Harare, Zimbabwe- Catholic bishops in Zimbabwe on Friday rallied around their leader who is being sued for adultery, hailing him as a courageous "exposer of evils" of veteran President Robert Mugabe's regime.
Archbishop Pius Ncube, one of the most outspoken critics of Mugabe, has kept a low profile since pictures and film footage appeared in state media last month which appeared to show him naked in bed with a married woman.
But in a statement published in the official Herald newspaper on Friday, the country's nine bishops said Ncube retained their full support and said attacks on him by polticians and state media were "outrageous and utterly deplorable and constitute an assualt on the Catholic Church."
Calling on churchgoers to remember Ncube in their prayers, the bishops said the archbishop for Bulawayo had "for years fearlessly exposed the evils" of Mugabe's regime.
"For years, he has courageously and with moral authority advocated social justice and political action to overcome the grievous crisis facing our country," the bishops added.
Ncube has been a constant thorn in the side of the Mugabe regime, calling for the people of Zimbabwe to rise up against his rule and declaring his readiness to "go in front of blazing guns".
Mugabe, in power since the former British colony's independence in 1980, has said that he will pray for the archbishop but has also rebuked him for "snatching other people's women" and breaking his vow of celibacy.