I will continue speaking for suffering citizens - Fr Mukosa
A CATHOLIC priest Father Chewe Mukosa who caused a storm with his homily on social justice says he will continue to speak for the suffering people despite having been summoned by police who later rescinded their decision to charge him with hate speech.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Fr Mukosa said he decided not to report to police yesterday because the call-out was cancelled.
“My superiors have also told me not to report because it was cancelled. The things taking rounds on social media about propaganda and about people going to the police with me were their own making,” he said.
Fr Mukosa said he would not be intimidated but would continue to preach message of social justice as that was the role of any ordained priest.
“All priests preach social justice messages, even the ones I am here with preach social justice. No one can preach without social justice because social justice is about equity, the under privileged. So, for the people who are suffering, we are there for them,” he said.
The Catholic cleric said priests are there for the underprivileged people and no one can strip that role from them.
“On Holy Saturday, I preached a message which was purely on social justice and should not be taken advantage of or used by any political party,” he said.
The priest said his message was pure and he said it in Church because he was a priest.
“I am not aligned to any political party or affiliation. I have not been paid by anyone. I am not a member of any political party. I am a priest and I am not vying for any political position. I am not looking for any money,” Fr Mukosa said.
And in a video he posted online urging people not to turn up at the police station, Fr Mukosa said he had seen on Facebook that people had used his message in different ways but the fact was that he was a priest who defended social justice.
Fr Mukosa said the police call-out was cancelled and so he did not expect anybody to be there.
“We thank the state and everybody else who has played a part in this. There were many misunderstandings which have been cleared. We are peace loving Zambians and we don’t want anything to do with commotion,” he said.