Many of the victims died at the hands of priests, clergymen and nuns, according to some accounts by survivors, and the Rwandan government said many died in the churches where they sought refuge. – Associated Press
The Catholic Church in Rwanda apologised on Sunday for the Church’s role in the 1994 genocide, saying it regretted the actions of those who participated in the massacres.
“We apologize for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that Church members violated [their] oath of allegiance to God’s commandments,” said the statement by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was read out in parishes across the country.
The statement acknowledged that Church members planned, aided and carried out the genocide, in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
In the years since the genocide—which was sparked by a contentious plane crash that killed the president, Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu—the local Church had resisted efforts by the government and groups of survivors to acknowledge the Church’s complicity in mass murder, saying those Church officials who committed crimes acted individually.
Many of the victims died at the hands of priests, clergymen and nuns, according to some accounts by survivors, and the Rwandan government said many died in the churches where they sought refuge.
The bishops’ statement is seen as a positive development in Rwanda’s efforts at reconciliation.
“Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity. We didn’t show that we are one family but instead killed each other,” the statement said.
Bishop Phillipe Rukamba, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Rwanda, said the statement was timed to coincide with the formal end on Sunday of the holy year of mercy declared by Pope Francis to encourage greater reconciliation and forgiveness in his Church and the world.
Tom Ndahiro, a Rwandan genocide researcher, said he hoped the Church’s statement would encourage unity among Rwandans.
“I am also happy to learn that in their statement, bishops apologise for not having been able to avert the genocide,” he said. – The Guardian, 21 November 2016
Filed under: rwanda | Tagged: africa, genocide, hutus, roman catholic church, tutsis |
Church is guity of highest violence in the world in the name of religion. Will a mere apology absolve of all its wrongdoings. It still continues to do so both directly and indirectly.
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This is what I wrote in my article “Has terror a connection to religion?” It fits here:
….In the same way, Pope John Paul II tried to keep Christianity and the Church above board, when in the year 2000, he finally asked ‘forgiveness from God for sins committed against Jews, heretics, women, gypsies and native people’. He, too, did not blame the Church but ‘sons and daughters of the Church’ who committed ‘mistakes’.
These sons and daughters of the Church surely would proclaim, if they were still around, that they only followed the instructions of the Church—whether it was the brutal Christianization of Latin America, where millions were killed, or the “Holy Inquisition” which consciously used horrific torture and murder to make people fall in line with the unintelligible dictates of the Church.
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Thank you, George! You are right on the mark about the Church!
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For people who know how the church works, this acknowledgement of one of its various criminal activities comes as no surprise. If you look closely you will see that the criminal is absolving himself of all culpability. By calling the perpetrators “church members” the church is licking itself clean of all sin. Who are these “church members” and who is this speaking? And who are these fellows who the “church” is apologizing to? Not the victims who have long been buried, but to their absurd god for whom the “church members” did all the dirty work. Ask the pope!
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Hindus are easily converted to so-called Abrahamic religions.I think, these Hindus don’t know about their own civilization and religion.It is time that all Hindu temples get inter-linked and started sending same messages to Hindus.There should be weekly teachings in temples for children, where are taught about Hindu history, religion and basic Sanskrit. Parents also should take active interest.
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BJP wallahs and Modi bhaktas who are so eager to have the Pope visit India, should understand that Hindus will never get from the Church such an admission of guilt or apology as the Rwandans have got, for the monstrous crimes of Francis Xavier and the Inquisition in Goa.
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