By EditorZambia
By any standard, a pastoral letter issued months before a general election carries weight. It speaks with moral authority and reaches millions. That is precisely why it must be interrogated when it strays from spiritual guidance into selective political advocacy dressed up as neutrality. The Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter of 30 January 2026, titled “A Renewed Call for Peace, Justice, Unity, and Integrity,” presents itself as balanced and non-partisan.
A closer reading, however, reveals something far less innocent: a document steeped in political signalling, historical revisionism, and a thinly veiled attempt to shape electoral attitudes while claiming to “form consciences.” 
This is not a letter for peace. It is a political intervention.
INTRODUCTION: FEAR, BUT SELECTIVE FEAR
The bishops open by declaring Zambia at a “crossroad,” invoking fear of division, manipulation, and drift. Yet they conspicuously avoid naming the real sources of past electoral tension: refusal by losing candidates to accept results, deliberate delegitimisation of institutions, and incitement along regional and tribal lines. Instead, they present Zambia as permanently broken, as if nothing has changed since 2006, 2011, 2016, or even 2021.
This framing is dishonest. It ignores the relative political stability, improved institutional discipline, and reduced election violence witnessed in recent cycles. By painting a picture of perpetual crisis, the clergy create anxiety where reassurance is needed—while paradoxically claiming to call for calm.
POLITICS AS A “NOBLE VOCATION”: THEORY WITHOUT CONTEXT
No one disputes that politics ought to serve the common good. But the bishops’ lengthy lecture on political philosophy conveniently avoids Zambia’s lived political reality. They warn against “self-preservation” and “ideological purity,” yet fail to ask: who has historically weaponised ideology and identity to block democratic outcomes?
It is not the current democratic order that reduced politics to a zero-sum ethnic contest. That disease was cultivated by Bemba/Ngoni elites who could not accept political change outside their regional comfort zones. By refusing to acknowledge this, the bishops offer abstraction instead of truth—and abstraction always favours the status quo.
VOTING AS A MORAL ACT: A LOADED APPEAL
Calling voting a “moral act” sounds noble, but it becomes dangerous when moral language is deployed selectively. When clergy insist voters must reject “tribal loyalty,” they imply—without evidence—that current voting patterns are driven by tribalism rather than policy preference or performance.
This is where the hypocrisy becomes glaring. For years, the same clerical voices remained muted while open regional mobilisation was preached from political platforms in the PF government aligned to their preferred power centres. Now that political authority has shifted south of the Zambezi region-namely Southern, Western and North-western, suddenly “tribalism” is a crisis.
This is not moral instruction; it is moral intimidation.
ELECTORAL TRANSPARENCY: SUSPICION WITHOUT PROOF
The bishops once again “urge” the Electoral Commission of Zambia to act independently, as if ECZ has already failed. No evidence is provided. No concrete allegation is made. The repetition of suspicion, however politely worded, plants doubt in the public mind.
This tactic is familiar. Undermine trust in institutions before an election, then cry foul if the outcome is unfavourable. A truly responsible pastoral letter would strengthen confidence in institutions unless there is proof of wrongdoing. Anything else is political priming.
CIVILITY IN CAMPAIGNS: SELECTIVE AMNESIA
The call for issue-based campaigns would be credible if the Church had consistently condemned insult politics across the board. But where were these strong statements when opposition figures openly insulted entire regions, demonised languages, and portrayed some Zambians as unfit to govern?
Silence then, sermons now. Civility cannot be preached retrospectively or selectively. Otherwise, it becomes a weapon, not a value.
NON-PARTISANSHIP OF THE CLERGY: WORDS CONTRADICT DEEDS
The letter insists the Church is not a mouthpiece for any political party. Yet the signatories themselves expose the contradiction. The most vocal clerical critics of past and present governments have not been evenly distributed across the country. They are concentrated within a particular North/East ecclesiastical bloc whose political sympathies are an open secret.
The leading architects of this pastoral letter are the same known anti-HH/UPND warriors; Archbishop Alick Banda and Archbishop Ignatius Chama. Zambians are not naïve. They have watched the sustained crusade by senior Bemba and Ngoni clerics—through sermons, interviews, and pastoral statements—against governments perceived as emerging from the Zambezi region. To now claim neutrality is to insult the intelligence of the faithful.
This pattern has a name: fear of political power shifting outside a familiar ethnic and regional orbit. Call it what you will, but pretending it does not exist does not make it disappear.
LEADERS OF CHARACTER: A VEILED VETO
The bishops urge voters to scrutinise candidates’ “history.” Fair enough. But again, whose history is emphasised, and whose is sanitised? Why are some leaders eternally framed as morally suspect while others are perpetually forgiven, regardless of past governance failures?
Moral standards must be universal or they are meaningless. Otherwise, “character” becomes a coded word for exclusion.
MEDIA ACCESS AND LEVEL PLAYING FIELD: OUTDATED TALKING POINTS
Complaints about public media bias are recycled almost word for word from previous elections. Yet the media landscape has fundamentally changed. Social media, private broadcasters, and digital platforms have levelled the field more than at any time in Zambia’s history.
Continuing to pretend that ZNBC alone determines political visibility is intellectually lazy and politically convenient.
YOUTH PARTICIPATION: MISDIRECTED ENERGY
The call to youth participation is welcome but incomplete. Young Zambians are not merely angry or apathetic; they are discerning. They care about jobs, energy, debt restructuring, and opportunity. Telling them to “rise” without acknowledging tangible policy gains and failures reduces them to an abstract moral force instead of citizens with concrete interests.
ACCEPTING RESULTS: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
The appeal to accept election outcomes is perhaps the most ironic section of the letter. Where was this moral clarity when losing candidates previously rejected results, mobilised supporters, and dragged the country through prolonged instability?
Peace cannot be preached only when one fears losing again.
FAITH SHOULD UNITE, NOT MANIPULATE
Zambia is indeed One Nation. But unity cannot be built on selective memory, regional anxiety, or clerical political engineering. The Church has a sacred duty to heal, not to hover over the ballot like a moral enforcer with a preferred outcome.
Zambians should not fear elections. They should fear manipulation masquerading as spirituality.
The ballot belongs to the people—not to bishops with political baggage, however eloquently wrapped in Scripture.
