Former MDC Stalwart Obert Gutu has joined ZANU PF in heavily blasting the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference over an open letter demanding for government to better the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

In a state media publication on Monday, Gutu said although there is a fine line between evangelism and political activism, the pastoral letter bellies the fact that the country’s detractors have roped in men and women in cloth to perpetuate their evil machinations.

“There is always a serious conflict when men and women of the cloth decide to push a partisan political agenda whilst they still claim to be apolitical. Of course, one can argue that you can’t completely separate religion from politics but then, sometimes there’s always a very fine distinction between evangelism and political activism. The pastoral letter from the Catholic Bishops is undoubtedly controversial.

“It proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that at least some of the Catholic Bishops have openly taken sides with certain oppositional forces in Zimbabwe’s political terrain. Therein lies the major challenge. These bishops should remove their pastoral gowns and openly enter the political fray if they have decided to be active politicians. They can’t have their own cake and eat it. They can’t blow hot and cold.

“They can’t approbate and reprobate,” he said.

Mr Gutu traced the current onslaught on Zimbabwe to the Land Reform Programme, a Zanu PF programme that empowered the black person who had been deprived of his land by white settlers.

“One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to appreciate that there are extremely powerful global forces that have never, ever forgiven the Zanu PF government for daring to embark upon the revolutionary land reform programme at the turn of the new millennium. That marked the genesis of most of our current political and socio-economic challenges.

“The Catholic Church is the richest religious organisation in the world and there is absolutely no prize for guessing why the movers and shakers of the regime change agenda would deliberately target some elements within the Catholic Church to be agents of their nefarious agenda. This is a classic example of the use of soft power to try to force regime change in Zimbabwe. That said, there’s need for the Government authorities in Zimbabwe to reach out not only to the Catholic church but indeed to all relevant stakeholders and seek to soberly and rationally put across their side of the story.

“As it is said, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. The ordinary people’s interests should always be protected,” Mr Gutu said.