AN OPEN PASTORAL LETTER TO ALL CATHOLIC MEMBERS IN POLITICS, IN PUBLIC OFFICES & BUSINESS, AND TO ALL OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS IN ZAMBIA! By Bishop Peter K Nsama.6th October 2026, Lusaka. RE: WHY DO YOU WATCH WHEN YOUR MOTHER IS DRAGGED IN MUD? I write with a bleeding heart. In the past days, we have […]

AN OPEN PASTORAL LETTER TO ALL CATHOLIC MEMBERS IN POLITICS, IN PUBLIC OFFICES & BUSINESS, AND TO ALL OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS IN ZAMBIA!

By Bishop Peter K Nsama.
6th October 2026, Lusaka.

RE: WHY DO YOU WATCH WHEN YOUR MOTHER IS DRAGGED IN MUD?

I write with a bleeding heart.

In the past days, we have watched with pain as the Office of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lusaka, not just a man, but an institution of Christian morality, has been dragged, insulted, and mocked on political podiums.

And I ask: Where are you, sons and daughters of the Catholic Church in politics?

You who went to St. Canisius, to St. Mary’s, to Charles Lwanga, to Mukasa Minor Seminary, Choma. You who were baptized by a Catholic Priest, whose marriage was blessed by the Church, whose children learn in Catholic schools. How do you dare speak against your own Shepherd, or keep a cowardly silence when he is insulted, just to keep a ministerial job or a contract?

MY CONSCIENCE QUESTION TO YOU:

Is a political favour worth more than your Birthright?

Remember Esau in Genesis 25:34. He sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. Today some of you, especially former priests and seminarian drop-outs seeking relevance, sell your Mother Church for a political appointment. You stand on political podiums to insult the very altar you once served. That is not politics, it is prostitution of conscience.

WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS DONE FOR YOU, WITH EVIDENCE:

You cannot insult this Church with integrity, because everything you hold as a Christian came from Her.

1. The Bible you preach from: The New Testament you carry is not from heaven with chapters and verses. It was compiled, discerned, and canonized by the Catholic Church at the Council of Hippo in 393 AD and confirmed at the Council of Carthage in 397 AD under Catholic Bishops. Before that, there were over 300 competing gospels. If you trust the 27 books of the New Testament, you trust the Catholic Bishops who chose them.

2. The Creeds you confess: Every Sunday you say “I believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” That Nicene Creed was formulated in 325 AD at Nicaea and 381 AD at Constantinople by Catholic Bishops. The doctrine of the Trinity, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God,” was clarified and defended by the Catholic Church against heresy. You cannot recite the Creed and insult the Church that gave you the Creed.

3. The Fathers you quote: You quote St. Augustine, you quote St. Athanasius who defended the deity of Christ, St. Ignatius of Antioch who first used the word “Catholic”, Francis of Assisi. They are all Catholic Saints, Catholic Priests, Catholic Bishops. There is no church history without them.

There would be no Reformation without the Catholic Church to reform. No Protestantism without Catholicism. No Calvinism, no Evangelicalism, no Pentecostalism, no Charismatic movement without the Catholic Mother. Honour your mother, Exodus 20:12.

4. What Zambia owes the Catholic Church: Before CDF, the Catholic Church built our schools — Canisius, St. Mary’s, Chikuni, Malole. Built our hospitals; Chilubula, St. Francis Katete, Kasaba. Many of you politicians got your first education in a Catholic classroom. Will you now bite the hand that taught you to write?

TO MY FELLOW NON-CATHOLIC CHRISTIANS:

You Baptists, UCZ, Anglicans, Pentecostals, SDA, who stand afar when the Catholic Church is insulted, remember: An attack on the Archbishop’s office is an attack on the Christian standard itself. Today it is the Catholic Church, tomorrow it will be your Bishop, your Overseer.

The Archbishop does not speak for Catholics only. When he speaks against corruption, against injustice, he speaks for the Gospel you also preach. Silence is betrayal.

TO THOSE SAYING “WE ARE INSULTING THE PERSON, NOT THE OFFICE”:

This is the oldest trick of Satan. You cannot separate the Priest from his Priesthood, the shepherd from his staff, the father from his fatherhood.

When you slap a policeman in uniform, the State charges you for assaulting an officer, not a man. So it is with the Archbishop.

The Archbishop wears a pallium given by the Pope himself. That pallium is not fashion, it is authority. To drag the man wearing it in mud is to drag the office of Peter in Zambia in mud.

Do not lie to us. If it was just a person, why do you call a press conference? Why not go to his house? You drag him on a political podium because you want to humiliate the Church that he represents.

Stop justifying cowardice with grammar. God is not mocked.

MY FINAL APPEAL:

So to you Catholic MPs, PSs, DCs, CEOs, stand up now. Not to insult Government, but to say: “You can insult me, but don’t insult my Mother Church.”

Resign from that WhatsApp group where priests are mocked. Refuse that political favour that requires you to denounce your Shepherd.

For on the last day, God will not ask you how much CDF you delivered, but whether you honoured your Father and Mother.

One Zambia, One Nation, One Mother Church.

MY STAND BEFORE GOD AND THE LAW:

As a Shepherd, I speak under the freedom of worship and conscience which our Constitution gives to every Zambian under Articles 19 and 20, and under the Christian duty to honour our Fathers in faith.

I have not spoken against lawful authority which God has ordained under Romans 13:1. My prayer is for Government, not against it. I call all Christians to prayer, to respect, and to peace, not to hatred or violence.

Where any matter mentioned is before court, I respect the Court and leave the merits entirely to the Judge. I speak only on general principles of Christian morality, church history, and constitutional rights, which are not sub judice.

I remain a law-abiding citizen praying for our leaders.

John 8:32 “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”