ZAMBIA: Bishop Kasonde Urges Diocesan Curia to Prioritize People Centred Execute Programs

Gamela Miyanda

Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Solwezi Rt. Rev. Charles Kasonde has urged members of Diocesan Curia to implement projects that will ensure that the human person comes first.

Bishop Kasonde said this when he opened the Caritas Solwezi Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 11-12th October, 2022 at St. Kizito Pastoral Centre.

Bishop Kasonde said that everyone in the community should benefit from all the programs of the Diocese regardless of their looks, tribe or race. He said in the Catholic Church’s social programmes are inclusive.

“Even the scholarships, they are not only for Catholics but for every person in need,” Bishop Kasonde emphasized. He further underscored that this approach is the very nature of the Catholic Church.

“Our agenda is to listen to God, what God is telling us. From there it is interacting with our brothers and sisters who are also created in the image and likeness of God, no matter who they are. Therefore, our point of interaction must be service to humanity,” underscored Bishop Kasonde.

Rt. Rev. Kasonde said recognizing the successes, challenges and failures of the Church’s projects is an opportunity to define the future with hope and with the objective of improving service delivery so that the Church continues to be of meaningful service to the people.

“What brings us here together is to look at what we pledged to do for the Diocese and the people we serve. It is a very important meeting because we have already received feedback through the process of consultation from our brothers and sisters we serve and we would want to compare notes and see how we are applying ourselves to the goals that are set before us and reflect the same spirit of our diocesan strategic planning,” Bishop Kasonde said.

Bishop Kasonde explained that Caritas is one of the two wings of the Catholic Church which operates in the Diocese of Solwezi. He said it has the first wing which is Pastoral, that deals with spiritual matters, the formation of the lay faithful which is much more exclusive to the Catholic nourishment of faith and development. He further stated that the second wing is that of Social Programs that are all encompassing, helping and reaching out to all the people in the diocese and North-western province as a whole.

“The theme that guides us Attaining Integral Human Development Through Quality Service Delivery is a desired goal that we would want to realize. It is very important in the sense that it is centred on a human person,” Bishop Kasonde said.

Bishop Kasonde also appreciated the New Dawn Government for the efforts so far made to respond to the plight of the poor by resuscitating the economy in a way of making it recover. He also assured Caritas Solwezi’s commitment to partner with government, local government, NGOs, CSOs, mining companies and other actors in advancing the integral development of the human person.