Zambian government minister claims Church is planning a genocide

November 10, 2009

Relations between the Church and the Zambian government have reached their low point following a government minister’s claim that the Church, in the words of a leading Zambian newspaper, is “the architect of an anticipated genocide in the country.”

“I am fully aware that the political climate in this country is not favourable to movement towards positive change,” said Bishop George Lungu, president of the nation’s episcopal conference. “What I am experiencing is mainly a vicious cycle of offence, revenge and counterattack, making us get distracted from real issues affecting our life, especially the life of our poor majority living in rural areas.”

According to an editorial in a leading Zambian newspaper:

We know that this government has accused the Catholic Church of many things, including having a tendency towards genocide. Whenever this government’s decisions and actions have been questioned by the Catholic Church, its reaction has been to challenge the leadership of this church to join politics and contest elections instead of hiding behind the pulpit …

The Catholic Church is today supporting the legitimate claims of poor people and of all mankind. One doesn’t have to be very perspicacious to realise that we fully support – and this is absolutely consistent with everything we have been stating over the last 18 years – the Catholic Church’s position on many issues, especially its siding with the poor. The Catholic Church is today taking a correct position on the most serious social problems of our times.

The government’s relationship with the Catholic Church is low because this government doesn’t like anyone who pushes it to do good. This is not a government that wants to deal with honest people. It is a government that only welcomes those who support or don’t question its evil dealings. Anyone who tries to question or oppose the wrong things they are doing is an enemy who should be crushed. There is no honest government that can today look at the Catholic Church as an enemy.

31% of the nation’s 11.8 million residents are Catholic. The average life expectancy in Zambia is 38.

 

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Further information:

• Catholic, govt relationship hits lowest ebb (Post Zambia)
• Editorial: A govt threatened by genuine goodness (Post Zambia)
• Zambia: mounting Church-state tensions as Church blamed for Rwandan genocide (CWN, 08/13/2009)