ZAMBIA Episcopal Conference (ZEC) president Bishop George Lungu has said the Catholic Church's relationship with the government has hit its lowest ebb since the introduction of multi-party political system in the country.

Commenting on the existing relationship between the Catholic Church and the government, Bishop Lungu said the status of the church's relationship with the government was clearly reflected in the ministerial statement in Parliament where the Catholic Church was singled out as the architect of an anticipated genocide in the country.

“I am yet to learn from my brother bishops on how they have dealt with this crisis in our relationship with the government. Having said this, I am fully aware that the political climate in this country is not favourable to movement towards positive change. 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,” Bishop Lungu said.

He said the country still had unresolved issues in matters related to health, education, agriculture and governance but the country did not seem to be moving towards possible solutions.

“But in light with our second Special Assembly for Africa or Second African Synod which has just been concluded in Rome, we know as a church that we have a very serious mandate from the Lord to bring about peace and reconciliation in the nation if indeed we desire to bring about positive change. Reconciliation and dialogue will help us keep our eyes focused on real burning issues. Offence, revenge and counterattacks will only yield more chaos, more frustration, continued suffering and eventual death of our people,” Bishop Lungu said.

He said both the government and the Church would want to see change in their key areas of concern.

“While I acknowledge some degree of success in some area through government intervention, I am still personally troubled to see what is going on in key result areas. For example, one - health - both government and mission health institutions are going through a very serious funding crisis.

No doubt this is as a result of money, which has gone missing in this department. Donors gave us money to improve our health delivery services. Where has the money gone?” he asked. “I was shocked when I visited Kapata Urban Clinic last night Thursday night. Lights went off and there was a crisis just to secure a candle for lighting and this is an urban clinic.

Two - education - two weeks ago, I was at home visiting. I was shocked to learn that Zumaire Primary School in Petauke had only two teachers. One of them is a semi-retired head teacher. How is this possible in our dear country more so after 45 years of independence?

Three, Agriculture, why are small-scale farmers still subjected to unnecessary suffering due to delayed payments and reduced market points warranting long distance travel to access the market? When will agriculture be taken seriously as top priority in bringing about food security in this country?
“Now Zambia is said to be in the alarming category of 2009 Global Hunger Index. How is this possible?”

He said Zambia might soon find itself importing maize from Malawi if the situation in the agriculture sector did not change.

“And so to help the government deal with such issues, we in the church need to reconcile with the government so as to enter into serious dialogue with them and other stakeholders in this great nation; a dialogue which will hopefully yield positive results in all our main areas of concern. If this strategy fails, the church should seek other ways of dealing with the situation, ways that are non-violent and non-conformist.

Our last possible strategy to bring change would be non-cooperation with the government that does not listen to its people, especially the cries of the suffering majority until the nation has the right people in place who will deliver required services so as to mitigate the sufferings of our people,” said Bishop Lungu.

“Once again, we all know that insults, attacks and counterattacks will not bring positive change to this nation. Reconciliation and genuine dialogue is the only way to bring renewed hope in our people. Justice will be guaranteed and peace will reign especially when people see positive results of such an engagement,”