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'I'll pray for fallen archbishop'
18/07/2007 15:12 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday rebuked Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube for breaking his vow of celibacy after state media ran pictures of his arch critic in bed with a married woman.
Mugabe said: "Since you are my archbishop, Pius, and you swore to celibacy, keep your vows." The president was speaking at the burial of a national hero and former army chief in Harare.
He said: "Snatching other people's wives is not fair play." Mugabe described himself an ordinary catholic who knew God and urged Church leaders to be exemplary.
Zimbabwe's state-run media published pictures on Tuesday that it said showed Ncube, one of Mugabe's arch critics, naked in his bedroom with a woman whose husband was suing the archbishop for adultery.
Mugabe to make request for prayers
Mugabe said: "I was born a catholic, but I did not swear to celibacy. That was my own area of weakness and I chose the path which led me to where I am. I am catholic and I can say grace like Pius, but I chose to marry and Pius chose not to."
Mugabe said he would make a request when he goes to church, for prayers for Ncube "so that he can repent and return to morality".
Ncube's lawyer had said the cleric would fight the adultery suit.
Mugabe sparked controversy among catholics in the early 1990s after revelations he had secretly married his former aide and fathered two children while still married to his late wife.
Ncube had been a constant thorn in the side of the Mugabe regime, calling for the people of Zimbabwe to rise up against his rule and declaring his readiness to "go in front of blazing guns".
Mugabe warned in May that church leaders who had become increasingly critical of him were treading a "dangerous path".
Two weeks ago, the octogenarian ruler castigated some bishops for "sleeping around" when they had sworn to celibacy.
He said: "Some of them claim they swore to celibacy yet they sleep around with countless women."
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
