By OLIVER SAMBOKO
THE Catholic Church should not allow its pulpit to be used for political campaigns during elections because doing so is a sin of the worst kind, says former lecturer Rev. Alfred Sayila.
He said is very disappointed with the Catholic Church, in particular the Good Shepherd Parish in Kabwata for allowing UPND parliamentary candidate to campaign in church last Sunday.
Rev Sayila challenged the Archbishop of Lusaka to rise to the occasion and censure the leadership at Good Shepherd and also instruct all other congregations under his charge not to entertain political activities at their premises.
“I don’t care if the Church invites the Republican President to attend its services for reasons best known to itself but then when the pulpit is used to campaign for a particular individual of a certain political party then it becomes a sin of the worst kind no matter what denomination is involved,” he said.
Rev Sayila said its mind boggling that after President Hakainde Hichilema had sung and spoken during mass, the church leadership went further to present to the congregation the United Party for National Development (UPND) candidate in the forthcoming Kabwata Constituency by-elections.
He said the Catholic Church should remember that the church is after all an aggregation of different people with different affiliations who should not be subjected to a single political ideology.
“The sad thing is than some churches in this country have allowed themselves to be used as political tools by some uncanny political parties and leaders at the expense of the Gospel. We saw this happening even in the previous regime of the Patriotic Front where some so-called men of God turned their congregation into cadres for certain political outfits,” he said.
