Aid to the Church in Need: Zimbabwe: Hoping for a miracle

Zimbabwe: Hoping for a miracle

Posted by Press release on 25/2/2008, 10:39 am
Message modified by board administrator 7/8/2008, 1:38 pm

ACN News, Monday, 25th February 2008 – ZIMBABWE
(with pictures)
Hoping for a miracle

“They wait for divine intervention. They pray because they…cannot do anything themselves. We must all pray for an end to their suffering.”

By John Pontifex and John Newton

ZIMBABWE’S crisis-stricken people feel they have no hope but God – so says a Catholic charity after an urgent fact-finding visit.
Such is the scale of the crisis according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the charity for suffering Christians, after a representative from the international charity carried out its most extensive project assessment trip in the country in 10 years.

ACN is supporting Church-run programmes for people with AIDS in a country where 30 percent are living with HIV.

In a country with the world’s worst inflation – now standing at nearly 100,000 percent – bishops, priests, sisters and lay people alike underlined that the economic crisis was so bad, religious faith was their last hope.
Fresh back from Zimbabwe, the ACN projects’ chief said: “You cannot imagine how people are asking for prayers and for miracles.
“They feel they cannot do anything themselves. We must pray for an end to their suffering and we must help them to rebuild their future.”
The ACN staff member, who cannot be named for fear he would be barred from returning to the country, described how more than 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s population of more than 14 million were unemployed and almost the same number were below the poverty line.
The official exchange rate is US$1 for Zim$30,000 but unofficially it is as much as Zim$6 million.
The cost of a hamburger from an average café now reportedly costs Zim$15 million or $540 Australian dollars. An average wage is about Zim$25 million.
Church leaders’ emergency relief work is still badly hampered by a government clampdown prompted by a bishops’ letter last year denouncing “such an overtly corrupt leadership”.
Priests were harassed and threatened and copies of the letter were confiscated.
The ACN projects’ representative said: “The intimidation exercised by the authorities has been so strong that some priests are still unable to talk about the events unemotionally. They still feel bitter outrage.”

Having already worked a full day Zimbabweans take to the street as vendors, selling produce from their gardens.

But Catholic leaders are refusing to be cowed and ACN is promising key support to help the Church itself and support the humanitarian work being carried out by priests, sisters and lay people.
Mass offerings are a priority for priests in huge and very poor parishes where fuel is very expensive and people are desperate for spiritual support.
ACN is also prioritising emergency help, supporting Church-run programmes for people with AIDS in a country where 30 percent are HIV positive.
Another key ACN project is a $32,000 emergency food programme for people in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo threatened with starvation.
ACN has given key help for more than 500 children – many of them orphans – who are receiving food and medical support thanks to a programme by religious Sisters in a suburb of Bulawayo city.
More essential aid is being channelled into training programmes taking place in Church pastoral centres across the country enabling people to care for the sick, orphans and AIDS victims.
Although many key ACN projects have already been decided, the sheer volume of other requests for help leaves the charity’s staff with the tough task of deciding priorities.
The ACN projects’ representative said: “What we are committed to doing is to support the priests and people in playing their vital role in helping to save the country.”
He added: “Although our priorities remain pastoral, we cannot just ignore what really is a humanitarian emergency.”

Essential aid is being channelled into programmes in Church pastoral centres across the country.

The ACN projects’ representative went on to describe the people’s courage: “Despite the appalling poverty, the Zimbabweans have kept their dignity and composure.
“The people still remember the atrocities of war and they try to avoid it at all costs – even at the price of being humiliated, poor and hungry.”
He said that Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe taunts the people, saying that if he was forced from power, the country would be plunged into civil war.
People fear a repeat of the violence seen in Kenya after the presidential elections on 27th December.
The ACN projects’ representative described his shock at walking into allegedly one of the best supermarkets in the area and discovering virtually nothing on the shelves except from some dry caterpillars, powdered milk and a pumpkin costing the equivalent of $675 Australian dollars.
He was also astonished to find Coca Cola and to be told that the buyer was expected to supply an empty bottle.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

To help this cause please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org