AFRICA/RWANDA - "Let us ask forgiveness for the genocide", write the Bishops at the conclusion of the Year of Mercy

Monday, 21 November 2016 year of mercy genocide bishops

RWANDA

2024-04-13
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2024-04-03
Genocide in Rwanda, 30 years later. When fratricidal hatred lacerated even the heart of the Church

2024-03-08
No to the "sustainable mining" agreement between the EU and Rwanda

2024-01-31
The Bishops of the Great Lakes: "Saddened by the closure of the border between Burundi and Rwanda"

2023-05-03
Resignation and appointment of bishop of Kabgayi

2023-03-10
"Forgiveness comes from listening to the other". Interview with Cardinal Kambanda, Archbishop of Kigali

Kigali (Agenzia Fides) - "We cannot talk of Mercy in Rwanda without talking about genocide", explains to Agenzia Fides His Exc. Mgr. Philippe Rukamba, Bishop of Butare and President of the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda. "We read a pastoral letter at the end of the Year of Mercy that was signed by all the Bishops to ask forgiveness for all the sins committed in the genocide of 1994 by the Catholics, as well as of other sins committed". The pastoral letter was read yesterday, Sunday, November 20, closing day of the Jubilee of Mercy, in all the parishes of Rwanda.
The document was written in Kinyarwanda and the Episcopal Conference is now taking care of the official translation in French and English, the two official languages of the Country.
"The letter is divided into 14 points - explains the President of the Episcopal Conference to Fides -. In the first part we thank God for all he has given us, life, children, culture, the Church which is more than 100 years old. In the second part we ask forgiveness for the genocide as individuals, because it is not the Church as such that committed these crimes, but his children who have sinned. It also condemns the ideology of genocide that was an important element in unleashing the tragedy that involved the destruction of so many lives and the social fabric of our Country", concluded Mgr. Rukamba. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/11/2016)