Opinion
Promoting impunity
Why does the Catholic Church remain silent on genocidaire priests?
The Catholic Church’s way of
treating priests and nuns involved in Genocide crimes and genocide ideology
remains questionable.
The 1994 Genocide against
the Tutsi in Rwanda is one of the worst genocides in history, with a level of
violence that exceeded imagination. More than a million people were murdered within
100 days.
Religious leaders expected
to save innocent victims did the opposite. The so-called men of God aided and
abetted the killers, a serious diversion from the fundamentals of religion.
Meeting
President Paul Kagame in May 2017, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the
Catholic Church’s role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
“[The]
sins and failings of the church and its members [had] disfigured the face of
Catholicism,” the Pope said.
But
his statement means nothing as long as the Church took no single step in
sanctioning the priests and religious leaders involved in the Genocide. The Catholic
Church perhaps fears to face such a shame and loss of those genocide
perpetrators in service. But history testifies and truth hurts.
Among the eight basic elements
of religion, the fourth is “sinful acts”. Every religion defines certain acts
as righteous to be encouraged and others as sinful to be avoided. Most of the
religions conceptualize heaven and hell due to this belief.
Taking
a look at the 10 Commandments of God which can be referred as a ‘constitution’
to believers, the fifth asks us to “honor your father and mother”, the sixth
warning to “not murder,” the eighth cautions to “not steal” while the ninth
rebukes “bearing false witnesses against your neighbor.”
Genocide
perpetrators murdered their parents, stole property, and fabricated false
witnesses aiming at denying the Genocide against the Tutsi or promoting the
heinous double genocide theory.
The genocidaires
not only violate international laws, but also divine ones. The Catholic Church
would have sanctioned the priests, nuns and churchgoers involved in genocide
crimes, before being tried by courts.
However,
decades later, the Church remains silent. These criminals are still serving in
various positions within the Catholic Church as if nothing happened.
Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka continued to
serve as a priest at Gisors Parish in Evreux Diocese of France, despite being a
Genocide suspect.
Munyeshyaka
was head of the Sainte-Famille parish in Kigali during the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi, when thousands of victims went to seek protection there. In collaboration
with former Prefect of Kigali, Tharcisse Renzaho, Munyeshyaka is accused of killing
Tutsi refugees and raping Tutsi women who sought refuge at the nearby St. Paul
Center and at the church he led.
The
fate of hundreds of the Tutsi who took refuge in the Benedictine Sisters’
Monastery in Sovu and at their Health Center is well documented. The nun in
charge of the monastery, Mukangango Consolata (Sister Gertrude) and her
colleague Mukabutera Julienne (Sister Kizito) refused to receive them, but the
Tutsi convincingly entered the monastery, while others went to the health
center.
The
massacres there, from April 22 to 25, 1994, saw the direct involvement of
Gertrude, then 42, and Kizito who was 36. From April 17, 1994, more than
10,000 Tutsi started to flock to the monastery for safety. On April 25, the
nuns poured fuel on the garage where the refugees were hiding and set it on
fire. About 7,000 people died that day. Later, Sister Kizito who had a list
took time as she checked to see if everyone on it was dead.
Today,
the two nuns are serving the Church in Belgium despite having been convicted of
Genocide crimes by a Brussels Court in 2001.
The
case of Father Munyeshyaka and the two nuns is a drop in the ocean of Genocide
suspects who still celebrate the Church’s rituals.
Coming
to the last stage of genocide, denial, many priests often participate in
ceremonies that promote the double genocide theory and denying the 1994 Genocide
against Tutsi.
The
recent incident of ‘commemoration of genocide against the Hutu’ on October 1,
2022, saw Father Jean Bosco Nsengimana Mihigo, praying for the participants
including Father Thomas Nahimana.
If
it is there to preach love and rescue sinners, the Catholic Church will hardly
win Rwandans’ souls while promoting impunity.