The Catholic Church in Zambezia. The Appointment of Bishops

Case Study from the year 2020 in the subject Theology - Practical Theology, grade: 1,0, Kwame Nkrumah University, language: English, abstract: This satirical article examines the case of the fictitious suspension of a Catholic priest, John Mwanyenga of Kabuchende parish in Ulufyengo archdiocese in the fictional country of Zambezia. Its main characters are all fictitious and any similarity to actual historical persons and places are purely coincidental designed to explore in depth the use of hard power in the Catholic Church. The aim of the article is to shine a spotlight on a too often occurrence in the Catholic Church in the relationship between priests and bishop which involves a miscarriage of justice. This issue is closely linked with the secretive and archaic method of appointing Catholic bishops destined to lead Catholic dioceses.

Tarcisius Mukuka [Dipl. Pastoral Theol & Counselling, Dipl. Phil. & Rel. Studies, STB, SSL, PhD] is a biblical exegete by training. He holds a Licentiate in Biblical Exegesis from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a doctorate in Biblical Hermeneutics from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Orality as Casualty: Contextual and Postcolonial Analysis of Biblical Hermeneutics in Bembaland" (2014). He is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies Education at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe. His research interests include postcolonialism and the Bible, gender and the Bible, religion, politics and power. He is the author of "Spoken Voice/Written Word: Negotiating How We Hear/Read the Bible" (2016) published by Lambert Academic Publishing and "In the Eye of a Very Catholic Storm" (forthcoming), by Crown Arts Publishers