Hail Mary, full of grace, Hichilema is with thee: the president’s new mingalato for dealing with Catholics
By Sishuwa Sishuwa
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema, an elder in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, has devised a new strategy of “addressing” his poor relationship with the Catholic Church: inviting himself to Catholic events such as mass. This strategy will first be unveiled today, Sunday, 22 February 2026, on the Copperbelt where Hichilema is set to attend Catholic mass at Chifubu Parish in Ndola. In devising this strategy, the president is motivated by three objectives.
The first is to manufacture a false public perception of improved relations with the Catholics. Since his election, Hichilema has presided over several unpleasant incidents that have left his relationship with the ZCCB in tatters. I will provide only a few examples. When the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) Secretary-General Batuke Imenda denounced, in May 2023, the Archbishop of Lusaka Archdiocese Alick Banda as “the Lucifer of Zambia”, “a well-known PF political conman”, and a “political opponent, not a priest” who was using the pulpit as a “political podium” in the service of the “devil [’s] scheme and a satanic philosophical tactic”, Hichilema ignored demands for a public apology from the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB).
When police, in May 2024, stormed the office of the Catholic Bishop of Kabwe Diocese Clement Mulenga to disrupt a courtesy-call-meeting the mag of God was holding with former president Edgar Lungu, Hichilema ignored demands for a public apology from the ZCCB. When the police, in October 2024, sealed off the Cathedral of the Child Jesus in Lusaka and stopped Archbishop Banda from accessing the Church which was set to host the 10th Memorial Service for late President Michael Sata, Hichilema ignored demands for a public apology from the ZCCB. When the ZCCB, in October 2025, asked the government to defer any amendments to Zambia’s constitution to until after the general election in order to build public trust and consensus in the constitutional reform process, Hichilema ignored the Bishops and even denounced them as people who harbour intense hatred against him because of where he was born.
More recently, in January this year, the ZCCB expressed its utmost displeasure at the police’s summoning of Archbishop Banda over a Toyota Hilux that was given to him in 2020 before it was seized and forfeited to the State in December 2023. The Bishops’ president, Archbishop Ignatius Chama, issued a press statement on 2 January in which he stated that the body considered the summoning of Banda “as an attempt to suppress his voice as a Shepherd of the Archdiocese of Lusaka and a member of ZCCB”. Archbishop Banda, Chama added, “has faced consistent name-calling and what we can now recognise as state-sponsored persecution. We consider it an abuse of authority for the ruling party to utilise state machinery against an individual due to his stance on national governance and his efforts to hold the government accountable. We reaffirm that it is morally wrong to use state institutions to persecute those who hold dissenting views and/or provide oversight on matters of governance.”. As he has previously and repeatedly done, Hichilema simply ignored the ZCCB’s protests.
Worried that this poor relationship with Catholics and its faithful might undermine his re-election prospects, Hichilema has devised this new strategy of visiting Catholic parishes as a way of trying to cultivate a false public perception that his relationship with the Catholic Church has greatly improved. His attempt to do so comes in the wake of the ZCCB’s recent pastoral letter, dated 30 January 2026 in which the Bishops demanded the creation of a level playing field ahead of the forthcoming general election, urged all registered voters to turn up en masse and cast their vote using their conscience and without any regard to “short-term rewards tribal loyalty”, called for transparency in the “counting nd transmission of results”, and appealed to all candidates “to commit, publicly and unequivocally” that they would accept the election results and only contest them through peaceful and legal means. The president, who has tilted the playing field against his political opponents, has so far declined all invitations to publicly pledge that he would concede defeat, if he loses the August election.
The second objective of Hichilema’s ‘I will force myself on you’ strategy is to instigate further divisions in the ZCCB by pitting one diocese against the other. To better understand this point, it is important to locate it within Hichilema’s long running differences with individual members of the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops. In late 2025, for instance, on 28 November to be specific, Hichilema, in the company of his press aides for politics and legal affairs, hosted at his private home the ZCCB president Archbishop Chama who was trying to persuade him to abandon the constitutional changes that his administration ultimately forced on the country. During the meeting, the president reportedly complained that Archbishop Banda had allegedly prevented him from attending Church functions in Lusaka’s Catholic dioceses. Archbishop Chama, short of telling the president that he was lying, pushed back on this claim and correctly told the president that Catholic mass is open to everyone interested.
The truth is that no diocese or parish has ever turned Hichilema away from attending any mass in the capital city. What the president continues to present as a blockade on his right to attend Catholic mass – notwithstanding the fact that he is a practising Adventist – is a distorted record of what happened in 2024. Ahead of the earlier cited 10thanniversary of Sata’s death, Hichilema sent his officials to the Archdiocese of Lusaka to convey his desire to attend the memorial and use the pulpit to say a few words. In response, Archbishop Banda reportedly stated that the president was welcome to attend the mass but would not be allowed to use the pulpit. It was this specific refusal that prompted Hichilema to dispatch the police and cordon off the Cathedral of the Child Jesus in an attempt to prevent the event from taking place without him. (Hichilema destroys what he cannot have – and the latest evidence of this dark principle is to be seen in his continued refusal to step aside so that his late predecessor can buried without his participation, as per the wishes of the Lungu family.)
This is the incident that the president has falsely presented, since then, as evidence of Banda’s unwillingness to let him attend mass in the Archdiocese of Lusaka. I know of several other prominent politicians from the opposition who had equally wanted to speak at the memorial but whose requests were also turned down for the same reason: that the pulpit is for use by the eligible priests, not politicians or anyone else, regardless of the event at hand or the person’s social standing. Moreover, Archbishop Banda’s position on the use of the pulpit is not based on his individual tastes. It is rooted in the longstanding position of the Church on this subject. Even in its latest Pastoral Letter, the ZCCB repeated the point that it has always advised against allowing third parties including politicians to use the pulpit to address the faithful before, during, or after attending mass. To avoid misinterpreting what the 12 Catholic Bishops (12 because Southern and Eastern Provinces have two each) unanimously said on the church’s role and the non-partisanship of the clergy, it is worth quoting their remarks at length:
“We have consistently affirmed, most recently in 2021, that the Church is not and must never be a mouthpiece for any political party or candidate. Our duty is to form consciences, promote the common good, and speak truth to power. The clergy who align themselves with political interests risk compromising their sacred vocation. We reiterate that [that] (a) Church premises must not be used for political campaigns; (b) No clergy or lay leader should accept political donations in exchange for influence; (c) The pulpit must remain a place of prophetic truth and moral clarity, not political opportunism. Our Churches shall always remain for all houses of prayer, reflection, and reconciliation, not partisan campaign platforms”, the Pastoral Letter the reads in part.
By getting the Archdiocese of Ndola to publicise his visit and the plan to attend mass (more on this below), Hichilema is seeking to circumvent the ZCCB’s position that the pulpit is not for political opportunism. More pointedly, the president is trying to impress the public to adopt his long held but false position that he has always wanted to attend Catholic events, even in the capital, but the Archbishop of Lusaka is the one who prevented him from doing so. Indeed, this is how he reportedly framed his proposed visit to Chifubu parish when organising it. A well-placed Catholic priest who is familiar with the details behind the president’s Ndola trip but asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, disclosed that the presidency “wrote to the Parish priest of Chifubu who informed his Minister Provincial of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM) and the Provincial OFM informed Archbishop Benjamin Phiri”.
The priest added that “the Archbishop facilitated the move because he is in good terms with ba Kateka[i.e., the president] but said he might deliberately stay away to make it look like he had nothing to do with the invitation, especially if the president is allowed to speak and there is a backlash in the aftermath. He told the Provincial to be round when the president visits….Mass is for everyone, but it should not be used by politicians to push their political agenda. I pray that he [i.e., Hichilema] will not be allowed to speak at the pulpit, as per the Bishops’ instructions. He can address the people at UPND rallies and not in the Church. And besides, he has been dividing the Catholic Church and persecuting some of our priests and bishops. We have not forgotten what he did to Archbishop Alick Banda. The Church is One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic church. No one must be allowed to divide us. An insult to one is an insult to all. We just hope that the mingalato [i.e., political scheming] he has started will end in the Ndola diocese and will not be extended to other dioceses.”
It is highly unlikely that Archbishop Phiri, even in his perceived compromised state, would allow Hichilema to address the congregants and, in doing so, defy the ZCCB’s recent guidance that the pulpit should not be used for political opportunism. What the priest does not know is that the “mingalato” scheme is, as I show below, set to be extended to other dioceses. Even if Hichilema is not allowed to speak at the pulpit today, the president – should he be accorded the opportunity to introduce himself and the 9 members of his entourage before the end of the church service – would have effectively signaled to other dioceses that they too must accord him the same reception when he visits, since the Archdiocese of Ndola has laid the foundation. As well as creating a public impression that he has no problem with the Catholic Church – only with individual bishops and priests – this strategy would intensify divisions in the ZCCB, further isolate Archbishop Banda, and place him in the spotlight ahead of the president’s possible visit to Lusaka parishes.
The third and final objective of Hichilema’s new strategy is to enable him to campaign directly to the Catholic priests and faithfuls using a much-publicised presence at the Church’s most revered or foremost platform: the Sunday pulpit. The president is specifically worried about his waning popularity on the Copperbelt, a province that has produced the winning presidential candidate in all the transfers of power that Zambia has experienced since the return to multiparty in the early 1990s. Most voters on the Copperbelt share collective concerns shaped by associational life such as mineworkers’ union, ethnic identities, and religious networks.
It is to the Christian constituency that Hichilema – whose administration has handled the mining sector very poorly, prioritising foreign commercial interests over the concerns of the workers – is keen to appeal using this cham offensive to the Catholics, the largest Christian denomination on the Copperbelt. On one of Hichilema’s previous visits to the Copperbelt, he attended a Seventh Day Adventist homily where the preacher, Webster Chabe who was also the president of the SDA Copperbelt Province Conference, publicly urged him to specifically unite and develop the country and fulfil his campaign promises more generally so that he and his party could be remembered for something when he leaves power. Chabe was hounded out of his position, through forced resignation, not long after.
Hichilema knows the political influence of the Catholic Church, whose relative financial independence protects it from state intimidation and patronage. Its priests often take messages of political change to the pulpit and deliver them in an accessible language. Meanwhile, its bishops provide regular, mostly critical, pastoral letters on the state of the nation in a way that shapes public opinion. In opposition, Hichilema benefited from this unofficial support of the Church, in addition to its denunciation of his detention on the politically motivated charge of treason.
Since his election in 2021, Hichilema has become the recipient of the Catholic Bishops’ stinging criticism for reasons that range from the unpleasant developments discussed in the first point to his administration’s governance pitfalls and the implementation of policies that impede the upliftment of the people. Initially, the president had sought to contain the ZCCB’s political influence by instigating divisions in its ranks; targeting prominent individual bishops for smear by way of presenting them as supporters of the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front, and former president Lungu; and finding incriminating material such as car gifts on outspoken bishops and priests to diminish their public standing. This initial strategy has largely failed, as its execution has only served to further alienate Hichilema from the Bishops – hence the latest strategy of inviting himself to mass.
By forsaking his traditional faith – one that rests on the belief that Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday – and prostituting himself before the central act of worship in the life of a Catholic, Hichilema is not seeking to spend time with God and receiving His graces, for God can also be found in the Seventh Day Adventist Church; he is out to engage in the very political campaign that the ZCCB warned against in its latest Pastoral letter. The choice of Ndola Diocese as the first site for the implementation of his revised strategy of courting Catholic votes was not accidental; it was carefully considered. The president decided to start with the Archdiocese of Ndola because it is led by Archbishop Benjamin Phiri, perceived by many as Hichilema’s most ardent supporter within the ZCCB outside the Bishops who lead the dioceses of Mongu and Monze.
Ahead of the visit, Archbishop Phiri’s archdiocese exposed the partisan considerations behind the Chifubu Parish event when it released a detailed program, on the archdiocese’s masthead, announcing the visit and specifying the activities of Hichilema and his entourage on the day. Publicising the visits of politicians is unheard off in the history of the Catholic Church, as going to mass is open to all, not by invitation. Ordained a priest on 14 September 1986, the 66-year-old Archbishop Phiri is experienced enough to know all this, but he appears to be too compromised to care.
After Ndola, Hichilema plans to roll out this strategy to other dioceses in the country. For instance, I am aware that the president is considering inviting himself to Solwezi where he is planning to attend, as part of Youth Day celebrations, a mass in honour of youths at the Catholic Diocese of Solwezi. In fact, Hichilema had originally sought to invite himself to St Daniel Cathedral Parish of Solwezi to attend consecration on 7 February this year. This celebratory event was dubbed Closing the Year of Hope and Opening the Diocesan Golden Jubilee with Bishop Charles JS Kasonde. However, because the president made his intentions known a day before the event, the Zambia Security and Intelligence Services advised Hichilema to defer the visit – and consequently the start of the implementation of this new strategy – to a later date on the ground that it was too late to properly plan for his security in Solwezi. In the event, a delegation of over 40 government officials, who included the Permanent Secretary as well as the Minister for Northwestern Province, attended the consecration on his behalf.
The modus operandi, in terms of the implementation of this political scheming or mingalato strategy, will largely be the same: Hichilema will invite himself to a specific Catholic diocese, attend mass, make sure that his entourage – which includes his special assistant for politics, the relevant provincial minister and a few other people seeking election to public office in August– is deliberately introduced to the congregants, hold private meetings with the church’s provincial leadership, and, to ensure maximum political benefit, organise and circulate pictures or videos of the visit to a wider audiences.
As another Catholic priest told me with a degree of resignation, “This man [i.e., Hichilema] is forcing himself on us. In a sense, his actions amount to a form of rape, but I suppose he, like the conventional rapist, would care less about how we feel, provided they give him a great feeling of satisfaction.”
Catholics, watch out for the president. He is coming for mass.
