Why does the Vatican not speak out against what is happening in Zimbabwe with Mugabe a devout catholic in cont

Question

control there. Not a word? From last Sundays, Sunday Express " Whats it going to take before the Roman catholic church has anything to say about the conduct of this member of its flock? Mugabe has done and is doing all these things and not a squeak from the Vatican?" ( Christopher Hitchin p.47. Line 55 ) He speaks out against others but not one of his own ? So sad .

Answer 1

Why would Mugabe pay any heed to what to Pope Benedict has to say?  He'd probably think it was part of the British conspiracy to undermine his presidency & 'his' country.

Answer 2

Why are you asking this in the Irish section?

most italians,spanish,portuguese,polish are catholic as well.

how about you answer my questions?

Answer 3

I have heard that the Irish Christian Brothers Educated Mugabe ,must be why he turned out so bad. The Vatican never gave out about the n**i's either, the Pope and they were great Pals at the Time. When the Italian Jews were being rounded up  by Mussolinis Fascists ,to be handed over to the n**i's the Catholic Church did not say a Word. There was one Priest in the Vatican who Helped some of them to Escape. There was a Picture ,a Movie made Years ago with Gregory Peck playing the Part of the Priest who Helped them.The Pope of the Time  Forbade the Priest to Help the Jews, He was very Pally with the n**i's.

Answer 4

They would not speak out against the IRA either; they are a discrace.

Answer 5

hi you

how say the Vatican has not spoken just because you did not read in the papers or heard it on the NeWS does not say it has not happen after all has the whole truth been told about the four English Ruby players i dont know all the facts in that case but i did not rush on here and anything was out of order i always believe in keeping my mouth shut when i dont have all the facts in a case i could also point out more but i wont

Answer 6

Pffft the Vatican dont speak out against hardly anything unless its homosexuality or contraception or something they can make everyday people feel bad about.

The world doesnt hear from them when it really needs help.

Answer 7

The Vatican likes to let the local hierarchy deal with their own provinces as much as possible. And (according to Wikipedia), "the Catholic hierarchy in Zimbabwe have been very vocal against his rule and the senior Catholic cleric, Archbishop Pius Ncube is a major critic, even calling for Western governments to help in his overthrow."

The Vatican also tends to prefer fighting the ideas it opposes rather than the individuals who support those ideas. So the Vatican might decry government corruption and cruel repression, but it is less common for the Vatican to name names.

As for the accusations by others in this thread. Pius XII was one of the most vocal opponents of the n***s even before he became Pope. But as the power of Hitler grew Pius XII had to be ever more cautious with his pronouncements. Angering Hitler would have only inspired him to come down harder on Catholics (he had already arrested and murdered many Catholic priests), and it would have caused fits of rage which would hasten his extermination of the Jews. As proof to this, look up what Hitler did when Dutch Catholic bishops condemned his racist policies (He started rounding up Jewish Catholic converts, who had previously been off limits). The only people Hitler hated as much as Jews were dissenters.

Despite this, the Pope "ordered Rome's convents and monasteries to hide Jews during the Second World War." (cited from Wikipedia) The very worst that can be said is that using our jaded 20/20 hindsight we can say, "the Pope should have done more." It would be absurd to think that Pope Pius XII was on the side of Hitler, when Catholic Priests and Bishops were being suppressed and murdered the whole time, and Hitler was killing millions of Polish Catholics.

Answer 8

Mr Mugabe is far from being a devout Catholic.

Here are just a few times where the Catholic Church has and is speaking out against Mr Mugabe:

Zimbabwean Bishop Speaks Against Tyranny: (May 22, 2007): http://www.insidethevatican.com/newsflas...

Pope declines to meet Mugabe (June 5, 2008): http://zimbabwemetro.com/2008/06/05/pope...

Zimbabwe’s top (Catholic) cleric urges Britain to invade (July 1, 2007): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...

Mugabe warns Catholic bishops over politics (May 4, 2007): http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk...

U.S. Catholic Bishops Support Church On National Crisis (April 24, 2007): http://harare.usembassy.gov/uscatholic.h...

'God Hears The Cry Of The Oppressed' - Pastoral Letter by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference on the Current Crisis of Our Country (March 30, 2007): http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/...

Pope praises Zimbabwe's bishops for pre-election letter

(July 5 2005): http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories...

Pope supports Zimbabwe bishops (July 4, 2005): http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm...

Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference: Statement on 'Operation Restore Order' (June 8, 2005): http://www.beliefnet.com/story/168/story...

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

They will never come out and speak against groups.  Very sad as people are dying and being treated terribly but out of sight out of mind.