Pope lets critic of Mugabe quit after sex video

Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent
Wednesday September 12, 2007
The Guardian


The Pope accepted the resignation of Zimbabwe's archbishop, Pius Ncube, yesterday after the cleric was filmed by Robert Mugabe's secret police apparently having sex with a church secretary.
Pius Ncube said he quit to "protect the church" but that he will remain a bishop in Zimbabwe and keep speaking out against the abuses of what he has previously called Mr Mugabe's "racist, corrupt and lawless" rule.

He also said that he would fight a lawsuit by the husband of the woman implicated in the affair who is demanding 20bn Zimbabwe dollars (£80,000) as compensation for adultery.

The sting, in which a camera was planted in the ceiling of the archbishop's bedroom, was widely seen as a move by Mr Mugabe to silence his most strident critic who has described the Zimbabwean leader as a megalomaniac and called on Christians to pray for him to die.
The former archbishop has not directly denied the alleged affair. Pictures of a man believed to be Pius Ncube climbing naked on top of a woman were printed in the state-run press, which described them as coming from "the archbishop's love nest".

Video of the former archbishop apparently having sex was shown on Zimbabwean television several nights in a row.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Ncube said he tendered his resignation to the Pope in July within days of "what was obviously a state-driven, vicious attack not just on myself, but by proxy on the Catholic church in Zimbabwe".

"It is my feeling that I should face this case in court as Pius Ncube, an individual, not that the holy Catholic church of God should seem to be on trial because I am its head," he said.

The Vatican said in a one-sentence statement that Pope Benedict had accepted the archbishop's resignation under an article of church law concerning clergy who are unable to perform their duties for health reasons. It has also been used to remove clerics who brought their office into disrepute.

Mr Ncube said he will "continue to speak out on the issues that sadly become more acute by the day".

"I have not been silenced by the crude machinations of a wicked regime," he said. However, almost nothing has been heard from him since the allegations surfaced and there is little doubt that the power of his criticism will have been greatly diminished by the episode.

"I know that there will be many of you who will be bitterly disappointed at my leaving my post as archbishop of Bulawayo - and a few who will be delighted, seeing their mission as having been accomplished," he said.