PRESIDENT MUGABE has finally lost the vital support of the Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Church, the largest in the country, after it condemned the “frightening” corruption, lawlessness and abuse of power of his Government.

An Easter pastoral letter from the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference said that he had “failed to provide leadership that enables the creation of an environment that enhances truth, justice, love and freedom”.

Instead, most Zimbabweans were “drowning in abject poverty”, were still “suffering social and political violence” and were being harassed by officials who “have placed themselves above the law”.

It expressed outrage over the regime’s practice of demanding that people in famine relief queues “produce a party card before receiving food”.

“People’s lives are at stake and the nation cannot afford to entertain the politicisation of food while people are starving,” the bishops said. The Government’s “corrupt practices, poor planning and bureaucracy” were largely to blame for the famine, which is affecting seven million people.

Observers say that the report, the most critical in the past three years of state-driven lawlessness, is an indication that Mr Mugabe has lost the support of the most powerful Church in the country.

They say that its silence over his abuses during most of the 23 years of his rule — including the persecution of the outspoken Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo — has lent him respectability and the ability to deflect censure from Western governments.

In January 260 Catholic clergy denounced most of the Catholic bishops for “compromise with an evil regime”.

The bishops’ stand endorses damning reports in the past week by the Commonwealth secretariat and the US State Department. The report calls for “meaningful dialogue” and for “a balanced constitution that removes unjust structures”. Both echo demands from civil society organisations and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Publication of the report coincided with an announcement from Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF) party yesterday that its top executive body, the Politburo, was due to meet to consider whether to declare the late Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, the head of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, a “national hero”. He died of cancer last week. A decision to grant him “hero status” would embarrass the Church. Mr Mugabe’s “heroes” are all ruling party officials, relatives or cronies. Archbishop Chakaipa solemnised the controversial marriage of Mr Mugabe, a Catholic, and his young wife, Grace, 38, a divorcée, after lobbying for a special dispensation from the Vatican.

He also refused to allow the Church’s Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe to publish a report revealing the massacre of about 10,000 civilians in the western provinces of Matabeleland in the early 1980s. It was eventually released by its co-authors.

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