Maravi

‘Catholic Church has no intention of seeking political power’

‘Catholic Church has no intention of seeking political power’
By Bivan Saluseki in Luano Valley
Thu 10 June 2010, 04:00 CAT

ZAMBIA Episcopal Conference (ZEC) general secretary Fr Joe Komakoma has said the Catholic Church has no intention of seeking political power but merely wants to see people have access to basic needs.

In an interview at Mission of Our Lady of Sorrow in Chingombe in Luano Valley yesterday, Fr Komakoma, who together with Caritas Zambia executive director Sam Mulafulafu and Pontifical Missionary Society (PMS) director Fr Bernard Zulu undertook a visit to the area, said the government had an obligation to look after the people.

Fr Komakoma said the perception that Catholics were hard on the government was wrong because the Catholic Church was trying to assist people, who would ordinarily have to look forward to support from the government.

He said given the poverty levels in remote areas, such as Chingombe, it would be naïve for any church to only preach to the people without looking at their immediate social needs, which the government did not supply.

“You saw how we struggled to get here. The difficulties to access this place, and the roads that are in a very bad condition… but all along the road, you saw a lot of people including this place so that’s the first challenge,” he said. “Any place which has no proper access in terms of roads is very difficult to develop or for people to see any meaningful development. And you heard what people said… that teachers refuse to come here because how do they get their salaries and how do they get the other things that people have. If it is already difficult to access then the other services are not there.”

Fr Komakoma said people had said they rarely saw any government official.

“If this mission was not there, what would these people have? They would just be subsisting and perhaps hunt but again they are in a Game Management Area and they are not allowed to kill animals. Anyhow, so then it means these people would be condemned to a life of destitution and the church does recognise that there are people living in these conditions and despite the difficulties, the church prefers to be present,” he said.

Fr Komakoma said it was very heroic to see the mission, like several other Catholic missions and outposts giving people certain basic needs.

“The church is present just to at least give people the basics, but the church can only go so far because we use our own resources and being a big church that we are, we beg from our friends in Europe who have a bit of money to say ‘look, help us.’ These are the things we can contribute and for the people, the mission becomes a lifeline and if they are sick, they can come here and if their children want to go to school, they can go to school until grade eight then they would try and find them schools anywhere,” he said. “This is why when we see conditions like this, people say we are very hard on government. It’s not that we are very hard on government. It’s only that we want government to recognise and not forget that there are people who are living in these conditions and they should not be forgotten. So when they are speaking about development, we say this is development in the abstract. When you hear government boasting saying ‘we are doing a lot on roads’…you saw the roads.”

Fr Komakoma said even without such visits, the Catholic Church was able to know specific problems in most areas because of its physical presence.

“We really would want government never to forget people like this because our job as a church is to go to places where we feel people really need help and there is nowhere else to turn. But we can’t assume the role of government because we don’t have the means to give these people development,” Fr Komakoma said. “We are always accused… ‘We have an agenda…we are interested in politics’. We have absolutely no intention of seeking political power, why would we seek political power? What we want to serve is our people and when we say our people, it’s even non-Catholics.”

Fr Komakoma said Catholic nuns serving in clinics, schools and hospices among other places did not discriminate in terms of denomination when people go to access the services.

“If someone comes to the clinic they won’t ask and say ‘are you Catholic? They will simply say what’s the problem and they will try to assist. We feel that is our calling as a church to respond to the needs of the people and especially the poor. We have this commitment to say the poor must not be forgotten because if we forget them, who is going to remember them?” asked Fr Komakoma.

“As a church we have this special emphasis on the poor and for me this is exactly what we mean by being of service to the poor because you are in place where if the church is not here, giving the basics services that are there, then the people have nothing. Government has no presence here. I haven’t seen any government facility here.”

Labels: CATHOLIC CHURCH, JOE KOMAKOMA, POLITICS

posted by MrK @ 3:41 PM