Lt Gen Shikapwasha was a true reverend.

"If he was a true reverend, he would have convened a meeting with the Catholic Church. This is a sad situation where you have a reverend who calls himself a Christian but does things that are totally different from Christianity," said Simukoko. "He should have apologised to the nation because those insults were directed to all the Catholics in the country. If you offend someone, it is good to apologise and make peace with people as a leader."

On August 7, Lt Gen Shikapwasha attacked the Catholic Church in Parliament in his ministerial statement on the violence against journalists in the country. Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the church in Rwanda blindly took sides in opposing camps such that it was reported that after a century of Christian proselytisation, the country was Catholicised and not Christianised. He claimed that ritual was followed but the spirit was missing and that this tragically became evident for the church after April to May 1994. Lt Gen Shikapwasha said: "its people slaughtered their brethren wholesale inside the churches on orders from civil authorities and priests. This Mr Speaker is because the church took sides with men. The church must take sides with God. I see that the church in Zambia is taking sides rather than taking sides with God."

Lt Gen Shikapwasha also claimed that the church was "busy with trying to jostle for who they should put into State House, forgetting their mandate. Others are dishing out second hand clothing in the campaign for the pact, others feel if a person does not belong to a certain political party, they are not Christian enough Mr Speaker all this used to happen in Rwanda before the genocide. The church failed in Rwanda 25 priests have so far been imprisoned for genocide".

Labels: CATHOLIC CHURCH, FFTUZ, JOYCE SIMUKOKO, RONNIE SHIKAPWASHA

posted by MrK @ 2:52 PM