Zimbabwe: 'God Hears The Cry Of The Oppressed'


Pastoral Letter by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Current 
Crisis of Our Country

Holy Thursday, 5 April 2007


As your Shepherds we have reflected on our national situation and, in the 
light of the Word of God and Christian Social Teaching, have discerned what 
we now share with you, in the hope of offering guidance, light and hope in 
these difficult times.

The Crisis

The people of Zimbabwe are suffering. More and more people are getting 
angry, even from among those who had seemed to be doing reasonably well 
under the circumstances. The reasons for the anger are many, among them, bad 
governance and corruption. A tiny minority of the people have become very 
rich overnight, while the majority are languishing in poverty, creating a 
huge gap between the rich and the poor. Our Country is in deep crisis. A 
crisis is an unstable situation of extreme danger and difficulty. Yet, it 
can also be turned into a moment of grace and of a new beginning, if those 
responsible for causing the crisis repent, heed the cry of the people and 
foster a change of heart and mind especially during the imminent Easter 
Season, so our Nation can rise to new life with the Risen Lord.

In Zimbabwe today, there are Christians on all sides of the conflict; and 
there are many Christians sitting on the fence. Active members of our Parish 
and Pastoral Councils are prominent officials at all levels of the ruling 
party. Equally distinguished and committed office-bearers of the opposition 
parties actively support church activities in every parish and diocese. They 
all profess their loyalty to the same Church. They are all baptised, sit and 
pray and sing together in the same church, take part in the same celebration 
of the Eucharist and partake of the same Body and Blood of Christ. While the 
next day, outside the church, a few steps away, Christian State Agents, 
policemen and  soldiers assault and beat peaceful, unarmed demonstrators and 
torture  detainees. This is the unacceptable reality on the ground, which 
shows much disrespect for human life and falls far below the dignity of both 
the perpetrator and the victim.

In our prayer and reflection during this Lent, we have tried to understand 
the reasons why this is so. We have concluded that the crisis of our Country 
is, in essence, a crisis of governance and a crisis of leadership apart from 
being a spiritual and moral crisis.

A Crisis of Governance

The national health system has all but disintegrated as a result of 
prolonged industrial action by medical professionals, lack of drugs, 
essential equipment in disrepair and several other factors.

In the educational sector, high tuition fees and levies, the lack of 
teaching and learning resources, and the absence of teachers have brought 
activities in many public schools and institutions of higher education to a 
standstill. The number of students forced to terminate their education is 
increasing every month. At the same time, Government interference with the 
provision of education by private schools has created unnecessary tension 
and conflict.

Public services in Zimbabwe's towns and cities have crumbled. Roads, street 
lighting, water and sewer reticulation are in a state of severe disrepair to 
the point of constituting an acute threat to public health and safety, while 
the collection of garbage has come to a complete standstill in many places. 
Unabated political interference with the work of democratically elected 
Councils is one of the chief causes of this breakdown.

The erosion of the public transport system has negatively affected every 
aspect of our Country's economy and social life. Horrific accidents claim 
the lives of dozens of citizens each month.

Almost two years after the Operation Murambatsvina, thousands of victims are 
still without a home. That inexcusable injustice has not been forgotten.

Following a radical land reform programme seven years ago, many people are 
today going to bed hungry and wake up to a day without work. Hundreds of 
companies were forced to close. Over 80 per cent of the people of Zimbabwe 
are without employment. Scores risk their lives week after week in search of 
work in neighbouring countries.

Inflation has soared to over 1,600 per cent, and continues to rise, daily. 
It is the highest in the world and has made the life of ordinary Zimbabweans 
unbearable, regardless of their political preferences. We are all concerned 
for the turnaround of our economy but this will remain a dream unless 
corruption is dealt with severely irrespective of a person's political or 
social status or connections.

The list of justified grievances is long and could go on for many pages.

The suffering people of Zimbabwe are groaning in agony: "Watchman, how much 
longer the night"? (Is 21:11)

A Crisis of Moral Leadership

The crisis of our Country is, secondly, a crisis of leadership. The burden 
of that crisis is borne by all Zimbabweans, but especially the young who 
grow up in search of role models. The youth are influenced and formed as 
much by what they see their elders doing as by what they hear and learn at 
school or from their peers.

If our young people 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, it is highly likely that many of them will behave in exactly the 
same manner. The consequences of such overtly corrupt leadership as we are 
witnessing in Zimbabwe today will be with us for many years, perhaps 
decades, to come. Evil habits and attitudes take much longer to rehabilitate 
than to acquire. Being elected to a position of leadership should not be 
misconstrued as a licence to do as one pleases at the expense of the will 
and trust of the electorate.

A Spiritual and Moral Crisis

Our crisis is not only political and economic but first and foremost a 
spiritual and moral crisis. As the young independent nation struggles to 
find its common national spirit, the people of Zimbabwe are reacting against 
the "structures of sin" in our society. Pope John Paul II says that the 
"structures of sin" are "rooted in personal sin, and thus always linked to 
the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate 
  them and make them difficult to remove. And thus they grow stronger, 
spread, and become the source of other sins, and so influence people's 
behaviour." [1] The Holy Father stresses that in order to understand the 
reality that confronts us, we must "give a name to the root of the evils 
which afflict us." [2] That is what we have done in this Pastoral Letter.

The Roots of the Crisis

The present crisis in our Country has its roots deep in colonial society. 
Despite the rhetoric of a glorious socialist revolution brought about by the 
armed struggle, the colonial structures and institutions of pre-independent 
Zimbabwe continue to persist in our society. None of the unjust and 
oppressive security laws of the Rhodesian State have been repealed; in fact, 
they have been reinforced by even more repressive legislation, the Public 
Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of 
Privacy Act, in particular. It almost appears as though someone sat down 
with the Declaration of Human Rights and deliberately scrubbed out each in 
turn.

Why was this done? Because soon after Independence, the power and wealth of 
the tiny white Rhodesian elite was appropriated by an equally exclusive 
black elite, some of whom have governed the country for the past 27 years 
through political patronage. Black Zimbabweans today fight for the same 
basic rights they fought for during the liberation struggle. It is the same 
conflict between those who possess power and wealth in abundance, and those 
who do not; between those who are determined to maintain their privileges of 
power and wealth at any cost, even at the cost of bloodshed, and those who 
demand their democratic rights and a share in the fruits of independence; 
between those who continue to benefit from the present system of inequality 
and injustice, because it favours them and enables them to maintain an 
exceptionally high standard of living, and those who go to bed hungry at 
night and wake up in the morning to another day without work and without 
income; between those who only know the language of violence and 
intimidation, and those who feel they have nothing more to lose because 
their Constitutional rights have been abrogated and their votes rigged. Many 
people in Zimbabwe are angry, and their anger is now erupting into open 
revolt in one township after another.

The confrontation in our Country has now reached a flashpoint. As the 
suffering population becomes more insistent, generating more and more 
pressure through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the State 
responds with ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning 
orders, beatings and torture. In our judgement, the situation is extremely 
volatile. 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 that will offer a chance for 
economic recovery under genuinely new policies.

Our Message of Hope: God is always on the Side of the Oppressed

The Bible has much to say about situations of confrontation. The conflict 
between the oppressor and the oppressed is a central theme throughout the 
Old and New Testaments.[3] Biblical scholars have discovered that there are 
no less than twenty different root words in Hebrew to describe oppression.

One example is the Creed of the chosen people, which we read on the First 
Sunday of Lent: "My Father was a homeless Aramaean. He went down to Egypt to 
find refuge there, few in numbers; but there he became a nation, great, 
mighty and strong. The Egyptians ill-treated us, they gave us no peace and 
inflicted harsh slavery on us. But we called on the Lord, the God of our 
fathers. The Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our 
oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and 
outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders . ... " 
(Deut 26:5b-8).

The Bible describes oppression in concrete and vivid terms: Oppression is 
the experience of being crushed, degraded, humiliated, exploited, 
impoverished, defrauded, deceived and enslaved. And the oppressors are 
described as cruel, ruthless, arrogant, greedy, violent and tyrannical; they 
are called 'the enemy'. Such words could only have been used by people who 
in their own lives and history had an immediate and personal experience of 
being oppressed. To them Yahweh revealed himself as the God of compassion 
who hears the cry of the oppressed and who liberates them from their 
oppressors. The God of the Bible is always on the side of the oppressed. He 
does not reconcile Moses and Pharaoh, or the Hebrew slaves with their 
Egyptian oppressors. Oppression is sin and cannot be compromised with. It 
must be overcome. God takes sides with the oppressed. As we read in Psalm 
103:6: "God who does what is right, is always on the side of the oppressed". 
[4]

When confronted with the politically powerful, Jesus speaks the language of 
the boldest among Israel's prophets. He calls Herod 'that fox' (Lk13:32) and 
courageously exposes the greed for money, power and adulation of the 
political elite. And he warns his disciples never to do likewise: "Among the 
gentiles it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority 
over them are given the title Benefactor. With you this must not happen. No, 
the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as 
if he were the one who serves" (Lk 22:25-27). And he warns Pilate in no 
uncertain terms that he will be held to account by God for his use of power 
over life and death (John 19:11).

Throughout the history of the Church, persecuted Christians have remembered, 
prayed and sung the prophetic words of Mary: "[The Lord] has used the power 
of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart. He has pulled down princes 
from their thrones and raised high the lowly. He has filled the starving 
with good things, sent the rich away empty" (Lk1:50-53).

Generations of Zimbabweans, too, throughout their own long history of 
oppression and their struggle for liberation, have remembered, prayed and 
sung these texts from the Old and New Testaments and found strength, courage 
and perseverance in their faith that Jesus is on their side. That is the 
message of hope we want to convey in this Pastoral Letter: God is on your 
side. He always hears the cry of the poor and oppressed and saves them.

Conclusion

We conclude our Pastoral Letter by affirming with a clear and unambiguous 
Yes our support of morally legitimate political authority. At the same time 
we say an equally clear and unambiguous No to power through violence, 
oppression and intimidation. We call on those who are responsible for the 
current crisis in our Country to repent and listen to the cry of their 
citizens. To the people of Zimbabwe we appeal for peace and restraint when 
expressing their justified grievances and demonstrating for their human 
rights.

Words call for concrete action, for symbols and gestures which keep our hope 
alive. We therefore invite all the faithful to a Day of Prayer and Fasting 
for Zimbabwe, on Saturday, 14 April 2007. This will be followed by a Prayer 
Service for Zimbabwe, on Friday, every week, in all parishes of our Country. 
As for the details, each Diocese will make known its own arrangements.

May the Peace and Hope of the Risen Lord be with you always. Happy Easter.

Prayer For Our Country

God Our Father,

You have given all peoples one common origin,

And your will is to gather them as one family in yourself.

Give compassion to our leaders, integrity to our citizens, and repentance to 
us all.

Fill the hearts of all women and men with your love

And the desire to ensure justice for all their brothers and sisters.

By sharing the good things you give us

May we ensure justice and equality for every human being,

An end to all division, and a human society built on love,

Lasting prosperity and peace for all.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Our Father...   Hail Mary...     Glory be to the Father ...

+Robert C. Ndlovu, Archbishop of Harare              (ZCBC President)

+Pius Alec M. Ncube, Archbishop of Bulawayo

+Alexio Churu Muchabaiwa, Bishop of Mutare      (ZCBC Secretary/Treasurer)

+Michael D. Bhasera, Bishop of Masvingo

+Angel Floro, Bishop of Gokwe                          (ZCBC Vice President)

+Martin Munyanyi, Bishop of Gweru

+Dieter B. Scholz SJ, Bishop of Chinhoyi

+Albert Serrano, Bishop of Hwange

Relevant Links

Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
Religion
Human Rights



+Patrick M. Mutume, Auxiliary Bishop of Mutare

References:

[1]John Paul II (1987), Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 
paragraph 36
[2]Ibid
[3] The Kairos Document (1985), Challenge to the Church, A Theological 
Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa, p 19 f
4The Kairos Document (1985), Challenge to the Church, A Theological Comment 
on the Political Crisis in South Africa, p 20

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