Rome and Rwanda
The government of Rwanda in central Africa sent a request to the Vatican in November asking that the Roman Catholic Church should offer an apology for the role that some priests and nuns played in the fearful genocide of 1994, when around 800 000 people, mostly of the minority Tutsi ethnic group, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists. Dozens of Roman Catholic priests are believed to have been complicit in the killings, and some were alleged to have personally participated in them. Several massacres were carried out in churches where people were seeking sanctuary.
Until now the Vatican has maintained that the Roman Church has borne no responsibility for this dreadful episode. But the Rwandan government has recently stated that “genocide denial and trivialisation continue to flourish in certain groups within the Church and genocide suspects have been shielded from justice within Catholic institutions”. After a visit to Rome in March by the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, the Pope issued a statement conveying his “profound sadness” for the “genocide against the Tutsi”. He begged for God’s forgiveness “for the sins and failings of the Church and its members” who, the statement said, had “succumbed to hatred and violence”.
This papal statement is a plain contradiction of the Vatican’s previous denials. It demonstrates that, not only must the evidence have been incontrovertible that Roman Catholic figures were indeed involved in the massacres to varying degrees, but that Rome was willing to deny the truth for so long until political pressure forced a change of face. Here is yet more solemn and shameful evidence which will contribute to the enormous indictment against papal Rome in the day of accounts: “In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev 18:24). AWM