Mugabe greets Pope at inauguration

Never mind that Mugabe has a European travel ban on him for human rights abuses. He went to the Popes inauguration anyway. So much for the travel ban....

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe attended the inauguration of Pope Francis I at the Vatican on Tuesday, despite a European Union travel ban.

Mugabe, a practising Catholic, joined other heads of state and representatives from 132 countries in the crammed St Peter's Square to see the installation of the new head of the Roman Catholic Church.

With the President was the First Lady Grace Mugabe and their son, Chatunga Bellarmine. more

And what sort of reception did he get once inside the Vatican? It seems like there was a lot of people there:

And here's Mugabe, in the front row for VIP's.

But there's more. Here he is meeting the Pope face to face.

Awwwww, how cosy......... Nothing surprises me from this church, but seriously, at the Pope's inauguration? Pfffft.

Oh BTW, this is the sort of thing that happens to LGBT people in Zimbabwe. 

Male homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and in 2006 the country’s government amended the law which now states that sodomy is any ‘act involving contact between two males that would be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act’, thereby criminalizing even holding hands, hugging, or kissing. 

In 1995, the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, came across a GALZ stall in an international book fair in Harrare and stated: ‘I find it extremely outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that such immoral and repulsive organizations, like those of homosexuals, who offend both against the law of nature and the morals of religious beliefs espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst and elsewhere in the world.’ 

Two weeks later during Zimbabwe's annual independence celebrations Mugabe proclaimed: ‘It degrades human dignity. 

'It's unnatural, and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. 

‘What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behavior and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!’ 

Since then, President Mugabe has increased the political repression of Zimbabwe’s LGBT community. GALZ has been repeatedly subjected to harassment. 

Members of the Zimbabwe’s LGBT community have been repeatedly detained, beaten and sometimes even raped by the authorities. more