Golden Jubilee For Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference
governance of the nation. This quest for participation in issues pertaining to the
governance of the country is an achievement that cannot be taken for granted as
an output for future programs and generations to come.
(ii) Distributing pastoral letters to every legislature and then sharing the
views on them.
Church\ State relations have grown from strength to strength because of the
sharing of views. We have had many visits to our offices by MPs and ministers
requesting assistance in many areas of governance. The areas requested were in
the field of elections, reports on constitutionalism, reports on ordinary
criminality done on the pretext of politics etc.
From 2014, a positive approach to pastoral letters has been adopted by the state.
Every last Wednesday of the month interested parliamentarians meet from 12.00
to 13.45 to discuss pastoral letters from the churches, ordinary concerns from
the churches and always mass concludes these discussions. This has been a
tradition since 2010 when the office (CPLO) introduced it.
iii) CPLO is part of the technical team of all the churches of the Country. The
involvement of the office to the technical team of churches has seen a great
improvement in unity within the churches. We have seen many programs being
implemented together by the churches in Zimbabwe like writing and taking to
the people the document called the Zimbabwe We Want. Many meetings
conducted together as churches since 2006 have shown the maturity of the
church. It is clear that the formation of the technical team to advice the churches
have brought the unity of purpose on the body of Christ,- the churches need.
iv) Civic Education Programs.
This program has assisted in introducing human rights issues to the lower levels
of the community thereby democratising the nation. At the present moment
most service providers can communicate with the ordinary people. Training of
election observers from all churches has also been part of civic education. These
trainings were done when every election was due to take place in the country.
The opening of space in communities has seen a lot of parties being formed and
the presidential seat was contested by a record of twenty-three candidates last
year 2018. This shows the impact of the program albeit it should not be seen as
only positive..
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