{"id":82507,"date":"2026-04-20T18:52:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:03:34","slug":"chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest","title":{"rendered":"Chipata Diocese Distances Itself From Detained Priest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>The Catholic Diocese of Chipata has firmly disassociated itself from a priest now at the center of a suspected stolen vehicle case, revealing that he had already stepped away from Church duties months before his arrest.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released today, Acting Communications Director Fr. Daniel Banda confirmed that Fr. Simon Tembo abandoned his priestly responsibilities in October 2025 and has not been authorized to carry out any public ministry since then.<\/p>\n<p>The Diocese disclosed that repeated efforts were made to trace Fr. Tembo and guide him either back to active service or through formal procedures to exit the priesthood \u2014 but he remained out of reach.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until April 19, 2026, that the Church says it learned of his situation, after being alerted by the Zambia Police Service that he had allegedly been found with a vehicle reported stolen from Ukwimi Parish late last year.<\/p>\n<p>While investigations continue, the Diocese has pledged full cooperation with authorities and urged the public to avoid speculation, stressing its commitment to accountability and the core values of the Church.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zambia. The Catholic Diocese of Chipata has firmly disassociated itself from a priest now at the center of a suspected stolen vehicle case, revealing that he had already stepped away from Church duties months before his arrest. In a statement released today, Acting Communications Director Fr. Daniel Banda confirmed that Fr. Simon Tembo [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":82505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-82507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chipata Diocese Distances Itself From Detained Priest - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Catholic Diocese of Chipata has firmly disassociated itself from a priest now at the center of a suspected stolen ve ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chipata Diocese Distances Itself From Detained Priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Catholic Diocese of Chipata has firmly disassociated itself from a priest now at the center of a suspected stolen ve ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:52:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T20:03:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1776711316.42329.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Chipata Diocese Distances Itself From Detained Priest\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-20T18:52:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-20T20:03:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\"},\"wordCount\":193,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2026\/04\/sm_1776711316.42329.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/chipata-diocese-distances-itself-from-detained-priest\",\"name\":\"Chipata Diocese Distances Itself From Detained Priest - 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