Maravi

ZEC has nothing to do with Bishops council of Zambia - Fr Samasumo

ZEC has nothing to do with Bishops council of Zambia - Fr Samasumo
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 12 Sep. 2010, 04:00 CAT

THE Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) has nothing to do with the so-called Bishops Council of Zambia, ZEC spokesperson Fr Paul Samasumo has said. And Mongu Diocese Caritas director Nathaniel Mubukwanu yesterday said Mongu Diocese Bishop Paul Duffy’s statement about the wind of change blowing in the Western Province is true.

The Bishops Council of Zambia has of late been on rampage denouncing Bishop Duffy’s statement that some people in Western Province want change from the MMD government.

Bishop Duffy has said he did not subscribe to the Bishops Council of Zambia, which he described as one of the fly-by-night groups recently formed because of President Rupiah Banda.

ZEC spokesperson Fr Paul Samasumo said in an interview on Thursday that the Roman Catholic Church bishops in Zambia only belonged to ZEC, a body which was constituted in 1959.

“That is what I wanted to deny. The Bishops have never been members of the so-called Bishops Council,” Fr Samasumo said. “In fact, we have never even heard about it. We are only hearing about it now. We don’t even know what they stand for, what their aims are.”

Fr Samasumo said statements in some sections of the media that the Bishops Council of Zambia encompassed Catholic leaders were therefore not true.

Fr Samasumo said the only organisations that ZEC works with closely were the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Christian Council of Zambia (CCZ).

“We cooperate with other faiths, for example through (Zambia Interfaith Networking Group on HIV/AIDS) ZINGO, where there are other faiths; some of them which are non-Christian, but that is a loose association with a set purpose of combating HIV/AIDS,” said Fr Samasumo.

Fr Samasumo said he was not sure of the motive behind the Bishops Council of Zambia leadership to align themselves with the Catholic Church leadership. And Mubukwanu said Bishop Duffy was talking about issues that he hears from the people that he lives with.

“He does not talk about issues that he hears on ZNBC or Zambia Daily Mail or even Times of Zambia,” Mubukwanu said. “These are concrete experiences lived by the people of Western Province, for we know that Western Province is the only province with an endless list of negative superlatives.”

Mubukwanu said Western Province was the only one with the highest poverty levels even going by official government statistics.

“Mulambwa people are living in filth,” Mubukwanu said. “And how can they not be tired of this government?”

Mubukwanu asked what interest the people that had come out to condemn Bishop Duffy over his change of government statement were trying to protect while turning a blind eye to reality.

“The onus is on the MMD to really prove that people still want them,” said Mubukwanu. “Going by the results of the Luena by-election, how does the MMD interpret that in relation to the statement that Bishop Duffy made?”

Labels: NATHANIEL MUBUKWANU, PAUL SAMASUMO, ZEC

posted by MrK @ 2:40 AM