"The Flock Must Know Where The Church Stands,"

Alex Tawanda Magaisa, the former Chief of Staff in the office of the late former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai has said the Catholic church remains undeterred by the government’s and some church’s remarks on a Pastoral letter they had written castigating bad governance in the country. We present below Magaisa’s Twitter thread.

I have had the advantage of listening to a sermon delivered by Bishop Mupandasekwa of the Catholic Church. I’ve not heard a more powerful delivery in a long time. The message is loud and clear: the Bishops are undeterred. They remain resolute.

The Bishop says leaders prefer to be given letters in private, so that they can reject them or pretend to the citizens that they are smart. But Pastoral Letters are for the flock. They are not private letters as a boyfriend would write to a girlfriend.

He says Pastoral Letters are written to the flock so that they know the position of the Church & they also stand in that position. Pastoral Letters are not determined or stopped by political leaders. He says they are not communicated in private & don’t skirt around the truth.

The Bishop’s sermon was based on a passage in the book of Isaiah in which Shebna was dismissed and replaced by Eliakim. Shebna had failed his mandate. The Bishop says if the Bishops fail to communicate the word as they did, they too would be sacked like Shebna.

The Bishop spoke eloquently about leadership being like good fatherhood. A good father leads and protects. He does not murder his children. If he disciplines the children he does so proportionately. He does not abuse power.

Why do we see those in leadership without the spirit of fatherhood; murdering people, he asks A father encourages his children. He does not shut the children out of the home because they are naughty. A father might disciple his child but he does not hurt or murder him, he says

"The Flock Must Know Where The Church Stands," - Catholic Bishops Adamant

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