Where God Weeps - the suffering church in focus
Countries » Zimbabwe
The situation of the church in Zimbabwe
With its economy in tatters and its people devastated by poverty and mass unemployment, the crisis engulfing Zimbabwe has touched the lives of almost everybody in the country. In July 2008, inflation was conservatively estimated to be a record-breaking 2.2 million percent and was continuing to rise as shop prices increased by the hour. Repression and violence are commonplace in a country torn apart by conflict and the suffering has affected people whatever their religious beliefs.
The constitution guarantees religious liberty, but the government does not always respect this right. There is no state religion and all religions are recognised. Religious institutions do not have to be registered, unless they run schools or hospitals. Religious education is permitted in private schools.
Christian leaders who criticised the Mugabe regime have been threatened, arrested and even imprisoned. An April 2007 pastoral letter by Catholic bishops attacking "bad governance and corruption" in the country led to retaliation against the Church.[i] Priests were harassed and threatened by members of the government's Central Intelligence Organisation. Copies of the pastoral letter were confiscated and in some rural areas parishes were prohibited from reading the letter.[ii]
The failure of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to win the March 2008 elections caused outbreaks of violence, particularly in rural areas where support for the rival MDC party was high. In April 2008 Church leaders spoke out against the organised violence "unleashed" against people "accused of campaigning or voting for the ‘wrong' political party" by the militia.[iii] In urban areas armed police have bulldozed homes, leaving families living on the streets. One eye-witness of the events described it as "genocide in the making".[iv]
When Mugabe won run-off presidential elections in June 2008, questions abounded about the legitimacy of the result. The outrage centred on news that Mugabe's opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC, had withdrawn from the contest after fears that his supporters would be killed. In Mudzi, two polling stations reported 15,000 votes cast for Mugabe when only 3,000 people live in those wards.[v] The Southern African Development Community Observer Mission commented that events leading up to the polling day did not meet its election guidelines.
The 2008 elections promised hope with the inclusion of opposition politicians like Morgan Tsvangirai in the government. This hope, however, has yet to be fulfilled. Prime Minister Tsvangirai has been repeatedly thwarted in his efforts to implement the necessary decisions to address the challenges confronting the country. Evidence of this interference was revealed when he attempted to attend an international meeting and his passport was stripped from him at the airport. He has no voice in the mass media and to communicate to the Zimbabwean people he has to publish his own newspaper called "Prime Minister". Consequently information regarding the present economic and social realities are restricted or denied to the public - for example, the pending catastrophic food situation in Matabeleland where up to 50% of the population face possible starvation.
As to the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, a 2009 Pastoral Letter from the Zimbabwe Bishop's Conference, which presented possible solutions to crises, was initially received and applauded by the government, however, when one priest later quoted passages of the Letter to his congregation, he was arrested and harassed.
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[i] Pastoral Letter by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Current Crisis of Our Country, 30.03.2007.
[ii] ACN (UK) News, 19.02.2008.
[iii] Catholic News, 23.04.2008.
[iv] ACN (UK) News, 28.04.2008.
[v] Kitsepile Nyathi, "Zimbabwe: Questions Over Mugabe's Two Million Percent Rise in Support", The Nation (Nairobi), 01.07.2008.
How you can help
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) supports several projects in Zimbabwe. You can support these projects by donating via their national offices.
Below you can find one or more finished projects ACN supported in the past.
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Zimbabwe in Africa is a country in a state of permanent crisis. Millions are suffering from hunger and food shortages and some are actually dying of starvation. It is impossible for the Church and the local missionaries to organise food aid on an adequate scale, and indeed it was not until the political compromise, negotiated in 2008 between President Mugabe and the MDC opposition movement that many NGOs were even permitted to supply food aid in this ravaged country. Read more >>
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In 2008, faced with the catastrophic situation in Zimbabwe, the diocese of Bulawayo decided to embark on a self-help project in order to provide food, especially for the children of the surrounding area. And so they set out a vegetable garden and drilled a borehole with a hand pump. It provided them with enough water to fill a 5000 litre tank -- enough at least to quench the thirst of the needy children in the diocese. Read more >>
Statistics
Population: 13.00 Million
Christian Population: 9.00 Million
Religious statistics:
Christian 68%
Animist 30%
Other 2%
Breaking News from Zimbabwe
- 15/09/2009: Faith strengthens Zimbabwe's orphan carers
A Church punished for its opposition
A Church punished for its opposition (short film)
A Church punished for its opposition (audio)
Zimbabwe: Out of the Darkness