Zimbabwe’s opposition was in shock yesterday after the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, the Most Rev Pius Ncube, one of President Mugabe’s most outspoken opponents, was pictured by state media apparently naked and with a woman.

In what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated sting, the cleric was shown undressing with the woman, in photographs presumed to have been taken by a secret camera installed in his bedroom.

Nine pictures were spread across a page in The Chronicle, the Government’s mouthpiece in the western city of Bulawayo, where Archbishop Ncube is based.

The only photographs indisputably of Archbishop Ncube picture him alone. Others are blurred, and one — allegedly of him standing naked — does not appear to resemble him at all. Given their circulation, though, they left his supporters questioning whether he could retain his authority as one of President Mugabe’s most fearless and credible critics.

Archbishop Ncube was served with an £80,000 civil adultery case on Monday, claiming that he had a relationship with a secretary from his diocesan office. It was served by the deputy sheriff of Bulawayo, accompanied by a group of journalists and photographers from the government media.

Archbishop Ncube’s lawyer has described the case as an “orchestrated attempt” to embarrass him and said that the cleric would deny the charges.

Archbishop Ncube, 61, has won huge respect internationally for his vociferous condemnation of human rights abuses under President Mugabe, despite constant harassment by government secret agents, who have threatened his elderly mother at least once. Friends have feared for his life. He regularly denounced President Mugabe as “an evil and corrupt dictator,” remarks that could have had him imprisoned. He said that he prayed for President Mugabe, 83, to die, as the only way to end the tyranny.

He was increasingly looked to as Zimbabwe’s version of the South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the only person able to rouse Zimbabweans and lead them to confront the regime. In March he declared that he was ready to march “in front of the blazing guns”.

He was unavailable for comment yesterday. Father Frederick Chiromba, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishop’s Conference, said that a decision whether to issue a statement would be taken when the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Harare, the Most Rev Robert Ndlovu, the president of the conference, returned from a retreat.

State television filmed Archbishop Ncube saying on Monday, when the lawsuit was served on him: “We all have weaknesses. That’s why when we pray we ask God for forgiveness.”

Observers said that the pictures echoed an attempt by President Mugabe’s secret police to entrap Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, in 2003. They videoed him secretly at a meeting where hired agents tried to lure him into making treasonous statements. The judge in his two-year treason trial found that the film presented as evidence had been doctored.

David Coltart, an opposition MP and a close friend of Archbishop Ncube, said: “Even if the pictures haven’t been digitally altered, which could have been the case, it was clearly a CIO [Central Intelligence Organisation, Zimbabwe's state security body] sting operation.

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