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Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec 6, 2016 / 04:47 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In late September, Pope Francis met with the controversial president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila.

But instead of greeting him in the same room where he usually meets other visiting leaders, a “glum looking Francis” waited for President Kabila in his library. Many interpreted the breach of protocol with Kabila as a subtle Vatican snub.

During the brief exchange, translated through interpreters, the Pope raised his concerns over the recent violent protests in the country, due to delayed elections.

Political unrest in Congo under Kabila has been increasing since January 2015, after a bill proposed that Kabila could remain in power while a national census was conducted, potentially delaying presidential and parliamentary elections.

Protesters who saw the bill as a power grab by Kabila took to the streets in what sometimes turned into deadly clashes with the country’s security forces. On September 20, a week before Kabila’s meeting with the Pope, around 50 were killed in clashes in the capital city of Kinshasa.

The elections were supposed to take place in November. But in October, the country’s electoral commission announced that the elections could be delayed for up to two years. Kabila claims to have secured the backing of regional leaders for an African Union-mediated deal – including some opposition leaders – that would allow him to remain in power until April 2018.

Critics say he should step aside and allow an interim government to step in until the next elections can be held.

Kabila claims the delay is to stop millions of unregistered voters from being locked out of the election, but those in opposition say it is simply an attempt by Kabila to remain in power a year and a half after his second and last term in office ends.

Until recently, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Congo has been a key mediator in peace talks between the two opposing sides. In a country whose recent history includes much turmoil and what has been called the worst conflict since World War II, the Church is one of the only remaining institutions which maintains the people’s trust.

The Church has often stepped in to fill the gaps of the government in the conflict-ridden country, and runs a strong network of schools, hospitals and private businesses. An estimated half of Congo’s 80 million people identify as Roman Catholic.

“No one is better positioned today to be the honest broker. Not the discredited AU, nor the West,” said Pascal Kambale, a Congolese human rights lawyer working for the Open Society Foundations, according to a report from Reuters.

But after the Kinshasa violence and the announcement in October, the Bishop’s conference officially stepped back from the peace talks.

“Only an inclusive dialogue which respects the constitutional order will provide a framework for resolving our crisis,” said Archbishop Utembi Tapa, the president of the Congolese bishops’ conference, upon announcing the withdrawal.

Msgr. Donatien Nshole, a representative of the Church in Congo, told Voice of America that the bishops’ conference believed President Joseph Kabila should not be seeking to extend term limits and would not sign an accord that failed “to engage all political actors” and “respect the constitutional order.”

However, at the request of President Kabila, the bishops have re-engaged in some peace talks between the two camps in a rush to come to an agreement before Dec. 19th, the official date when President Kabila has been asked to step down.

Tom Perriello, the United States special envoy to the region who has also called for Kabila to respect term limits, told Congress last week that the bishops’ mediation was the best chance of avoiding additional, wide-scale violence, but warned they were working on “borrowed time.”

Last week, the bishops issued a statement warning that the divide remained despite weeks of attempted dialogue with both sides.

“The situation is critical,” the statement said. “(The bishop’s conference)...calls on all sides to show responsibility and good will to prevent our country from slipping into an uncontrollable situation. May the Virgin Mary intervene for our people and our country.”

Father Léonard Santedi of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa wrote in a letter to The Guardian that the Church hopes to avoid further violence a country that has only begun recovering from the Second Congo War, which lasted from 1998 to 2003, and which also faces occasional terrorist attacks from extreme Islamic groups.  

“Our deepest hope is that the current unrest won’t descend into civil war: our country has seen enough bloodshed.”

 

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has launched a beta version of its website in English and has included its template for local guidelines on preventing sexual abuse, resources for a day of prayer for the victims and survivors as well as a mailing address to contact commission members.

The website -- www.protectionofminors.va -- eventually will include versions in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French, the commission said in a statement Dec. 6.

Pope Francis' international Council of Cardinals identified the protection of children and young adults as one of the church's priority needs and suggested in December 2013 that he create a commission to advise him and assist dioceses and religious orders around the world in drawing up guidelines, handling accusations and ministering to victims and survivors. Pope Francis named the first members three months later and appointed as president Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston.

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By Beth Griffin

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Christians in the Middle East face extinction because of genocide, wars and international indifference to their plight, according to panelists at a Dec. 5 interfaith forum in New York.

A concerted multilateral effort to establish a safe haven for them while rebuilding their devastated homelands is preferable to massive permanent resettlement to other countries, including the United States, they said.

Twelve speakers at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture event explored "The Crisis for Christians in the Middle East," with a particular focus on vulnerable Christian minorities in Syria and Iraq.

Christians formed the majority in the Middle East until the Crusades in the 12th-14th centuries, but "the past thousand years haven't been good in many ways," said Jack Tannous, assistant professor of history at Princeton University.

Tremendous violence perpetrated against Christians led to widespread conversion, he said, and long periods of stasis have been punctuated by large-scale persecution and followed by immigration.

As a result, many Christians were effectively exterminated from the lands where they lived for centuries, said Michael Reynolds, associate professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University.

Genocide is the accurate description for the fate of Christians, especially in areas controlled by the Islamic State, speakers said.

Kristina Arriaga de Bucholz, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said she appreciated that Christians were included in the March 17 genocide declaration by Secretary of State John Kerry, even if the inclusion, she added, was made with difficulty by the current administration and because "it's popular to talk about minority religions."

Kerry said the atrocities carried out by the Islamic State group against Yezidis, Christians and other minorities were genocide.

"Today we are witnessing the world's indifference to the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East and Africa," said Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress and former U.S. ambassador to Austria. Referencing the Holocaust, he said, "Since 1945, genocide has occurred again and again. 'Never Again!' has become hollow. You can't just declare genocide and say the job is done. You have to back it up with action."

"Jews know what happens when the world is silent to mass slaughter. We learned it the hard way," Lauder added.

"People turn off the Middle East because it's so horrible," Arriaga de Bucholz said, but having the U.S. declare genocide helps bring attention to the situation and opens the potential for action.

Msgr. John E. Kozar, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association, said his organization works with the Eastern churches throughout the Middle East, an area not fully understood or appreciated by those in the Latin church. The charitable and health care efforts particularly by women religious in largely Muslim areas have been well-received, and Christians and others have gotten along well, he said. Nonetheless, there is much outright suffering and persecution, he said.

"Syria is an absolute mess, but the church is still there," Msgr. Kozar said. Lebanon is at or close to capacity with refugees. Jordan has the greatest concentration of refugees in the world, but its camps are plagued with extortion and a gangland mentality. Christians are considered third-class citizens in Egypt and still suffer reprisals after the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood. Christians in Kurdistan and Iraq face different challenges.

"We are accompanying Christians who believe that somehow Our Lord will accompany and sustain them. We try to bring a reasonable stability," he said.

Msgr. Kozar and other speakers underscored the deep historic and cultural connection of the Christians to their lands. "There is a tug of war between the goodwill of people here in the West who want to welcome and adopt (the refugees) and presume it's best to extract them from where they are, and the church leaders and most of the people who want to stay" in the region and return to their countries when it is safe to do so, Msgr. Kozar said. "Family, faith, and church and connected."

Nina Shea, director of the center for religious freedom at the Hudson Institute, said the current administration's lack of a religious test for aid dooms tiny minorities and the new administration must make sure Christians and other minorities get their fair share of aid destined for Syria and Iraq.

Also, the United Nations needs a plan to protect minorities. "Otherwise, they will become extinct," she said.

Retired U.S. Gen. Raymond Odierno, former chief of staff of the U.S. Army, said during his lengthy leadership service in Iraq, he never had a specific mission to protect Christians. He said that was likely because there were bigger problems and if the U.S. singled out Christians, it might be interpreted by the Iraqis as trying "to force our religion on Iraq."

Odierno said the new administration should be prepared to have a position on what happens to Christians when the fighting wanes in Syria. He advocated a multinational effort to establish a safe haven to protect Christians "until governments can receive them and place them back where they belong -- or else, they'll dwindle."

The effort will only work if it is multinational and supported by the United Nations, he said. A solo effort by the United States would create a larger problem for Christians because it would look like the U.S. was unilaterally protecting Christians.

Odierno also suggested relocating Christians from the Ninevah Plain of Iraq to Kurdish-controlled areas during what he said could be a 10- to 20-year rebuilding process before they could return home. He could support a no-fly zone there if there's a threat and if Russia participated, he said.

Odierno said it's unclear if the U.S. and Russia can work together to protect Christians and he has not spoken to anyone in Russia, "but I believe we should be able to develop common ground on this."

He said, "It's up to us as a nation that supports all religions to assist when any religion is being attacked. We should be there and take a look at it ... we may be judged 50 years from now."

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said when bishops visit him from the Middle East, "they don't say a lot, but unfailingly cry and plead not to be forgotten. They feel desperate, alone and isolated." He wore a Coptic pectoral cross, a gift to him from Egypt, and he displayed an icon of the Martyrs of Libya.

"We have a God who is calling us to a sense of justice, advocacy and charity. We cannot forget these people," he said.

The event was organized by the Anglosphere Society, a nonprofit membership organization that promotes the traditional values of English-speaking peoples, in collaboration with the Archdiocese of New York and the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture.

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