Parish Priest Confirms Theft of Tabernacle, Blessed Sacrament from Church in Zambia

In the Sacristy, Zambian-born Cleric recounted, the desecrators “threw the habits of the altar servers on the floor, broke where we put the liturgical books and threw some of the books on the floor.”

They also attempted to take a generator with them, but abandoned it a few meters from the church building, Fr. Chungu told ACI Africa. 

Making reference to the desecrators, the SMA Cleric said, “I pray that the spirit of God touches them and they realize that what they have done is very wrong.”

He explained, “Sometimes we can talk of praying for those thieves to be cursed but what we need to do is to ask for forgiveness from the Lord. That the Lord may forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” 

“We are in the time of Lent, where we reflect the passion of Jesus as we look forward to celebrate Easter. We are a people of hope and this should help us to intensify our prayer life because when things like this happen, they should move us closer to God,” said the Parish Priest of St. John the Evangelist Kamfinsa.

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He expressed the hope that the desecrators “come to their senses and realize that what they have done is bad.”

Fr. Chungu also described the February 22 incident as “an eye opener” adding, “We cannot just take things for granted; we need to put security measures in our churches.”

Meanwhile, the Local Ordinary of Ndola directed that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and other liturgical activities continue at St. John the Evangelist Kamfinsa, Kitwe Parish, Fr. Chungu told ACI Africa.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.