{"id":1881,"date":"2007-04-30T13:17:09","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T13:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/and-more-threats.html"},"modified":"2007-04-30T13:17:09","modified_gmt":"2007-04-30T13:17:09","slug":"and-more-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/and-more-threats.html","title":{"rendered":"and more threats…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…in Zimbabwe:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

O<\/strong><\/span>fficers from Zimbabwe\u2019s security agency have warned Catholic priests not to distribute local language versions of a pastoral letter that is highly critical of the deepening political and economic crisis here.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe\u2019s bishops\u2019 conference issued a pastoral letter, \u201cGod Hears the Cry of the Oppressed,\u201d just before Easter that said Zimbabwe’s crisis is one of governance, leadership, spirituality and morality. <\/p>\n

To avoid "further bloodshed and avert a mass uprising," a new constitution is needed to guide democracy "chosen in free and fair elections that will offer a chance for economic recovery under genuinely new policies," the bishops wrote.<\/p>\n

The letter is the strongest statement the bishops have issued since the country began an economic meltdown some two years ago. The unemployment rate of 80 percent and an inflation rate of more than 1,700 percent has "made the life of ordinary Zimbabweans unbearable, regardless of their political preferences," the bishops said.<\/p>\n

The letter is seen as critical of the government of Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980. <\/p>\n

The letter was initially issued in English, but the bishops have had it translated into two of the main indigenous languages, making it widely available to Catholics across the country. It is the translations that security officers have been trying to stop.<\/p>\n

A priest who spoke to NCR<\/em> said he was visited last week by plain-clothes security agents who warned against distributing the letter. <\/p>\n

Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo confirmed he has received reports from priests that they had been visited by security agents. He added that this will not deter the church from speaking out on human rights abuses and social injustice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…in Zimbabwe: Officers from Zimbabwe\u2019s security agency have warned Catholic priests not to distribute local language versions of a pastoral letter that is highly critical of the deepening political and economic crisis here. Zimbabwe\u2019s bishops\u2019 conference issued a pastoral letter, \u201cGod Hears the Cry of the Oppressed,\u201d just before Easter that said Zimbabwe’s crisis is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nand more threats... - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/and-more-threats.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"and more threats... - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"…in Zimbabwe: Officers from Zimbabwe\u2019s security agency have warned Catholic priests not to distribute local language versions of a pastoral letter that is highly critical of the deepening political and economic crisis here. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}