THE Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) has welcomed MMD’s call for dialogue to resolve contentious issues which have brought unnecessary tension between the ruling party and the Church mother body.
ZEC spokesperson Paul Samasumo said in an interview yesterday that the organisation has always been open to dialogue and is ready to meet with the ruling party.
Father Samasumo’s statement follows MMD national secretary Richard Kachingwe’s call for the MMD and the Catholic church to dialogue and resolve the misunderstandings between them.
“ZEC always welcomes dialogue of this nature and I am sure that the conference will be happy to hear this,” he said.
Bishop Samasumo urged all Catholics in Zambia to welcome this call from MMD saying anything that promotes peace must be accepted.
Last week, Zambia Episcopal Conference president George Lungu released a pastoral letter addressed to all Catholic Parishes in Zambia, to be read out to parishioners on June 5.
In the letter, Reverend Lungu said among other issues that the Catholic Church will remain non-partisan on politics.
He also said the church does not promote gay rights because homosexuality and lesbianism are seriously wrong and sinful acts.
Rev Lungu also called for peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.
And Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Pukuta Mwanza says his organisation is pleased that the MMD is planning to meet with the ZEC.
Reverend Mwanza said he hopes the meeting will be constructive and that all outstanding issues will be resolved.
He said the meeting will foster unity between government and the church, who are partners in development.
Meanwhile, a senior Lusaka-based legal practitioner, Hobday Kabwe, says the equivocal explanation of the Catholic Church on homosexuality is raising questions among some members of the Catholic Church, including himself, because they are similar to Patriotic Front president Michael Sata’s position on the matter.
Mr Kabwe said the pastoral letter, which will be read in all Catholic Churches on Ascension Sunday, is expected to clearly state the position of the church on homosexuality and that ZEC president George Lungu is also expected to use his role as preacher of salvation, reconciliation and forgiveness.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
SATA does not support homosexuality. MMD has nothing to decampaign SATA and to accuse him of supporting homosexuality is a ploy to discredit him. SATA’s position on homosexuality may be similar to that of the Catholic Church because he is Catholic. MMD needs to aplogize to the Catholic Church. The Catholics will welcome them anc console them when they lose this year and visit them in prison…
Nshaba ikaola imozi mukamwa zonse zaola
Dialogue is the only civilised way of reolving differences though MMD govt is oblivious to the needs of the people and sees the Catholic advocacy as politicking. The Catholic church has been around much much longer and will continue to be there long after the MMD will be gone. I hope MMD will learn to respect the church
@don’t kubeba
FOR HOW LONG WILL YOU CONTINUE DEFENDING YOUR LEADER WHO HAS NO REAL STANCE?? HE IS SO UNSTABLE AND JUMPY ALWAYS GIVING FAKE PROMISES WHICH CAN’T HONOUR OR EXPLAIN!
PF HAS BEEN IN CONTROL OF A LARGE PART OF ZAMBIA’S LOCAL GOVERNMENT…WHAT PROMISES HAS IT HONOURED???? 90 DAYS HAS PASSED BUT NO CHANGE HAS COME.
SATA SAID THAT THERE ARE LAWS FOR GAYS, HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THAT IF TODAY HE TRIES TO CHANGE HIS STANCE…..HE WAS FIGHTING FOR FUNDING FROM THE DANISH, READY TO CHANGE ZAMBIAN LAWS FOR CASH
NOW HIS TACTIC IS TO ACCUSE RB OF HARBOURING GAYS, THIS IS YOUR PRESIDENT THATS HIS BEHAVIOUR… IF WE ASK YOU TODAY OF HIS PLANS YOU ARE NOT SURE WHICH OF HIS STANCES IS FINAL
The Zambian law recognises gays and lesbians,what does this statemeny mean to you sir.
To me an educated Zambian and proud PF Kaponya it simply means it recognises that such acts exist and a provision under the law exists to deal with such if at anytime it happens.Lets learn to interpret things correctly please ba MMD Oooh sorry MMD only interprets things to suit there party and feast on the weak minds who watch MMD TV to confuse them what a shame.
Meanwhile read the pastoral letter on 5 th june
Samasumo is such a cutie. Hola!
Ha, I thought I was the only pervert, these cuties must come to mama and leave the robes and collars behind hee hee hee
I STRONGLY BELIEVE THE IDEAR IS KACHINGWE’S & NOT THE MMD. SILIYA & THE RUPIAH CLICK CAN’T BUY THE IDEAR. THEY HAVE NO REGARD NOR RESPECT FOR THE CHURCH. OTHERWISE THE CHURCH SHALL HAVE THE ALTIMATE SMILE. GOOD I IDEAR BA KACHINGWE BUT DONT KUBEBA.
Oh please save us from your …*fyolas*…Do you honestly believe the nation needs this triviality in governance or does the idea of unification and reconciliation elude your realm of unerstanding? As a nation we can ill afford having churches fighting with govenment because at the end of the day it is us the commoners that suffer.
afrozed doesnt even understand what saying…lets desist from rampant unwarranted outrageous rants please
#5 My dear I agree and sh!!t he is celibate and not on the market. I just hope he is not gay. He is definitely cute for a catholic priest together with that ka Mongu priest who was in court the other day. Looks like the catholic have some cuties in their ranks.
makes three of us perverted by these cuties, mwaaaaaa!
MMD have now realised that fighting the church with popularity of voters wont take them anywhere considering that this is a election year they should obviously reconcile with the church. The church will be there forever with or without MMD and the church dont need MMD but MMD need the church.
Fr. Samasumo, in the name of the church I know he means business because of Moj.’s constructive reasoning. Yes dialogue will be but has it has been the case in a number of times. History has it that the President Rupia Banda went to the Cathdral in Mongu when he was called or rather invited by
Bishop Duffy of Mongu diocese, the meeting really gave positive view and the fruits of the meeting was seen when the following day the president made pronouncement that, to reduce unnecessary costs, he will reduce travelings, reduce unncessary workshops in and out of the country by him, government officials and civil servants and also reduce the numbers of deligations to accompany him when goes abroad. but those pronouncements lasted only a month
This anoyed Bishop Duffy that is why he ended up telling it off that, the poor taxi payers money will only be used wisely by change of leadership. In that way there is no partisanship to any political party but just the dare desire for developement in the interest of the mass. Catholics have done that since time in memorial following the teaching of Jesus Christ to fight for the justice of the populas. People, therefore, should not cheat themselves thinking dialogue will stop the church being concerned of the welfare of its people. But off course exagerations of Frank
Bwalya can not be supported
# 5- you are a pervert,
Now PF Gays are panting to sodomize Fr. Samasumo ignoring the priest’s celibate nature. What a load of perverts!
sori its not our fault that you look like the sole of mushal’s used shoes! Whats wrong with acknowledging handsomeness, hey?
#3 sly, i cant understand your reasoning.revisit ypur civics. rupiah banda runs a centralised system, meaning the PF led councils can only perform with his support!as long as u vote for an opposition will not see any meaningful development for fear of increased support for that opposition candidate.rupiah has said this and can be seen with the persecution of opposition led councils.
All I can personally hope for is a balance in their resolutions,(if anything, a resolution) in a timely and cost effective.The more this issue drags on, we will only have more buffons making noise over issues they can hardly claim to understand or respect.I pray for fairness and upholding of promises and pledges. One Zambia,One Nation.
Afrozed nalikuchonga imilandile yobe yamano sana
lets hope MMD has realised that Dora goes for Erections not Elections! That w*ore!
# 11 Senior Citizen ci kaa laaa
Can you show some sense for once you chikala chobe.
I will remove you from foreign missions. I want the catholic votes.
CHANDA CHIMBA III is a great chap. He brought pictures from UK showing SATA who asked some youngman if he was GAY. Poor audience but according to POST paper, we read that it was a huge audience. FOR-SA-KE.
#11 DONT BE STUPID IWE, WHO DOESNT KNOW THAT U POSTED ON #5 AND RESPONDED ON #11? YOU FEELING THE PF HEAT YOU MMD I,D,I,O,T,S AND DOGS
Remember dialogue is about talking WITH someone not talking TO someone. So MMD shouldn’t go there and seem to talk TO but talk WITH ZEC if this dialogue is to be fruitful. Don’t involve use less people like Dollar in this important dialogue she will spoil the dialogue. Let only mature people meet and dialogue not this imature DOLLAR SILIYA.
My darling dola siliya will not be there because she grew up in a home where parents and children could freely insult each other.she insulted her parents freely and her parents insulted her back so she is used. i made her minister to insult the opposition and she has exteded it to the church.
Samasumo should first deal with inhouse organisations like CARITAS and together let them talk with one voice. This nonsense of ZEC says that and caritas says the opposite does not reflect well on the credibility of the church…….
I do not believe that any sane person can be a hero worshipper for people like Sata. The man has no stable mind and he will definitely change the laws to please his funders from gay nations like UK and Denmark if given a chance to be in charge of government. But God is great and he will never give such an insane person any chance to rule this beautiful country Zambia; its not possible! It is sad that PF kaponyas cant see that their leader is insane and says anything. And this is the reason why other leaders have not imprisoned him because they know that he is an insane person and doing so would be just a waste of time.
Rev Fr Samasumo don’t get excited about the dialogue call from the MMD, its a bait to pick up broken pieces. The fools have lately realised how important a Catholic constituent vote may be for their desparate survival. Before they come to you encourage them to first engage key political parties like PF into genuine and constructive dialogue, then you the civil society. Not the poaching of party members they did with the failed NCC. Let also that big fool in skirt in disgraced Dorah Siliya crawl before their ZNBC vuvuzela and unequivocally apologise to the Catholic Church. Baya sana ba mushibila nsala. 2011 we are game
CARITUS IS AN NGO, I SEE NOTHING WRONG WITH THEIR STANCE AS COMPARED TO THE LIKE OF CHIMBA CHANDA WHO THE PIPO HAVE COME TO HURT TO AN EXTENT THAT IF HE WENT TO A PUBLIC PLACE LIKE PUB HE CAN BE SKINNED ALIVE.SO MMD SHUD DEAL WITH CHANDA CHIMBA, LIFYOKO, AND CHIFWIRE…..OTHERWISE CARITUS SHUD DIRECT THE PIPO TO VOTE FOR A CREDIBLE PERSON
Yes, dialogue is a civilised approach to resolving differences but unfortunately it is not part of the MMD way of doing things. If they believed in dialogue they would have sat at a round table with the Lozis to discuss their grievances but instead they ordered the murders and maiming of innocent demonstrators. In Egypt right now Mubarak is soon to stand trial for ordering the killings of protestors, a thing he never dreamt of and this will happen wherever people are suppressed. The only reason the MMD seem to be agreeing to dialogue at this late hour is because of the elections.
I WANT THIS GVT OUT SO THAT THE PERSON WHO ORDERED THE KILLINGS IN MONGU ,MAZABUKA , AND GARDEN ARE BROT TO JUSTICE….AN EYE FOR EYE
pf cadres don’t get excited. the full story of what father samasumo said is in today’s times of zambia on page 2. quotes “father samasumo feared that the letter authord by zec for circulation to all churches countrywide thissunday could cause maximum divisions within the catholic church which diverse membership……the contents of the letter had been misrepresented by the media to meant that the catholic church intended to campaign for pf leader michael sata which would never happen…he said the catholic church across the country had membership from mmd, pf, upnd etc which made it impossible for zec to back any candidate…he said zec was ready to withdraw the letter depending on how fast dialogue can be worked out but the matter rested in the hands of zec president….”
“..he said the letter from zec was a call for calm from the parishners and not a statement of disengagement like it had been perceived…” now my personal opinion: when the letter was issued i stated on LT that zec should withdraw it as it would cause serious embarrassment for the catholic clergy. barely a week has passed and i am vindicated. it seems the letter was thrust down george lungu’s throat to isssue it. there is obvious disagreement within the catholic church but fortunately it is one or two bad eggs within it and not the whole church. one cannot rule out one hurt father telephone resurfacing to seek revenge and support for his in laws.
As evidence from 1990 compels us to believe, KK told the Catholic Church when I win the elections, ‘you Roman Catholics you will use your rosary to leave this country.’ KK was reminded that if thi Church was started by the hands of a man will be destroyed but if its God, it ‘s forever.’ KK failed to listen to the senior Catholic Archbishop the late Elias Mutale to step down and leave power to others to rule. Archbishop Mutale died unexplained death when leaving State House to Roma town. The unrush state media controlled reporting fueled the anger and the will to vote against KK and this is what happened and this where we are heading Dora, Chanda Chimba 3, Chifire, chihana and family churches whose survive depends on handouts from govt. The are a source of misery to RB and MMD
Why is dola sillier quiet? has she realised that she is just a trouble maker for RB, katwishi mayo, next time dont open your mouth as you do with your legs. Vanity has taken over this harlot.
@28, so what are you saying, sir? can you come out with your point?
@28, according to the post archives, “…under dr kenneth kaunda, mr sata was chief vigilante, and was one of those who contributed to making dr kaunda unpopular at the time…” post, 25 september 2006. these are not my words but those of mr mmembe and the post. and now you think that the man will bring change, bad change yes? give us a break! ni agony bane.
Concentrate adimiring your husband. Ebuchende bushilepwa muchalo. How can you start adimiring father samasumo. Bak to the dialogue, i dont think this is the time should start wasting time to sit down with MMD. The damage is done and i dont think the meeting with MMD & The church will change anything. MMD are corrupt, they steal, they worship corruption, they breath corruption. Everything arround MMD members is stolen glory.if anything the church should task MMD on the 500billion have invested in the renovation of society house. That building is worth k10billion. Put that k500billion on society house is nothing but pure theft. This amount of money can open alot shops like shoprite than sendining this money to kenya. Ask them please. We are tired of suffering.
I dont see anything useful coming out of this meeting becoz like it or not, the catholic church has a pre-determined preferred candidate in Sata, everybody knows that. i mean, what is it with such statements like a Catholic vote, very vocal catholic priests all against govt, Caritas open secret. And now the talk of reading out a pastoral in all parishes on 5th June. In whose interests? becoz the congregations comprise catholics who are PF, MMD, UPND and any such political parties represented in Zambia. I tend to think that letter may be a hate worded letter against govt. Its a recipe for anarchy and division of flock in congregations. Remember that a hate speech stirred up ethnic tensions and later carnage in Rwanda. Indeed, God only is Greatest, not any single church. My opinion exactly.
The politicians and non politicians need to read the Catholic Social Justice Teaching to understand the role of the Catholic Church in as far as social and economic issues are concerned. the misunderstanding is very unfortunate.
i want to agree with you # 1 wise words the church does not ague on maters that have already been stated. mr kabwe Bishop lungu is not a politician mind you ba mmd dont think he is going to write anything concern the politics of you guys he is the servant of the HOLY SPIRIT that will guide him to write what God wants to manifest to his people periode.
JK # 32 thats a very nice observation my dear its true these guys they ve been screwd by coraption and their minds ve been wrasted.
MMD YOU FIRST NEED TO GO FOR CONFESSION & ask for FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS!!! Then we can sit down!! SHIKAPWASHA NEEDS CLEANSING for claiming the church is responsible for Genocide. As for SILLY Dora, we will soon find a place for her in a Convent!!