Our admiration, respect for the Catholic Church

Our admiration, respect for the Catholic Church
By Editor
Mon 24 May 2010, 04:00 CAT

EVERY day our admiration and respect for the Catholic Church and its leadership increases. And this is not because they are called Catholics; they could be called anything and this wouldn’t change our view of this Church and its leadership. What matters to us is what this Church does, how it approaches the problems and challenges of our people, our country, our world. What matters to us is what this Church stands for, what this Church defends and promotes. And given this Church’s stand on many issues, we see no reason why non-Catholics cannot unite with them in the struggle for a better world.

The Catholic Church’s ideas of social justice deserve the support of every Christian and every human being of goodwill, whatever their religious or non-religious outlook. Let us not forget that Christ’s entire doctrine was devoted to the humble, the poor; his doctrine was devoted to fighting against abuse, injustice and the degradation of human beings. One doesn’t need to be a Catholic, and not even a Christian, to keep the principles of Christ. We say this because Christ’s principles give everyone hope of salvation.

We are told in Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for the people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy.”

And listen and look at what Catholic priests are saying and doing. They are every day speaking for the poor and defending their rights. Why is this so? Why do they have to do all this? They have to do this because “there are people who take cruel advantage of the poor and needy; that is the way they make their living” (Proverbs 30:14).

If one looks at things this way, it is easy to understand why Mpika Diocese Bishop Ignatius Chama is urging the new deacons to raise their voice in defence of the poor and their rights and says: “ So that there is no one sidelined in the daily distribution of national resources. The first deacons came about in order to solve the problems of discrimination in the sharing of resources. This is what we read in the Acts of the Apostles. Today in our country, we still face this problem. The wealth of the nation is concentrated in few hands while the majority wallow in abject poverty. As a deacon, raise your voice against such discrimination. If you do so, I can assure you, you will cut down on the numbers of funeral rites that you are supposed to conduct as deacons. To the poor and marginalised, share the word of Jesus Christ, the truth that liberates so that they can demand from the distributors of resources their just share. To those in power, challenge them with the word of Jesus Christ, the truth who came to serve and not to be served. Our nation needs sentry leaders ‘who will clean the country of corruption, work for the good of the people’ and mobilise the nation ‘against the common evils that beset our people’. Do all these duties in the spirit of Jesus Christ who came not to be served but to serve.

Then on the last day, when you go out to meet the Lord, you will be able to hear him say, ‘well-done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord’.

We are experiencing more a leadership of masters than servants. A leadership that shuts its eyes to its citizens being butchered in order to cling to power, a leadership that throws out integrity and the truth of Christ in order to safeguard its interests. In a nation that is supposed to be Christian, is it not possible to stop and ask: what has changed in the way our leaders govern us and what has changed in the way we allow ourselves to be governed?”

This is what the leadership of the Catholic Church teaches. And from this it is easier to understand why Fr Frank Bwalya, Fr Miha and many other priests are saying and doing what they are saying and what they are doing.

Being citizens or even residents of this country is an objective reality underlying the fact that we are all passengers on the same vessel – this country in which we all live or we have decided to make our homeland.

A trifling minority is travelling in luxurious cabins with all the facilities or amenities, with all the foods. They enjoy a nutritional, abundant and balanced diet as well as clean water supplies. They have access to sophisticated medical care supplied to them by the best that the country has and where this is seen to be inadequate, they turn to South Africa, India and other countries.

The overwhelming and suffering majority is travelling in conditions that resemble the terrible days of slave trade and colonial humiliation. That is, over 70 per cent of the passengers on this ship are crowded together in its dirty hold, suffering hunger, disease, ignorance and helplessness.

Obviously, this vessel is carrying too much injustice, inequalities to remain afloat, pursuing such an irrational and senseless route.

It is our duty and the duty of our Church, of our clergy and of our laypersons to take our rightful place at the helm and ensure that all passengers can travel in conditions of solidarity, equity and justice.

New ideas to prepare our people for the future are needed and we must start doing so right now. Beginning today, we must start building awareness – a new awareness, we would say. It is not that our country lacks awareness today; but such a new and complex era as this one requires principles more than ever. It requires a lot more awareness, and that awareness will be built, by adding together, we might say, the awareness of what is happening and the awareness of what is going to happen. It has to be built by adding together more than just one thought and the best ethical and humane ideas or more than one religion, of all authentic religions, we would say – we are not thinking of sects, which of course are created for political ends and for the purpose of creating confusion and division – the sum total of the preaching of many political thinkers, of many schools and of many religions.

Our Zambian world is no abstraction. It is a world made up mostly of men and women who are poor. And we say of that world of the poor that it is the key to understanding the Christian faith, to understanding the activity of the Catholic Church and the political dimension of that faith and the ecclesial activity. It is the poor who tell us what the world is, and what the Church’s service to the world should be. It is the poor who tell us what the polis is, what the city is and what it means for the Church really to live in that world.

The Catholic Church in Zambia has made an explicit preferential option for the poor – against poverty and in favour of social justice. From among the poor, the Church sees with ever greater clarity that society must undergo structural transformation. The Church has no concrete political or economic strategy; it simply calls for greater participation by the people in national decision-making. It supports those movements that call for greater justice in living and working conditions and fosters those organisations that struggle for a society that is neither rich no poor, but is just and fraternal. The Catholic Church has an undisputed social mission, as Pope John Paul himself stressed when he journeyed to Brazil in 1979. This is far from involving attempts to promote partisan politics or something similar; however, it does involve the fostering of a more democratic society in which all people and not just those who benefit from the present socio-economic system can be makers of their one destiny.

Clearly, the Catholic Church in Zambia faces the theological challenge of an unprecedented historical magnitude.

The objective of the Catholic Church’s preferential option for the poor is to proclaim Christ as the Saviour. This will enlighten them about their dignity, help them in their efforts to liberate themselves from all their wants, and lead them to a communion with the Father and their fellow human beings through a lived-in evangelical poverty. Jesus Christ came to share our human condition through his sufferings, difficulties and death. Before transforming day-to-day life, he knew how to speak to the heart of the poor, liberate them from sin, open their eyes to a light on the horizon, and fill them with joy and hope.

Jesus Christ does the same thing today. He is present in our Churches, in our families and in our hearts.

This option, demanded by the scandalous reality of economic imbalances in our country, should lead us to establish a dignified, fraternal way of life together as human beings, as citizens of this country and to construct a just, fair, free and humane society.

The required change in unjust social, political and economic structures will not be authentic and complete if it is not accompanied by a change in our personal and collective outlook regarding the idea of a dignified, happy human life. This in turn disposes us to undergo conversion.

Committed to the poor, the Catholic Church has no alternative but to condemn as anti-evangelical the extreme poverty that affects an extremely large segment of the population of our country. And they are making every effort to understand and denounce the mechanisms that generate this poverty. Acknowledging the solidarity of other churches, the Catholic Church has combined its efforts with those of the people of goodwill in order to uproot poverty and create a more just and fraternal society. They support the aspirations of citizens who wish to be treated as free and responsible human beings. They are called to share in the decisions that affect their lives and their future, and the Catholic Church has been encouraging all to improve themselves. This Church has defended their fundamental right to freely create organisations to defend and promote their interests, and to make responsible contribution to the common good.

And in saying and doing all this, the Catholic Church is not in any way preaching hatred against anyone, any group of people or any political party. It is simply reality that we must love everybody, but not everyone in the same way; you love the oppressed by liberating them; you love the oppressors by fighting them. Love has to be like a classifying device to become universal.

This is what needs to be understood about the Catholic Church. And this is the way we see and understand the teachings and activities of this Church, a Church for which our admiration and respect is increasing every day.