Pope Francis arrived in Kinshasa on January 31, marking his first trip in the great lakes region. He met with civil and government authorities, victims of conflict in the eastern DRC, and the Church’s local ministers. His arrival comes at a time when the region is facing a security crisis, including a looming genocide in eastern DRC.

 

The region had a similar visit from the head of the Catholic Church when in September 1990, Pope John Paul II visited Rwanda. At the time, some low key massacres of the Tutsi were ongoing.

 

Today, another Pope is back in the region, at a time when a Genocide against the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese is simmering in the country he is visiting, DRC.

 

Hate speech has led to ongoing persecution and genocide against the Kinyarwanda speaking Congolese who are also an ethnic minority in the DRC.

 

Hate speech is a preparatory stage of a Genocide. The advancement of social media technology made it easy for the authors of this hate speech, some of whom are members of the Catholic Church, to broadcast their poison targeting the Congolese Tutsi.

 

The Kinyarwanda-Speaking Congolese have been victims of such hate speech since the colonial era. Today, hundreds of thousands of them are being murdered in the DRC. All this has happened in the face of the Catholic Church, sometimes or all the time, aided and abetted by clergymen.

 

As the head of the prominent and influential Catholic Church, his choice may fix DRC if he speaks blatantly and calls out the hate speech against the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. If not, his silence will be very damaging.

 

Silence of the Catholic Church in face of a Genocide

 

The Lay Coordination Committee (CLC) is a non-governmental organization affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in DRC.

 

The Roman Catholic Church is the most powerful and respected religious institution in DRC. It has approximately 35 million members and is well embedded across the DRC, even in remote areas.

 

It is perhaps the sole institution filling the gap in the provision of public services due to the absence of the state. Due to the fragility of the state, the Roman Catholic Church and, in particular, the CLC have usually taken the side of the oppressed, ordinary Congolese population. Its voice therefore counts more than those of DRC’s political figures. This influence applies even when it makes ungrounded statements.

 

However, this has not been the case when it comes the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese. Sadly, CLC contains a common assertion that Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese “must be dehumanized and disowned as they are not Congolese.”

 

Their narrative has since been backed by the Catholic Bishop of Uvira, Monseigneur Muyengo, who leads the church in Uvira-Fizi territories. He so often refers to the Kinyarwanda-speaking Congolese as aliens that should never own a piece of land on Congolese territory.

 

On top of that, the Catholic Church has participated in these discriminatory acts. In November 2022, the M23 rebels issued a statement warning of an imminent genocide against Congolese Tutsi communities, being planned by a coalition of the FARDC and armed groups like the genocidal FDLR and Mai-Mai.

 

According to the statement, in Masisi, the coalition warned all Congolese Citizens of Tutsi ethnic to gather in medical centres and parishes, and those who do not were told they would be killed.

 

How can the Catholic Church be part of these massacres and offer their parishes for such deeds and allow such discrimination?

 

Beyond the Catholic Church, the DRC has more prominent officials like Member of Parliament Eve Bazaiba, Adolphe Muzito, a former Prime Minister, and Martin Fayulu, an opposition leader, have all implied that granting any rights to the Kinyarwanda-Speaking Congolese – from nationality to land rights – poses a threat to DRC.

 

All these hateful and discriminatory acts have been condemned by the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, in November 2022, and January 2023, when she warned about a genocide against Congolese Tutsi community on the basis of their ethnicity.

 

What remains unanswered is; the Pope has strong intelligence but to what extent is he going to condemn these acts by the Congolese government, and the Catholic Church?