Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned Zimbabwe's Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly critical of him, that they are treading a "dangerous path", according to reports published on Friday. Mugabe's comments, in the state-run Herald newspaper, come after a pastoral letter was read out by the country's Catholic bishops on Sunday calling for a new people-driven constitution to avert bloodshed and mass uprising. "Once [the bishops] turn political, we regard them as no longer spiritual and our relations with them would be conducted as if we are dealing with political entities, and this is quite a dangerous path they have chosen for themselves," Mugabe told the Herald.The autocratic 83-year-old, himself a Catholic, is blamed for Zimbabwe's current political and economic crisis that has reduced what was once one of Africa's success stories into a country in meltdown. Zimbabwe has world-record inflation, joblessness hovering over 80% and chronic shortages of foreign currency, fuel and cooking oil. In their letter, the Catholic leaders said that the crisis in Zimbabwe was "in essence, a crisis of governance and a crisis of leadership apart from being a spiritual and moral crisis".
"If I had gone to church and the priest had read that so-called pastoral letter, I would have stood up and said nonsense," Mugabe said, adding: "It is not something spiritual, it is not religious, the bishops have decided to turn political".
Mugabe said he would talk to some of the bishops but attacked one of his outspoken critics, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo. "He [Ncube] thinks he is close to God, that's why he says he is praying for me to die. But unfortunately, God has not listened to him for all this duration. I don't know how many times a day he is saying that prayer:Â’ Please, God, take that man Robert Mugabe away from us'."
Mugabe said the church and the state must work hand in hand, but "if this is going to be the partner the Catholics want us to have, then obviously they must know we will reciprocate as politicians".