In an article titled "Outrage as Catholic Church honours Genocide convicts, published in The New Times yesterday, Genocide survivors and relatives of victims expressed dismay at a decision by the Catholic Church to celebrate silver jubilee in honour of two priests convicted for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The role of the Catholic Church in the 1994 Genocide is still vivid in the minds of survivors and those who lost loved ones, who had sought sanctuary in several places of worship, only to be slaughtered in the worst human catastrophe that left over one million people dead.

For the Church to celebrate the two priests is an insult and disrespect to the survivors, and a mockery of victims’ memories. It is against the tenets of the Church as an institution that promotes love, unity and reconciliation.

According to the list published by The New Times, Emmanuel Rukundo and Joseph Ndagijimana are among the six priests whose ordination and jubilee ceremony is slated to take place on July 16 at Kabgayi Diocese.

Emmanuel Rukundo was convicted and handed a 25-year sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2009, while Joseph Ndagijimana was convicted and handed life sentence by a Gacaca court in the same year. Ndagijimana is serving his sentence in Mpanga Prison in Ruhango District.

Although Smaragde Mbonyintege, the Bishop of Kabgayi Diocese, said that the two priests are not among those to be celebrated, the unanswered question is how their names ended up on the official list of those to be celebrated. The Catholic Church should come out and apologise to the victims and also reprimand those behind the inclusion of the names of the priests convicted for Genocide.

The Catholic Church should not be seen to be belittling the Genocide in which its rank and file widely participated.