DRC: Kivu residents protest abduction of priests with silence
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=168841&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
(Vatican Radio) Residents of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo have staged a week-long silent protest intended to send a message to the kidnappers of two Catholic priests kidnapped Sunday 16 July from a parish of Bunyuka. Activity in the area came to a complete standstill as residents shunned farms and public spaces. Silence marked entire villages. It was the least they could do in the face of all manner of gunmen.Bishop Sikuli Paluku Melchisédech of Butembo-Beni, who confirmed the silent protest to Vatican Radio said that Fathers Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali, parish priest and assistant respectively, were abducted on the night of Sunday 16 July from their parish house of Marie Reine des Anges de Bunyuka by “men in uniform.”“It is with great sadness that we inform you that Fathers Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali, respectively parish priest and vicar of Marie Reine des Anges de Bunyuka were abducted on Sunday around 9 pm by...
(Vatican Radio) Residents of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo have staged a week-long silent protest intended to send a message to the kidnappers of two Catholic priests kidnapped Sunday 16 July from a parish of Bunyuka. Activity in the area came to a complete standstill as residents shunned farms and public spaces. Silence marked entire villages. It was the least they could do in the face of all manner of gunmen.
Bishop Sikuli Paluku Melchisédech of Butembo-Beni, who confirmed the silent protest to Vatican Radio said that Fathers Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali, parish priest and assistant respectively, were abducted on the night of Sunday 16 July from their parish house of Marie Reine des Anges de Bunyuka by “men in uniform.”
“It is with great sadness that we inform you that Fathers Charles Kipasa and Jean-Pierre Akilimali, respectively parish priest and vicar of Marie Reine des Anges de Bunyuka were abducted on Sunday around 9 pm by a group of ‘men in uniform,’” Bishop Melchisédech said in a statement.
The kidnap was accompanied by the looting of two parish vehicles, two motorcycles and several goods of the parish. The vehicles were later found dumped in the forest along the Karuruma road. The motorcycles are thought to have been used to spirit away the two priests.
Soon after the abduction of Fathers Kipasa and Akilimali, some parishioners rang the Church bell, and the faithful who rushed to the parish house started a silent protest against extreme insecurity in the area. All of last week since the abduction, both Catholics and ordinary residents simply stayed at home and did not go to their fields.
Catholic Bishops under DRC’s Conférence Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO) have appealed for the immediate release of the priests. Bishop Melchisédech of Butembo-Beni urged the faithful to persevere in prayer for peace and security.
“We strongly condemn this kidnapping of priests and ask that they be released immediately without delay so that they can fulfil their pastoral mission. We ask all the faithful of the diocese and people of good will to remain vigilant and to persevere in prayer for the peace and security of all in our Province of North Kivu,” said Bishop Melchisédech.
According to the local publication, BeniLubero Online, which documents in very graphic terms, atrocities in the area, the abduction of the priests recalls another case of the kind that occurred in October 2012 in Mbau. Three Assumptionist Catholic priests abducted at the time have never been found.
Founder of the Online publication, BeniLubero Online, Fr. Vincent Machozi was killed in Bukavu by gunmen in March 2016. In December 2016, a Franciscan religious sister, Sr. Marie-Claire Kahambu of South Kivu was stabbed several times and killed, during the day, as she worked in her office at a girls’ training centre.
It is not just priests and the religious that are victims of the violence in Congo’s Kivu area. The local civilian population bears the brunt of most of the violence as BeniLubero attests. Workers of Faith Based and humanitarian organisations such as Caritas have also not been spared.
(Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275467&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
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...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275466&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
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 ...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275461&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
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...