Categories: Stories

Church and politics

The next general elections may be some time away but the Catholic Church seems to have made an early start to conscientise people on the need to vote.

But at the same time it is asking its parishioners a lot of questions that any politician would rush to advise: do not mix church and politics.

But the church seems to have mapped out a simple strategy through its Justice and Peace wing. The strategy is simply that you cannot divorce politics from day-to-day life.

Politics, it argues, comes from the word “Polis” which in Greek means city. It therefore argues that: are not all events in the city the business of every citizen in one way or another?

Some of the questions the church is asking are:

  • Do you need voter education?
  • Is this a just society?
  • Is Zimbabwe on the home front a shining light to Africa?

“Is prestige (the airline, the army’s international commitments) a priority when health care, hospital buildings are inadequate, and the latter now beyond the pocket of those becoming increasingly poorer?

“Millions here are passing from poverty to destitution…Absence of war is not peace…Are Mps paid? Do they earn their pay? Are they looking after all citizens…..?”

(29 VIEWS)

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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