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.”
Article Archive
How the Catholic Church could help the crisis in the DRC
Related Articles • More Articles
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...