THE Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) has expressed satisfaction to the prevailing peaceful election environment saying citizens should continue observing unity, peace and tolerance as the country is set to host the 2023 harmonised elections Wednesday.
Speaking at a pre-election press conference held in Harare, ZCBC-CCJPZ chairman Bishop Rudolf Nyandoro said the elections which run concurrently with the Catholic Church’s celebration of the Synod should be highly characterised with the gospel of communion and participation in the mission of building the nation.
“As a church, we believe that peaceful and non-violent elections are the only legitimate way to seek support for public offices. We have made strides in growing to be a democratic country and we strongly encourage a peaceful environment because human life is sacred,” Bishop Nyandoro said.
“As ZCBC, we believe that voting is an opportunity for everyone to directly participate in the governance of our country. These elections however coincide with the Catholic Church’s celebration of the Synod. The meaning of Synod is moving together, seeing together and working together as a church. In this Synod we have three main pillars namely communion, participation and mission.
In the same way during elections, everyone is encouraged to participate in communion with others in the mission of building our nation.
“ZCBC has already dispatched approximately 1000 of their elections observers in all eight dioceses across the country with clear citations from the arm that they were not going to interfere the running of the elections which were officially being handled by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. – ZimGospel Masters
