Editor, RE: “There shall be no rest until Catholic Church apologises” (The New Times, December 3). The process of redemption starts by first recognising the wrong done and reaching out to the victim to seek forgiveness and, hopefully, reconciliation. Currently, the Catholic Church remains in deep denial regarding its leading role in planting the seeds of the ideology that would eventually evolve into the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, in assiduously tending it to its deadly fruition, and in using its considerable influence around the world to protect the perpetrators from justice. From time to time, the Vatican finds no shame in lecturing the current Rwanda Government, comprised of those who stopped the Genocide sponsored by the Church on human rights (ignoring the fact for many of us Rwandans the Church no longer has — if it ever did — the smallest moral standing from which to make such lectures). The Churchs attitude is a perfect illustration of the Kinyarwanda saying that “Ingwe ikurira umwana ikakurusha kurakara” (roughly translated to me mean that a leopard mauls your kid and then gets angrier than you). For the time being, I would be satisfied with the Churchs recognition it needs to repair its badly damaged reputation by seeking Rwandans forgiveness for its role in planting the genocidal cancer in the Rwandan society in complete disregard to the core message of Jesus Christs mission — to love your neighbour as you love yourself, i.e. as in “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”— in whose name they claim to work. But I fear the sin of arrogance (hubris in ancient times), from which the Church has suffered since acquiring temporal power as the official and only authorised religion of the Roman Empire, will not allow them to do so. Lord Actons dictum about power and corruption has played out in Rwanda since the Church erupted on the scene together with the colonialists about 120 years ago. Mwene Kalinda
