Robert Christopher Ndlovu was installed as the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Archbishop of Harare on 21 August 2004.

Education and career

Ndlovu was born on 25 December 1955 at Tshongokwe,

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

. He was educated at the Marist Brothers Dete in the

Hwange Hwange, originally known as Wankie, is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Hwange District, in Matabeleland North Province, in northwestern Zimbabwe, close to the international borders with Botswana and Zambia. It lies approximately , by road, sou ...

diocese before entering the Major Seminary at Chishawasha. He was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on 28 August 1983 at the age of twenty-seven in Hwange, Zimbabwe. On 9 February 1999, aged forty-three, he was appointed Bishop of Hwange and consecrated three months later.

Archbishop of Harare

On 10 June 2004, aged forty-eight, Ndlovu was appointed Archbishop of Harare and installed on 21 August 2004. Ndlovu has openly criticised the regime in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

for forced evictions and other human rights abuses. He has stated that the ''"role of a bishop and of the church in general is to stand up for human dignity, and from human dignity flow

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

"''. This has angered some in the government who respond that the Archbishop is sowing seeds of tribal discord. In August 2020 the Papal Nuncio for Zimbabwe visited the archbishop, and expressed solidarity for his positions on the treatment of Zimbabwean citizens.

Service roles

Ndlovu serves as Chancellor of the Zimbabwe Catholic University. He also founded the Mother Patrick Primary School at

Waterfalls A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

. As Archbishop of Harare, Ndlovu is President of the

Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC), established by the Holy See on October 1, 1969, is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. The statutes of the Conference were approved on March 25, 1981. The ZCBC is a member ...

(ZCBC). In May 2011, Ndlovu consecrated the St Bakhita Catholic centre for the disabled at Makumbi.

References

External links

Profile at Catholic Hierarchy website
1955 births Living people 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Zimbabwe People from Harare Roman Catholic bishops of Hwange Roman Catholic archbishops of Harare Zimbabwean Roman Catholic archbishops {{Zimbabwe-bio-stub