IN ADVANCE of Zimbabwe’s presidential election, the Vatican has silenced Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, for long the most outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe - whose autocratic rule seems certain to be extended in the controversial poll next weekend. The Vatican summoned Ncube - recipient of Scotland’s Robert Burns International Humanitarian Award and widely tipped as a future Nobel Peace Prize winner - following allegations he had an affair with a married parishioner.
Sources in Rome close to the Holy See said Ncube has been ordered to stop speaking out about conditions in his devastated country, which has the world’s lowest life expectancy and highest inflation rate.
The Vatican requires an explanation from Ncube concerning allegations by Mugabe that the archbishop broke his vow of celibacy.
“It is true, I do admit that I did fail in keeping God’s commandment with regard to adultery,” he said in the filmed 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.”
The apology by the 60-year-old archbishop, who is shown near to tears with his features swollen, was directed to the people of Zimbabwe, where the majority of Christians are Catholics. Ncube’s criticisms of Mugabe’s rule, which were quashed by both Mugabe and the Vatican, will sound one final time as Zimbabweans prepare to go to the polls.
Ncube said: “I became outspoken because I got extremely hurt and broken by the way the Zimbabwean government has been treating people - treating them like things, killing them, depriving them of food, depriving them of voting rights, destroying their houses, harassing them, imprisoning them, torturing them, killing the economy,” said Ncube.
“I’m not going to be silenced. I don’t mind so much what people do to me personally, but what I do mind is the damage and evil to the people coming from the government of Zimbabwe.
“I’ve never desired to be a politician. I only began speaking up when human rights were abused. Mugabe is a megalomaniac. There is this big zest in him for power. He has committed crimes against humanity and it could land him in an unpleasant situation. He could find himself jailed.”
It is no great secret among those who live in Africa that Roman Catholic priests on that continent often honour the vow of celibacy as much in the breach as in the practice.
Some priests have children, while others listen to the quiet advice of their bishops to practice birth control.
Roman Catholic nuns sometimes defy papal doctrine and freely distribute condoms to their flocks to help counter the HIV/Aids pandemic, which is cutting a swathe through Africa.
Many Zimbabweans and other Africans are likely to see as disproportionate the Vatican smothering of a powerful focus of opposition to Mugabe on account of an all too human failing - one that the Zimbabwe regime was bound to spot and exploit.
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