THE Catholic Church is not anti-government but will continue to strongly speak out for the vulnerable and the weak in Zambia, Lundazi Parish priest Fr Innocent Banda has said.

And Fr Banda said the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) enslaved farmers in Lundazi during the just ended crop market period.

In an interview over government’s continued attacks against the Catholic Church that it was anti-government, Fr Banda said the church’s concern was that the government must address the problems facing the weak and vulnerable in society.

“The Catholic Church is not anti-government neither is it partisan. The church’s concern is to see the government address the social welfare of the people more especially the poor.

When the church sees that things are not well, things are not going the right direction then the church speaks out. When the church speaks out, it speaks strongly and speaking strongly does not mean that you are anti-government,” Fr Banda said.

“The church is the conscience and the mouthpiece of the vulnerable, those who cannot express themselves, those who don’t have the power to speak for themselves. The church is there to protect the interests of the vulnerable, the poor especially those who are weak.

So the Catholic Church is not anti-government; it is there to work with the government of the day, it is non-partisan, it speaks because that is the mission to it by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a prophetic voice especially for the poor, the needy and the weak.”

On the crop marketing period, Fr Banda said the conditions which farmers went through in Lundazi were inhuman.

“The conditions at the shed were very enslaving for the farmers such that others were literally collecting their maize to take them to the Indians because they knew that going to the Indians their maize will be bought fast and get cash within some minutes whilst at the FRA shed people were spending two months, one month, one and half months just to grade their maize just before it was bought. So it was very enslaving,” said Fr Banda.

“To make matters worse it was in the month of October when it was hot. So you can imagine people being in the sun and there are no shades. Next time FRA should look at these issues that are enslaving the people especially on the issue of grading the maize.”