By BARNABAS ZULU
CATHOLIC Church priests and Bishops won’t be be intimidated by the UPND government and that isolating individual clerics for political attacks such as Auxiliary Bishop of Chipata, Gabriel Msipu Phiri is being naïve and sacrilegious, Fr Andrew Chewe Mukosa has said.
And government has announced that it shall isolate Auxiliary Bishop Msipu from the Catholic Church and deal with him as an individual for criticizing the UPND government over its failure to deliver on its promises in the four years it has been in government.
Fr Mukosa says it is being ignorant for Cornelius Mweetwa, the Chief government Spokesperson to threaten and intimidate Auxiliary Bishop Msipu of Chipata Diocese for challenging the UPND to tell Zambians what it had done in the last four years.
Mr Mweetwa yesterday told Bishop Msipu to stop attacking the government in the media or he would be isolated from the church and be dealt with as a politician.
Mr.Mweetwa stated that government would not respond to the Catholic Church as an institution but would address Bishop Msipu as an individual, claiming that his statements reflected personal views rather than those of the church.
He has also cited a recent incident where opposition Citizens First leader Harry Kalaba was speaking, and Bishop Msipu allegedly joined in condemning the government. Mr.Mweetwa warns that government will not remain silent while being subjected to persistent criticism, urging the bishop to be open about his political stance rather than speaking under the cover of the church.
“We will now begin to respond to you as an individual because a few days ago, you were at a function where Harry Kalaba (leader of Citizens First) was also present and you are busy castigating government. Do you expect us to fold our hands while you continue with your unrelenting attack on us?” Mr. Mweetwa said yesterday during a press briefing in Lusaka.
But in an interview, yesterday, Fr Mukosa said it was folly, naive and ignorance of the highest level by Mr Mweetwa for suggesting that Bishop Msipu should be treated separately from his role in the church.“It is absurd, naive and ignorance to say Bishop Msipu must be treated in isolation. I am sure you remember the Pastoral letter that was issued by the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) cataloguing the hardships that the Zambians are going through.
That is where Bishop Msipu got it from. You can’t isolate the Bishop from the letter because he was part of the people that wrote it,” Fr Mukosa said.
He said the message by Bishop Msipu was clear and on point because that was what the Zambians were going through.
“People are suffering, people are going hungry and there is serious hardship out there. The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) in their Food and Needs Basket was quoted at K11, 000 for a family of five in Lusaka. So, what is he saying?” he said.
“They should go back to the inaugural speech of the president in 2021. Most of the things he said have not been achieved.
So, Mr Mweetwa knows very little.
Tell him that threats don’t work in a democracy. We are not scared of him and the government. They can’t beat us, even if they say we will be isolated from the church,” he said.
“Mweetwa won’t intimidate us. We are part of the church. One of the features of a democracy is freedom of expression and opinion. We can say what we want to say. We can associate with whoever want. We can associate with Edgar Lungu, even Mweetwa himself, we can associate with Harry Kalaba because that is our right,” Fr Mukosa said.