Zambia revokes decision to expel priest

Bishop Robert Finn, of Kansas City, Mo., leaves a meeting at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall assembly in Baltimore, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. Finn was indicted in October for waiting five months to tell police about hundreds of images of alleged child pornography that were found on a priest's computer. He is the highest-ranking church member in the sex abuse scandal to face criminal charges. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Bishop Robert Finn, of Kansas City, Mo., leaves a meeting at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall assembly in Baltimore, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. Finn was indicted in October for waiting five months to tell police about hundreds of images of alleged child pornography that were found on a priest's computer. He is the highest-ranking church member in the sex abuse scandal to face criminal charges. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Published Nov 13, 2012

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Lusaka -

Zambia will now allow the return of a Catholic Rwandan cleric deported in August for allegedly inciting violence after a sermon on poverty, the Home Affairs minister said on Tuesday.

Father Viateur Banyangandora was in August sent packing after preaching that the poor were getting poorer while the rich becoming richer in Zambia, a sermon that did not go down well with the authorities.

But on Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Edgar Lungu said he had changed his mind after talks with the Catholic church.

“I have revoked the deportation of Father Banyangandora after consultations with the church.

“He is free to come to Zambia if the church needs his services,” Lungu said.

Opposition leaders had condemned the deportation warning it would strain the relationship between the government and the Catholic church.

Banyangandora, 40, had been based at Lundazi, an eastern town near the border with Malawi, since 2006. - Sapa-AFP

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