Bishops send message of support to Zimbabwean Catholic leaders

BY MARK GREAVES
THE BISHOPS of England and Wales have backed their counterparts in Zimbabwe over their scathing attack on the Robert Mugabe regime.
Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth, chairman of the bishops' Department for International Affairs, praised the Zimbabwean bishops for their courage. "I applaud my brother bishops in Zimbabwe for their courage in speaking out in defence of the oppressed and the poor people of their county, offering the light of Christ to their people in these most difficult and desperate times," the bishop said.
Bishop Hollis added that Catholics in England and Wales would pray for people in Zimbabwe, especially on Saturday, which has been declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting for Zimbabwe by the country's bishops. The British Jesuits have responded to the bishops' request by posting a prayer for justice in Zimbabwe on one of their websites. The prayer can be found at wwwjesuitmissions.org.uk/zimbabweprayer/.
In a pastoral letter posted on church notice boards over Easter, the bishops of Zimbabwe accused Mugabe of running a government that was "racist, lawless and corrupt".
The bishops warned the Zanu-PF ruling party that, after years of misrule, dramatic polit ical reform was needed to avoid a mass uprising.
"The reasons for the anger [of the people] are many, among them bad governance and corruption," the bishops said in their strongest attack on the government for years.
"In order to avoid further bloodshed and avert a mass uprising, the nation needs a new people-driven constitution that will guide a democratic leadership chosen in free and fair elections,they said.
The bishops compared the struggle against the Mugabe regime to the war against British colonial rule. They said that young Zimbabweans "see their leaders habitually engaging in acts and words which are hateful, disrespectful, racist, corrupt, lawless, unjust, greedy, dishonest and violent in order to cling to the privileges of power and wealth".
But this week the Zimbabwean government seemed to ignore the bishops' criticisms.
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said he "respected their opinion" and that, since Zimbabwe was a democracy, they were "free to say what they like", The minister made his comments while an opposition activist lay in a critical condition in hospital after being shot on Good Friday. The bishops issued their letter following the abduction of hundreds of activists.