Under the constant pressure from the RPF, the Catholic Church has finally acknowledged what they call indifference of its members during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and will apologise as soon as the Genocide inquiries and court cases into the role of the church members are concluded.

The RPF government has accused the Catholic Church of either participating in the genocide or deliberate weakness of the Catholic institution in Rwanda.  According to the RPF officials over three decades of hate campaign by the former Rwanda governments that culminated in the Genocide against the Tutsi, the Catholic Church was silent and a sign weakness of Christian churches in general  and Catholic Church in particular Rwanda.

The above pressure comes at a time when the same Church remembering its murdered Bishops in Gakurazo in Kabgayi Muhanga District which was former Gitarama. The RPF security officers under the direct instructions from Kagame himself massacred four prominent Bishops including priests and a toddler. The RPF has never apologized or bring the perpetrators to justice or allow decent burial of the above Bishops.

Under intense and constant pressure, at a national retreat of church leaders in Musanze District, last year, clerics expressed their apologies for what they called their shortcomings in their mission to spread love.

But the Bishop of Kabgayi, Smaragde Mbonyintege, who doubles as the chairperson of the Catholic Episcopal Conference of Rwanda, quickly added that delaying to apologise was justified as unprepared Rwandans and survivors associations were likely to wrongly interpret the apologies.

“Prior to apologising, the church is preparing the minds to receive our expressions,” Mbonyintege said.

“Starting just after the Genocide, we have been encouraging the culprits to confess and seek pardon from the survivors, at the same time preparing the latter to forgive. The Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda is not génocidaire, but our apologies are on behalf of our members who participated in the Genocide,” the bishop added.

The Archbishop of the Kigali Archdiocese, Thaddee Ntihinyurwa, also reaffirmed that the church will apologise “as soon as the Genocide inquiries and court cases of the church members are over.”

Archbishop Ntihinyurwa was speaking to Leopold Gasigwa, the film-maker of L’abscé de la vérité (‘The Tumour of the Truth’).

However, if the Church confesses  and admits its role in genocide against the Tutsi  it will open a flood gate of questions with few answers and the Church as an Institution might be sued by the survivors of genocide for compensation as the survivors of the Srebrenica massacre by the Serbs security forces under the Dutch soldier’s guard.

The RPF commission against Genocide (CNLG) and the umbrella of Genocide survivors associations, Ibuka, welcomed the Church remarks with open hands and urged Roman Catholic clerics not to delay any longer.

“It is a good move by the churches if they now feel apologetic, but let them do it soon when the Genocide survivors are still alive. It would definitely lose importance if they apologised to people who do not clearly know of their participation,” said Dr Jean Damascene Bizimana, the executive secretary of CNLG.

Naphtal Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of Ibuka, shared Dr Bizimana’s concerns and recommended that churches, particularly the Catholic Church, to help in upholding justice. “If they only apologise for Genocide crimes but not help bring fugitives to justice, it will be in vain,” he said.

However, Dr Bizimana the CNLG Chief said unlike other churches that closed their eyes, the Roman Catholic Church offered indirect support in Genocide against the Tutsi. On the hand he blamed the Catholic Church for its hand in creating the former regimes that were instrumental in committing genocide.

“The Catholic Church rendered support to the genocidal regime from the 1959 so-called revolution when thousands of Tutsi fled to neighbouring countries The church intervened in the creation of early political parties which promoted ethnic discrimination,” he said, citing an example of Bishop André Perraudin who supported Joseph Gitera to start Aprosoma and Gregoire Kayibanda to set up Parmehutu. Dr Bizimana added that Catholic schools implemented the discriminatory programme, known as Iringaniza, which excluded the Tutsi.

But Bishop Mbonyintege said they opposed Iringaniza in their schools but succumbed to the government pressure.

“For example, Bishop Aloys Bigirumwami and Bishop Joseph Sibomana denounced publicly the ethnic discrimination in schools (Iringaniza) but were forced to receive the students that government was sending them,” he said.

 

Bishop Mbonyintege noted that the Catholic Church worked with the former government, not on the plan of Genocide but in education, health and development programmes, as they are working with the current government.

“The Catholic Church always works with governments on social programmes, however, there has always been pressure from political leaders to have the church get involved in political issues but we declined,” he said.

Although Dr Bizimana lauds Pope John Paul II on being the first, in 1994, to confirm publicly that Genocide was taking place in Rwanda, he blames the Catholic Church

 

 

 

of not helping the quest for justice yet the Pope recommended them to do so in 1996.

Bishop Mbonyintege admitted the failure of the Catholic clerics to publicly disapprove of the killings, but said that the church never interferes in criminal investigations or in the work of prosecutors.

“We were numbed when the Genocide started but we had no power to stop it because the killers were armed. The clerics feared to rebuke the murderers and we are ashamed of that weakness and much more frustrated over the involvement of our priests and church members

in the Genocide,” he said.

Do they have power now under the RPF regime? Can they change the massacres of RPF?

Unfortunately the same church is making same mistakes under the RPF government, in fact the mistakes the Catholic Church is making are worse than the mistakes they did under Habyariamana regime. They have never demanded the RPF government to account to the massacres of its Bishops and bring the culprits to Justice. The continued gross human rights violations in the country happen under their watch.  Will they apologize for their failures under the RPF if the another government comes into power?. The Rwanda Catholic Church should emulate and learn from their counterparts in the region like Uganda, Congo and Burundi.

The late Uganda Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga stood firm against the Idi Amin regime and the Anglican Archbishop Janan Luwum paid his price for the defense of freedom. The Rwandan Catholic Church Today should not fall in the trap of its predecessors by succumbing to RPF demands; it should be independent and remain apolitical even if it means paying a price for standing with people rather than governments of the day.

 

Jacqueline Umurungi