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Mugabe excommunicated himself, says Father Wermter
Zimbabwejournalists.com
July 18, 2007

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=2606&cat=1

BY ridiculing the church and insulting its bishops, Zimbabwe's Catholic president, Robert Mugabe, blamed for the country's political and economic turmoil, has cut himself off from the Church.

That is the view of Fr Oskar Wermter, a Jesuit priest in Zimbabwe since 1966 and now based in St Peter's Mbare, a socially depressed area in Harare where government demolitions in 2005 destroyed livelihoods and left many people hopeless.

"In a very real way," President Mugabe has "effectively excommunicated himself, that is to say put himself outside the community of the church, by resisting the word of the church and attacking the bishops in a most offensive, vulgar form," says Fr Wermter.

His comments are published in the current issue of the Jesuit electronic newsletter, In Touch with Church and Faith:

"People once more demand that Mugabe be excommunicated. This is old hat. It was mooted years ago. It was said then that this was no longer done today. At any rate, excommunication in a strict legal (canonical) sense is a measure applied only in certain circumstances defined by church law.

"While in the past excommunication was used against heads of governments and leaders of nations, kings and emperors, this is extremely rare today. We no longer live in the Middle Ages. The local bishops do not even have that power. It would have to come from the Pope himself.

"However, in a very real way, though not technically as defined by church law, Mugabe has effectively excommunicated himself, that is to say put himself outside the community of the Church, by resisting the word of the church and attacking the Bishops in a most offensive, vulgar form. At least the constant propaganda line that he is a "practising devout Catholic" is now shown to be false.

If he had a genuine disagreement with the Bishops why did he not invite them to meet him and discuss the issues raised by the pastoral letter "God Hears the Cry of the Oppressed"?

"Instead of calling for Mugabe's excommunication maybe people should do something more positive and express their support for the pastoral letter to the bishops and discuss the letter and what action it implies on the part of ordinary members of the church."

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)

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