Editor,

THERE IS a serious criminal responsibility when you cooperate with a government that is planning genocide. Chances are that you’re also aware of what is going on. The mere fact that there was no denouncing of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi by the Catholic Church, with all its powers and closeness to the Habyarimana government, amounts to irresponsibility and thus a crime.

The fact that today the Church is not denouncing France-based Father Wenceslas Munyeshaka and asking the Pope to withdraw him from acting as a priest in any church is also irresponsible to say the least.

The fact that with amounted responsibility many Catholic priests did cross the country within the sanctuaries of the Church – of which today we have many churches as memorial sites but still the Church as an institution has not formally apologised at least for not protecting their followers – is irresponsible and not fair to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi (the majority being Christians).

If we agree that a single act of kindness and reconciliation effort by an individual priest in the village somewhere represents the Church’s principle foundation, let us also agree that a Catholic priest who committed genocide during his service time needs to be viewed from an institution’s standpoint and the best the Church can do, is to bring that person to justice, defrock him and apologise to the public.

Richard, Rwanda

Reaction to the story, "Genocide: Controversy continues to dog Church” (The New Times, May 9)