The apparently stage managed hue and cry in social media  following Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Cde Monica Mutsvangsa’s response to the unholy Pastoral Letter by Catholic Bishops, led by Archbishop Christopher Ndlovu, demonstrates the solidarity of the regime change lobby.

Last week we pointed out that civic groups, MDC-Alliance, remnants of the disgraced G40 cabal and some Western embassies had ganged up in crying out that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe.

Hopefully, this would invite international condemnation and intervention, especially that it was on the eve of a SADC Summit.

The UN General Assembly meeting is soon to follow.

The noise was ignored for what it was – stage manage.

Predictably, Zimbabwean Catholics would not abandon their erstwhile allies.

The pastoral letter, repeating the fictitious accusations about human rights abuses was the Catholic bishops’ contribution to the axis of evil. 

Unlike Catholics, their allies are recognised political animals.

Normally, we would have expected the Catholic bishops to be apolitical, concentrating on shepherding their flock along the narrow path that leads to heaven, through moral teachings.

That way we would have given them due reverence.

However, if they decide to stray into politics and join hands with the country’s detractors, they become fair game in the political jungle.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was aware of this.

For when the Pharisees tried to trick him into joining them in their regime change plot against Roman rule, he used a coin to illustrate his point.

His mission was to lead people to God and politics was for politicians, Caesar in this case.

Regrettably, Zimbabwean Catholic leaders have a disgraceful history of dabbling in politics.

It is the same Catholics, who initially gave the election campaign and voting during the 2018 harmonised poll a clean bill.

In another of their pastoral letters, the Bishops said they had been impressed by the peaceful nature of the campaign and the voting process.

However, their somersault following announcement of the results was dramatic.

Once their humiliated political allies, the MDC -Alliance, disputed the results of the elections, the same bishops were at the forefront in condemning the whole electoral process.

They now claimed the elections were marred by ‘massive violence and intimidation’. 

In fact Zimbabwe’s settler occupation history is littered with supremacist Catholic ideology at the expense of blacks.

It is unfortunate this has been inherited by present day black bishops.

Suffice to remind them that one of their numbers, Father Richartz, a darling of settlers, baptised Sekuru Kaguvi and named him ‘Dismas’ (the good thief).

Mbuya Nehanda would have non of that.

It is the same Zimbabwean bishops who produced characters like Pius Ncube … still remember him? 

And in 2020 we have the latest version in Archbishop Christopher Ndlovhu.

The bishops’  baseless scathing attack of the Government’s human rights record doesn’t even have  an iota of evidence to justify their claims.

This is a bishop’s grouping,  which appears distinctly hurt by the failure of the July 31 demo, which would have seen protesters defying  the Covid19 menace.

And the health consequences would have been disastrous. 

By referring to American activist’s John Robert Lewis statement: “that the march is not yet over” the bishops are apparently showing their solidarity with regime change agents’  subversive mission. 

The bishops should know that the vast majority of their congregants are united in respecting the word of God.

But they are all of different political persuasions.

To expect sympathy from them when they get mauled for their political utterances is illusory.