On Monday Pope Francis prayed for God’s forgiveness on “the sins and failings of the Church and its members” involved in the 1994 genocide against Rwanda that killed some 800,000 people.
Pope Francis “conveyed his profound sadness, and that of the Holy See and of the Church, for the genocide against the Tutsi,” after a meeting between Francis and Rwanda ‘s President Paul Kagame the Vatican said in a statement.
“He implored anew God’s forgiveness for the sins and failings of the Church and its members, among whom priests and religious men and women who succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission,” it said.
Francis’ plea for pardon followed a November request from Rwanda for the church to apologize for her role in the massacres.
In 1994, the Catholic Church has been accused of being close to the Hutu extremist regime in power since the genocide, whose victims were mostly from the Tutsi minority.
A number of churches became scenes of mass killings, as Hutu militiamen found people in them seeking refuge, sometimes turned over by priests, without any way out.
Francis, 80, said he hoped “this humble recognition of the failings of that period, which, unfortunately, disfigured the face of the Church, may contribute to a ‘purification of memory'” and promote “renewed trust”.
Several Catholic priests as well as nuns and brothers were charged with participating in the genocide, and were prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and a Belgian court, leading to several convictions while others were acquitted.
The highest official of the Church to be tried for genocide was late Bishop Augustin Misago who was convicted in June 2000 and released from prison.
Kagame accused the Catholic Church during the 20th anniversary commemorations in April 2014 of “participating fully” in the establishment of the colonial ideology that created the divide between Hutus and Tutsis, which he claimed led to the genocide.
In November a letter of apology was read in all churches, signed by the bishops representing the nine dioceses in Rwanda.
But the Rwandan government said local apology wasn’t enough, given the crimes committed.
Jean-Pierre Dusingizemungu, head of the survivors group of Ibuka, called the words of the pope a “giant step taken by the church” that would “help us fight the negationism and genocide ideology.”
Rwanda Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, who accompanied Kagame to the Vatican, said the meeting on Monday was conducted in “a spirit of transparency and reverence for one another.”
“Facilitating” efforts by the Catholic Church to help survivors and repentant perpetrators live and work side by side, “she said.
But the minister said there were those in the church who still protected perpetrators of the genocide.
“Genocide denial and trivialization tend to thrive in many communities within the Church today and victims of genocide within Catholic institutions have been shielded from justice,” she said.
Approximately half of Rwandans are Catholic but many have turned to Pentecostal churches since the genocide.
“The pope’s gesture is a way for him to put back into play a Rwandan Catholic Church effectively discredited” by the scandal, wrote Nicolas Seneze, the Rome correspondent for the French daily La Croix.
