Catholic Church in Zimbabwe Decries Foreign Pressure to Promote Abortion

Harare, 25 November, 2025 / 8:30 PM

The members of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’Conference (ZCBC) warn in their November 21 Pastoral message for Advent 2025 that such efforts to influence Zimbabwe to loosen or change its laws undermine the country’s long-held culture of upholding the sanctity of life.

“During this season of Advent, as Mary carries her unborn child, we raise our alarm at attempts by foreign organizations to force the evil of abortion upon our people and upon our culture of respect for all forms of life,” the Bishops stated.

The Catholic Church leaders call on legislators and the country’s entire public to stand firm against external pressures that they say seek the withdrawal of protection of “the most vulnerable members of our community, the unborn citizens of our community.”

In their statement the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops also express concern about “the suffering of Zimbabweans at the hands of certain foreign investors” who they say exploit workers through unfair labor practices, appalling conditions, poor remuneration, and violence.

While acknowledging the need for investment to spur development, create employment, and introduce new technologies, the Bishops emphasize that economic advancement must never overshadow respect for human dignity. 

They say, “We welcome investment that brings jobs, technology, and development, but economic progress must never come at the expense of human dignity.”

“It appears that in our own land, certain investors are more protected than citizens. This ought not to be so,” the ZCCB members add, emphasizing that “no person should live in fear of losing their land, their natural inheritance, their job, or their safety.”

They continue, “Every worker, from the miner in rural Zimbabwe to the factory worker in the city, deserves respect, fairness, and the full protection of the law.”

“Equally alarming,” the Catholic Church leaders say, “is the reckless exploitation of natural resources, wetlands, and rivers, which are being depleted and polluted at an unsustainable rate.”

“When the environment is destroyed, it is the poor who suffer first and most through loss of farmland, contaminated water, climate shocks, and displacement,” the Catholic Bishops in Zimbabwe add.

They underscore the need for ecological conversion, which they say “must begin with the recognition that everything is interconnected: the well-being of people, the health of the environment, and the moral fabric of society.” 

“True development cannot arise from the ruin of ecosystems or the suffering of communities displaced by extractive industries,” Zimbabwe’s Catholic Church leaders emphasize.

They call for a renewed national commitment to responsible stewardship “where economic progress goes hand in hand with environmental protection, and where the needs of the poor are placed above the pursuit of profit.

They urged the nation to renew its commitment to responsible stewardship, “where economic progress goes hand in hand with environmental protection, and where the needs of the poor are placed above the pursuit of profit.”

“Each of us is called to conversion, to reject greed, indifference, and injustice, and to embrace humility, mercy, solidarity, and love,” the ZCBC members say in their November 21 collective message for the Advent Season.