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Zimbabwe Archbishop Resigns
The Zimbabwean cleric and opponent of President Robert G. Mugabe who was accused of adultery after an apparent government sex sting said Tuesday that the Vatican had accepted his resignation as archbishop of Bulawayo.In a written statement, the bishop, Pius Ncube, said that he was stepping down to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the Church any further attacks. The Vatican confirmed the announcement in its own one-sentence statement, citing a church canon that earnestly requests the resignation of a bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause. Bishop Ncube said that he would remain a Catholic bishop. Some of his supporters predicted that his resignation would leave him freer to raise the humanitarian and human-rights issues that had become the preoccupation of his work as archbishop in Bulawayo, Zimbabwes second-largest city. But some also expressed surprise that the Vatican so willingly accepted his resignation, which was tendered days after the sexual accusations became public. While the church speaks out regularly on humanitarian issues, they said, it has had relatively little to say about the social and economic collapse in Zimbabwe, whose leader, Mr. Mugabe, is a Catholic. Posted by: Fred 2007-09-12 |
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