{"id":115,"date":"2016-01-29T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/01\/29\/zambia-catholic-bishops-call-for-peace\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","slug":"zambia-catholic-bishops-call-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/01\/29\/zambia-catholic-bishops-call-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"ZAMBIA: Catholic Bishops call for Peace as Zambia prepares for General Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nThe Catholic Bishops of Zambia have called for a
\ngenuine commitment to democratic values, renunciation of violence and hate
\nspeech by all political parties.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nIn the January 2016 state of the nation Pastoral
\nLetter that addressed various issues the bishops said among the duties of the
\ngovernment are to guarantee peace and security for all, to respect people\u2019s
\nliberties and to promote a genuine and non-discriminatory rule of law. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe 13 bishops that signed the Pastoral Letter under
\nthe theme: \u201cLet there be Peace Among US\u201d, further urged leaders in government
\nto be the torch-bearers in the promotion of true reconciliation and peace. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nTo the Youths, the bishops said that they are
\nsupposed to be leaders of tomorrow but they have to start exercising leadership
\ntoday. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe advise the youths to claim their genuine
\npolitical space in the electoral process. They should refuse to be used as mere
\ntools of violence by politicians.  We
\nappeal to the youth to accept and tolerate divergent views\u201d, they said. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMeanwhile, the bishops have called upon the
\nmedia to be professional by reporting truthfully, objectively and factually as
\nthey inform the public. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThey urged them to provide equitable coverage in
\nthe electoral process and avoid promoting partisan politics in the manner of
\nreporting. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThey said that as Zambia votes on August 11,
\n2016, they want to see a media landscape that is not polarized where the public
\nmedia is pro-ruling party while the private media is pro-opposition parties. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe urge the public media to be professional,
\nensure full and fair coverage of all political parties. We also want to see a
\nprivate and community based media that remain professional, accommodative and
\ninclusive in its covering of issues. Whichever media platform one uses, should
\nnot fuel hate speech or insults in the name of the right to freely express
\noneself. We also want a responsible use and reception of social media\u201d They
\nsaid.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAnd Bishops have urged all Christians to use
\ntheir prophetic voice in their communities to promote unity in the country and
\nrefuse any politician to use their Churches and liturgical functions as
\ncampaign forums. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThey said it is the duty of all Christians to
\nuse their prophetic voice to denounce all forms of fraud in the electoral
\nprocess. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n \u201cAll the
\nmembers of the Church must strive to ensure that the Gospel values of love,
\nreconciliation, tolerance, social justice, fairness, the common good, and
\nequality are promoted in our political and economic life\u201d, they said. <\/div>\n
\nWhen cautioning the clergy to avoid being
\npartisan, the Bishops said, \u201cWe also appeal particularly to our own catholic
\npriests to remain non-partisan. The Church law is very clear on this (Cf. Canon
\nLaw 285 and Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2442). <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIt is morally wrong for the catholic priest to
\nuse the pulpit to campaign for, or de-campaign any political party or
\nparties.  In as much as we welcome
\nCatholic politicians to celebrate Mass with us, they must not give them any
\nplatform to speak during liturgical celebrations\u201d, the Bishops added.<\/div>\n
\n
<\/i><\/div>\n
\nBy Mwenya Mukuka, ZEC Communications Office<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Bishops of Zambia have called for a genuine commitment to democratic values, renunciation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}