Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Agenzia Fides) – The Southern African Conference of Catholic Bishops (SACBC) has declared February 15 “Zimbabwe Sunday,” a special day for prayer and support for the population of the country, which is suffering from hunger, cholera, and the economic crisis. Promoting the initiative are the Bishops of South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland (the three countries that form a part of the Southern African Conference), who at the Sunday Masses will encourage the faithful to show their closeness to their brethren in Zimbabwe with prayer and acts of solidarity: the food and medicine collected in the Masses will be distributed to those in need through the network of Caritas Zimbabwe.
In light of this initiative, Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight is sending a message of solidarity to the people and Church of Zimbabwe, on behalf of all 162 national Caritas members.
“Half of Zimbabweans rely on food aid to survive, a cholera epidemic has killed 3,500 so far out of 71,000 cases, and the country’s economic, health, educational infrastructure has collapsed,” says a statement sent to Agenzia Fides from Caritas Internationalis.
Lesley-Anne Knight has affirmed that “the people of Zimbabwe need our solidarity in this time of crisis and tragedy. Reports from Caritas staff on the ground are of acute need among the majority of people. The lack of food will be peaking over the next few weeks, a cholera epidemic has already killed too many, and the suffering is deepening.”
“Catholics and people of good will around the world will be seeing the tragic events unfold in Zimbabwe and wondering what they can do to help. We can follow the example of the Southern African bishops by marking 15 February as Zimbabwe Sunday with our thoughts and prayers.”
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Archbishop of Durban, explained the reasons that led to the declaration of “Zimbabwe Sunday”: “There was a delegation of two bishops that came to address the bishop’s conference and one of them put it, I think, in the most graphic way anyone could put it. He said it was ‘passive genocide’ for the world to be standing by and watching what’s going on in Zimbabwe.”
Cardinal Napier says he hopes to accomplish two things on Zimbabwe Sunday: “The first one is simply to express our Christian solidarity with our brothers and sisters, who are suffering...And secondly…to do something towards alleviating some of their suffering by collecting funds, food, clothing and medicines.”
There has been a sign of hope for change in the recent formation of a government of national unity led by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who was recently sworn into office (see Fides 12/2/2009) and who is hoped to bring in aid to Zimbabwe from the countries who had cut relations off with the regime of President Robert Mugabe. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 13/2/2009)
