Harare, Aug 18, 2020: The apostolic nuncio to Zimbabwe has expressed solidarity to the country’s top Catholic leader who is facing attacks from the government for speaking out against corruption and human rights violation.
The nuncio, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, on August 16 visited Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu of Harare, who has been singled out for personal attack by the Zimbabwe government for opposing government crackdown on journalists and human rights activists.
It all started with a pastoral letter published August 14 by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC). The letter called on the government to address the economic and political crisis in the country without resorting to the violent suppression of citizens.
The letter was issued in the wake of the July 31 police and military crackdown of protests in Zimbabwe. Several activists and journalists are still under detention, in Harare -the capital city.
In reaction to the bishops’ letter, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa issued a statement attacking the Catholic Church leadership. The statement was read in its entirety on national television and other government media on August 15.
Although all Catholic bishops in Zimbabwe signed the pastoral letter, the minister chose to isolate and target Archbishop Ndlovu for a personal attack in the statement she released. Archbishop Ndlovu is the current president of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
The Government’s attack on Archbishop Ndlovu and other Bishops referred to their letter as, “shards of a Pastoral Letter issued under the misguided if (not) evil-minded leadership of the Archbishop of Harare.” Mutsvangwa’s statement, however, avoided responding to the gist of issues raised by the bishops.
In many ways, most of the contents of the pastoral letter have been raised before by Zimbabwe’s lawyers, medical personnel and rights activists. Observers in Zimbabwe also noted that the government’s statement sought to misinform Zimbabweans. It portrayed Archbishop Ndlovu and other Catholic bishops of acting contrary to the wishes and positions held by Pope Francis.
Mutsvangwa said the government vehemently object to and strongly condemns the pastoral letter.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government in Zimbabwe has been cracking down on journalists and political and human rights activists speaking against corruption and human rights violations.
The pastoral letter noted that the country was suffering a multi-layered crisis of economic collapse, deepening poverty, food insecurity, corruption and human rights abuses in urgent need of resolution.
“Fear runs down the spine of many of our people today. The crackdown on dissent is unprecedented. Is this the Zimbabwe we want? To have a different opinion does not mean to be an enemy. It is precisely from the contrast of opinions that the light comes. Our government automatically labels anyone thinking differently as an enemy of the country: that is an abuse,” ZCBC said.
In the wake of this statement, Catholics and non-Catholics in Zimbabwe took to social media to express solidarity with the bishops. They particularly reminded Catholic ministers and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) Party officials to remember that bishops were shepherds who have no political ambitions. The bishops, they said, could not remain silent in the face of so much suffering, Covid-19 and growing poverty.
Sources: The Vatican News, The Tablet