Picture exclusive: The tyrant and his bride...a 'liberal' Mugabe at his wedding in 1961

In white gloves and smart suit, with a carnation in his buttonhole, this smiling bridegroom is the man who has brought Zimbabwe to its knees.

When Robert Mugabe married his first wife Sally in 1961, he was a 37-year-old liberal nationalist who wanted to make his country - then Southern Rhodesia - a model multiracial democracy.

The man who took this never before published photograph, retired airline manager Kevin Nolan, was a guest at the ceremony.

Love and politics: Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, pictured with his first wife Sally Hayfron on their wedding day in 1961

He said he found the groom 'such a well-educated, polite man'. And he added: 'I had no idea of the way he'd turn out.'

The photo was taken at a Catholic mission in the capital Salisbury, now Harare.

When civil war broke out following the decision of Rhodesia's white government to declare independence from Britain four years later, Mr Nolan and his wife Sheila gave the picture to their daughter in case her school was attacked by guerrillas.

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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace just before the recent, disputed election run-off

Mrs Nolan wrote on the envelope: 'If Africans are about to do you any harm show them this and tell them Mr Mugabe would be very angry if they hurt his friend's daughter.'

After Mugabe assumed power in 1980, Mr Nolan - who by then had moved to Dublin - sent him a copy of the picture and his best wishes.

The new prime minister's wife wrote back to thank him, and spoke of her husband's desire for peace.

Mrs Mugabe died in 1992 aged 60. Mr Nolan said: 'Maybe she was the moderating influence. All I can say is he's become a different man. It's a tragedy.'

Mugabe, 84, married his second wife Grace in a lavish ceremony in 1996.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, is kissed by his wife Grace at his inauguration ceremony at State House in Harare, on Sunday, June 30

I got it from this thread, and assumed it was factual.

If it is, I'll assume also the data was quelled.

If false, no one came back to explain.

Now, to your point ...

I personally believe Echumenicalism is more of another denomination moving closer to Catholicism than Catholicism moving closer to another denomination.

The quote I cited was a re-affirmation that others were defective and Catholicism not.

I cited that quote because of of the comment by Mr. K to philly-d-kidder and Stoat regarding the prayer to Mary, a clearly and exclusively Catholic doctrine.

A difference in doctrine from all non-Catholics, and a legitimite comment The topic of prayer.

It just so happened on a thread regarding Mugabe, but could very easily have been made on any number of topics.

"In every 'liberal' heart, a totalitarian fascist is just aching to get out."

You betcha.

(But don't refer to Leftists as liberals. There's nothing liberal about these people.)

If the U.S. Left (including the Democrat Party and the "Mainstream Newsmedia") could seize enough power, the United States would free-fall into a hellhole just like Zimbabwe.

Think about that, anyone who is tempted not to vote against the Democrat candidates this November. Try to imagine Obama as President with a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate. Try to imagine what these people would appoint to the Supreme Court.

The Democrats MUST be defeated at the polls this November.

I saw Mary in bath tubs last Sept when I went through Kentucky Indiana and Iowa. The bath tubs were standing up and sunk into the ground about halfway to form a little grotto like the clam shell you picture. I had never seen those before.

In NC we mostly see very large gaudily painted statues (Mary or Jesus) in the front yards of Mexicans. There is one I pass by on the way to the grocery store that is Jesus. He is painted only in gold and white.

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