THE late Archbishop of Bulawayo, Henry Karlen, has been remembered for confronting the late former President Robert Mugabe over the 1980s mass killings in Matabeleland.
He passed away in 2012 aged 90.
The late bishop was transferred from Europe to Africa in 1951 first to South Africa then Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where he came face-to-face with Gukurahundi.
At least 20 000 civilians were killed in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s after Mugabe deployed a North Korean-trained brigade allegedly to fight dissidents.
On Saturday, Ibhetshu LikaZulu held a memorial service in honour of the late bishop where various stakeholders praised him for standing with the oppressed during the Matabeleland massacres.
“Karlen overcame racial divide by standing up for the black people in Matabeleland which he had no business to do with but because he was a missionary,” former National Healing and Reconciliation minister, Moses Mzila Ndlovu, said.
“He stood up and defended the people in Matabeleland more than other black people that were supposed to defend them when innocent and unarmed people were being massacred by the late former President Robert Mugabe.”
“He saw the pain of war and this gave him the power to defend the people; he was simply telling Mugabe to stop the carnage."
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Legal practitioner Nikiwe Ncube said Karlen was the brains behind the documentation of the killings by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
“It is the only document that we have. He is a man who risked his life by confronting the late Mugabe. He drove through communities in Matabeleland compiling data regarding the atrocities,’’ Ncube said.
Mugabe never apologised for the massacres until he died.
Human rights activist Joseph Nkatazo said they learnt a lot from Karlen of the Roman Catholic Church.
Karlen was appointed First Archbishop of Bulawayo in 1994.
Known as the “Father of Bulawayo Diocese for his work of building the church in Matabeleland, Karlen was laid to rest at Athlone Cemetery.
