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ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Threatens New Archbishop at Installation
Catholic Information Service For Africa (CISA)
Extracted from Issue No. 353
August 24, 2004

President Robert Mugabe has clashed openly with Catholic Church leaders as a new archbishop was installed in the capital Harare, on Saturday, August 21, 2004.

Catholic World News reports that an angry Mugabe delivered a tirade against the Catholic hierarchy after the new Archbishop Robert Ndlovu criticised the government for its corruption and human-rights violations.

Mugabe said that Catholic bishops are being unpatriotic by criticising his rule, and said that they are in league with supporters of the country's old colonial regime. He said that Catholic leaders were "going to those who yesterday denied us rights."

Archbishop Ndlovu, whose appointment had been heavily criticised by the country's state-controlled media, said at his installation: "The role of a bishop and of the Church in general is to stand up for human dignity, and from human dignity flow human rights."

He made it clear to a congregation of several thousand, including President Mugabe, that he would join with Archbishop Pius Ncube in criticising the country's government.

Archbishop Ncube, who heads the Bulawayo archdiocese, has charged that thousand of Zimbabwe's citizens face the danger of starvation because of Mugabe's policies, which have included the confiscation of land from white farmers and intimidation of political opponents.

In his heated response, President Mugabe said that Catholic bishops have "joined hands with erstwhile colonial masters to peddle lies" about his government. He claimed that the bishops are forming an alliance with Britain and the United States.

"We band you together with them; we damn you together with them," he said. (Source: (Church Resources/ CWN)

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