20100405
ALLAFRICA

THE Roman Catholic Church has distanced itself from a statement by Change Life Zambia Director Frank Bwalya claiming that President Rupiah Banda's attendance of the Good Friday celebrations at St Ignatius was a mockery to the Catholics.

And the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) has also distanced itself from the statement made by Fr Bwalya that President Rupiah Banda should not have attended the Good Friday mass in the Catholic Church.

ZEC spokesperson Paul Samasumo said Father Bwalya was not a spokesperson for the church and what he said were his own personal views.

The church described Fr Bwalya's statement as one aimed at denting the image of St Ignatius and yet he did not represent the parish in any way.

Superior of the St Ignatius Parish, Charles Chilinda said there was no wrangle between the Government and the catholics and advised the president not to respond to Fr Bwalya's seven days ultimatum to apologise to the catholics because that was not the ultimatum from the catholics but from Fr Bwalya.

And St Ignatius, Vice-Parish Council chairperson Evaristo Njelesani said as a parish, it welcomed people who wanted to fellowship with them and that Easter was a big event in the Catholic Church and attendance was open to everyone.

Speaking at a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday at St Ignatius, Father Chilinda said the Catholic Church was grateful and humbled to see President Banda, Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata and Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi as it was a big inspiration to unity.

" Fr Bwalya is not speaking for St Ignatius; he is from Copperbelt, we can only speak for ourselves and what we are saying is that the president must not apologise, let him ignore the ultimatum because Fr Bwalya is speaking for himself and not the Church, Fr Bwalya has no authority over St Ignatius," he said.

He said Fr Bwalya was using any opportunity to champion his mission and urged him to stop using the media to create an impression of enmity between President Banda and Mr Sata when in actual fact they were good friends.

Fr Chilinda said the Catholic Church brought everyone together and that it would continue welcoming the president each time he wanted to join them in prayers because the Church was the house of the Lord.

He said politics should be influenced by Christian values which was not the situation saying what was being witnessed was politics of conflict and unChristian events and utterances.

Fr Chilinda has advised the media to stop focusing on the negatives each time they write their articles as Friday's function was aimed at promoting unity, peace and love.

"There is no better time for reconciliation than this one, let's have a media that promotes peace," he said.

Father Samasumo said only he and the secretary general of ZEC Joe Komakoma were official spokespersons for the church.

He said if a bishop spoke, his views could also be taken as the official position of the church and not any other priest.

Father Samasumo said the church at St Ignatius Parish invited Mr Banda to be one of the congregants at the special church service as a way of building solidarity, unity and reconciliation among people in the country.

He said among those invited were Mr Sata, Ms Nawakwi and United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema.

"There is no way we can invite someone and later start condemning him for attending our church service," Fr Samasumo said.

He said the statement by Fr Bwalya was unfortunate.

The church was reacting to Fr Bwalya's statement in which he gave President Banda a seven-day ultimatum to apologise to the Catholic Church failure to which the church would make him feel unwelcome whenever he attends any service for the rest of his life.

Fr Bwalya was quoted on QFM Radio and the online publication LusakaTimes.com as having said that President Banda's attendance of the Good Friday celebrations at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church last Friday should be viewed as a mockery to the Catholic Church by all Zambians.

Speaking to QFM in a telephone interview yesterday, Fr Bwalya said the action by the president was not different from that of former president Chiluba when he went to the same church and received communion when he knew it was wrong for him to do so.

He said it was wrong for the president to attend the celebration because he is presiding over a government that has accused the Catholic Church of promoting genocide in the country.

He said the action was an act of insult to Catholic priests.