The Catholic Church in Rwanda has finally acknowledged the role played by some of its members in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which over a million innocent lives were exterminated. This was featured in a statement signed by nine bishops representing all dioceses, which was reportedly read in all the churches country-wide last Sunday as the end of the year message of the jubilee of God’s mercy. This is big-time news! 

For two decades, the Vatican has maintained that, while individual clergy were guilty of terrible crimes, the Church, as an institution, bears no responsibility. But, while there is no doubt there were courageous members of the clergy who stood up against the slaughter, many survivors of the Genocide regard the Church as allied with the killers and culpability as beginning at the very top of the Catholic hierarchy in Rwanda.  

From Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, who was notorious during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and was later convicted in absentia by a Gacaca court, to Father Athanase Seromba, who was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the list of members of the clergy who committed crimes against humanity is pretty long.

The Organization of African Unity’s report on the Genocide described the Church in Rwanda as "carrying a heavy responsibility” for failing to oppose, and even promoting ethnic discrimination. It said the Church offered "indispensable support” to the then hard-line regime of Juvenal Habyarimana and described Church leaders as playing "a conspicuously scandalous role” in the Genocide by failing to take a moral stand against it. "This stance was easily interpreted by ordinary Christians as an implicit endorsement of the killings, as was the close association of Church leaders, with the leaders of the genocide” the report said.

It will be recalled that, in 2008, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States of America. For the first time, in a long time, the Vatican did apologise to the Catholics of the United States for the sexual abuse by the clergy, which the Holly Father said made him "deeply ashamed”. And for that the Catholic Church paid out an estimated 2.5 billion United States dollars to the victims of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Church’s moral standing and authority.

The Pope’s courage to come out openly to apologise to the Catholics in the United States was probably as unprecedented as it was momentous. 

Historians remind us that an eminent scientist, Charles Robert Darwin, a 19th century English naturalist did face serious sanction for daring to propagate the theory of the evolution which directly challenged the biblical creation. This sacrilegious discovery by adventurous scientists and other innovators of the yesteryears did not go down well with the Vatican.

Copernicus’ discovery that the earth revolved on its axis and around the sun, earned him the title of "infidel”. As a friend of mine did say, it actually earned him a "fatwa” and was only lucky to be placed under house arrest. He was reportedly ridiculed at every available opportunity until his death in 1642. 

It was not, however, until 1998, eighteen years ago, that Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church admitted the mistake and apologised, 383 years later!

This brings me to say why Pope Benedict XVI should be lauded, especially because his apology to the American victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy came at least during the former’s life time.

The current head of the Catholic Church, which has over one billion members, has demonstrated that he is capable of taking on the unenviable task of healing and reconciling Catholics all over the world. 

The apology in the United States eight years ago should surely be followed by an apology in Rwanda where more than a million Rwandans perished, not sexually abused, through the marauding Interahamwe militia with the help of ex-FAR and some members of the clergy.

The good Pope knows that members of the catholic fraternity, who form a sizeable majority of the Rwandan population, were led in their macabre mission by their shepherds in the clergy. The clerical leaders, along with government leaders, conspired and schemed on how to involve children, women and men in the despicable acts of genocide, including raping women and girls. Some of these horrendous acts took place in churches all over the country. 

Humanity remains largely puzzled as to how men of God could commit such crimes against humanity moreover in houses of worship that should and must remain holy. One survivor of the Genocide did casually point out that "murderers and victims all celebrate mass together. Yet we all know one another very well: we know who did what during the Genocide”.

Now that the nine bishops representing all the dioceses in the country have come out to apologise for some of the members’ heinous crimes, it is high time His Holiness Pope Francis came out to set yet another example, in our lifetime, and for the sake of redeeming the Holy Church, by giving a simple apology to the people of Rwanda.

oscar_kimanuka@yahoo.co.uk