CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS): The Zimbabwean Government’s antagonism toward the Catholic Church is shown in its refusal to renew the permits of foreign priests, said Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, said.
“In a sign of the Government becoming anti-Church,” the archbishop said, two black South African priests were refused extensions of their permits to stay in Zimbabwe and had to return to their home country.
In a May 14 telephone interview from Bulawayo, Archbishop Ncube called Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s recent comments about him “very disturbing”.
In the May edition of the London-based New African magazine, Mr Mugabe, 83, singled out Archbishop Ncube for condemnation and said he has “long been a lost bishop”.
After an Easter pastoral letter in which Zimbabwe’s bishops said the country was in “deep crisis” and “extreme danger” because of its “overtly corrupt” leadership, Mr Mugabe warned the bishops that they are treading “a dangerous path” by criticising the Government.
Zimbabwe is crippled by the highest rate of inflation in the world, unemployment of more than 80 per cent, and shortages of foreign currency and fuel.
Food shortages are acute, large numbers of people are migrating to the neighbouring countries of South Africa and Botswana, and, with elections scheduled for March 2008, political violence has intensified.
“The election will be rigged,” Archbishop Ncube said, noting that “all the electoral processes are in the hands of the Government, with no independent electoral commission to monitor the poll”.
Copyright Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
