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| Rt. Rev. Benjamin Phiri, Auxiliary Bishop of Chipata |
The Catholic Church in Zambia is exploring ideas on projects that would ensure self-sustainability for the Conference seminaries, says Rt. Rev. Benjamin Phiri, Bishop Chairman of Priestly Formations in Seminaries for the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC).
Speaking to AMECEA Online News in Nairobi where he had attended an inaugural meeting for the AMECEA Commission for Priestly Formation in Seminaries, Bishop Phiri, who is the Auxiliary for Chipata Diocese, said that Zambia has a lot of vocation but the main problem the Bishops are facing is the sustainability for the seminaries. Since the economy of the country is not very strong, this translates to the management of Church institutions as well.
“We have been emphasizing a lot about self-sustainability as is the normal saying in the AMECEA Region to build the Church that is self-sustaining, self-ministering and self-governing, we are going towards that direction,” he said.
According to Bishop Phiri, ZEC has a common process of formation for diocesan priests, run in three phases; Spirituality Formation at Emmaus Spirituality Centre in Lusaka, Philosophy at St. Augustine Seminary in Kabwe and Theology at St. Dominic’s Major Seminary in Lusaka.
“Currently the Conference is pursuing ways of making the seminaries self-sustainable. St. Augustine Philosophical Center is already doing quite well because it is sitting in a piece of land where they are already practicing mixed farming; cultivate and keep poultry and cattle,” the Bishop said. While St. Dominic Major Seminary is right in the city of Lusaka and doesn’t have much space to do projects as they would want for them for self-sustainability.
“What we are now thinking as a Conference is to come up with a project which is going to help us sustain the three seminaries. The project can be situated anywhere in the country. However, we have not yet come to the details of what project can be really sustainable in that sense,” he explained.
The Bishops observed that according to their evaluation of the situation, agriculture is good but it is a very risky kind of investment because it depends on so many other factors such as availability of rains. “If one has funds then the best investment is to invest in real estate such as houses and rent them out in the city. With this you are assured of something coming in. So we are still exploring possibilities at national level,” he said. However, he did not show any commitment as to what type of project the Conference intends to settle for.
He said that self-sustainability is slowly becoming a reality in some dioceses where Christians have accepted the fact that the Church belongs to them and they have to run it by themselves. “For instance, each Parish in Chipata is able to feed its own priests, take care of their transport expenses and administration bills. We are encouraging more and more that the Parishes raise money to even buy cars for their own priests,” he said.
Chipata, the Bishop explained, is a rural Diocese where the main economic activity is agriculture. “Parishes usually hold a yearly thanks-giving ceremony where people do not bring money but farm produce. These are then sold to generate income that helps to sustain the running and administration of Parishes throughout the year.”
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News