The former Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube who resigned last year over allegations of breaking his celibacy vow has admitted he had an affair with a married woman.When the allegations first surfaced, Archbishop Ncube dismissed them as "a state-driven, vicious attack not just on myself, but by proxy on the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe."
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference, bishops from southern Africa and human rights activists came to the defense of the most outspoken critic of strongman Robert Mugabe.
But the archbishop made a shocking admission to Frontier Africa TV - an independent film production company - in South Africa just before he flew out to the Vatican in November 2007."It is true. I do admit that I did fail in keeping God's commandment with regard to adultery," admitted Ncube in the interview. "Having failed in keeping the Seventh Commandment Thou shalt not commit adultery, I would like to apologise to you, I'd like to apologise that so many of you were praying for me, for the fact that so many of you standing with me in fact suffered so much."
Ncube was reported to have been involved for over two years with Rosemary Sibanda, a married woman. It was reported that Sibanda herself admitted that she had an affair with the archbishop.
On the advice of his lawyer, Ncube had denied the allegations although state TV had been showing a compromising video of Ncube and Sibanda repeatedly over a number of days. These events led to Ncube's decision to resign from his post. He was subsequently summoned to the Vatican in November last year.On September 11, 2007, the Vatican press office released a letter written by the archbishop in which he wrote that he offered his resignation to Vatican officials in July to prevent the Church's image from being tarnished. "In order to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the Church any further attacks, I decided this was the best course of action," he wrote.
Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Ncube under Canon 410.2, which allows a bishop to resign if he becomes ill or for some grave reason becomes incapable of continuing his ministry.
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