Church officials at the Vatican have been strongly criticized for the
warm welcome they extended to Robert Mugabe when he attended the
beatification service of the late Pope John Paul II.
Mugabe travelled to Rome for the ceremony on May 1st and was seen on television being happily welcomed by Vatican clergy.
An editorial in
the latest edition of the Southern Cross (a Catholic publication) said;
"Zimbabwe's bishops have been undermined and the faithful have been
scandalized. Now that damage requires correction."
Editor of the publication, Gunther Simmermacher, defended the Vatican for allowing Mugabe to take communion at the ceremony but stressed that the warm embrace given to him did undermine bishops in Zimbabwe, whom Mugabe has repeatedly attacked.
Simmermarcher wrote that televised images of “the
tyrant being warmly embraced by a broadly smiling prelate was
embarrassing for the courageous bishops of Zimbabwe, and to the clergy,
religious and laity who strive for a peaceful transition to an equitable
and accountable democracy."
The editor has said he was compelled to do something after receiving passionate letters from Catholics who were “upset, hurt, confused and scandalized” by Mugabe’s Vatican visit and the welcome he received.
One such letter talked of reading the reports
"with such utter disgust that my 54 years as a practicing Catholic have
been ripped from within me, and I do not know what to believe anymore."
Father Nigel Johnson, based in Zimbabwe, spoke to SW Radio Africa and said; “For the past 20 years all sorts of people have floated the idea of ex-communicating Mugabe”.
Ex-communication would mean that Mugabe would
no longer be able to receive communion or be allowed to be buried in a
Catholic cemetery.
But more importantly it would send a very strong
message to Mugabe that his actions were considered completely
unacceptable.
Officials at the Vatican are fully aware of the horrific crimes that have been perpetrated by the Mugabe regime over the years.
Catholic clergy in the country, including Father Oskar Wermter
and former Matabeleland Archbishop Pius Ncube have been outspoken
critics of the Mugabe regime.
And it was the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace that produced the detailed report on the Gukurahundi
atrocities of the mid-eighties.
The church’s mandate to welcome all sinners, including murderers and dictators, has been defended even by those who were upset by Mugabe’s visit.
But it is the level of warmth
that was shown to the ZANU PF leader that has been of great concern.
Observers have said this sends the wrong message to the dictator.