Stating the Truth about the Scourge of Genocide
We, Bishops, after taking cognizance of the Report drafted by the Special Commission set up by the Chamber of Deputies of the National Assembly with the mandate to investigate the massacre perpetrated in Gikongoro Province as well as the ideology of the genocide and those who are guilty of it in the various regions of Rwanda, make the following statement.
— Having taken into account all that has been said in Parliament implicating certain persons and NGOs considered as harbouring the genocidical ideology as well as the way in which one newspaper seized on the debate to disseminate it,
— And the Report's different interpretations, expressed in speeches, in the press, in private interviews and in relations between Rwandans,
We believe that it is necessary to express our opinion and to address our faithful and all people of goodwill who are involved in the noble work of rebuilding the social fabric of Rwanda in truth, unity, reconciliation, justice and peace.
1. We thank the Government of Rwanda for its resolution to ensure that Rwandans live in peace and security, transcending any spirit of hatred and resentment; to be spared from war and exile which have for far too long marked our Country's history and culminated in the genocide. We thank the Government for its determination to check the genocidal ideology, wherever it may spring up.
2. We thank the National Assembly for its firm determination to monitor this serious problem closely throughout the national territory. If successfully followed through, such an undertaking can serve to show us where to direct our efforts in the noble tasks of rebuilding our Country and harmoniously reconciling all its inhabitants.
3. We are pleased that the Report has listed numerous points that require attention. Among these we note: respect for the dignity of the human person, whose inviolability must be defended against all attacks based on the genocidal ideology or any other kind. The Report stresses the spirit of evil that still dwells in the heart of some Rwandans. Evil is perceptible in the persecution and segregation that target those who escaped the genocide and those willing to give evidence. Some offensive and hurtful remarks also exist that foster hatred.
4. The Catholic Church affirms the need to give a dignified burial to the victims of the genocide and to all the other victims of massacres. In our Pastoral Letter of 4 January 2004, we stressed: "Let us remember what happened and reinforce truth, justice and forgiveness". We agree with the Commission's assertion that genocide is so serious a crime that it can in no way be taken lightly, nor compared or confused with any other crime.
5. We thank the Commission for illustrating the dramatic nature of the resulting traumatism and the essential need to care for the victims.
6. The Catholic Church thanks the Commission for identifying the various challenges that the legal system is confronting and for agreeing in principle with the fact that "Gacaca" is a reconciliatory form of justice. We fully explained our position on this topic in our Letter of 13 June 2002: "Gacaca Jurisdictions. Reconciliatory justice."
7. With regard to religious denominations, the Catholic Church entirely agrees with the Commission: the leaders or faithful of any denomination whatsoever must never be shielded from justice if they are guilty of a genocidal ideology.
8. We are in agreement with that recommendation of the Commission which suggests creating a legal framework to regulate in Rwanda the organization and practice of worship different from the ordinary forms of association.
Although we are delighted by certain points in the Commission's Report, we have noticed some errors that require correction. We point out some of them:
1. Overall, this Report presents an unjustifiable over-generalization. This is apparent in the attribution of an individual's personal ideas to his or her ethnic group, native region, religious confession or the association to which he or she belongs.
2. In certain points, unduly and without analysis, the Commission classifies the opinions and actions of persons or associations as genocidal, despite the well-known gravity of this crime.
3. This Report contains certain deplorable and hurtful errors due to weighty and serious assertions that are not supported by factual truth but are leveled against people, with the risk of leading to regrettable consequences. We cite, for example, the confusion regarding people and names and the false attribution to the Catholic Church of associations that in no way belong to her.
4. A careful reading of this Report shows that it was hastily drafted precipitately and with no intention to verify the testimonies it has collected. These testimonies were utilized in order to take decisions concerning persons who were not contacted when they should have had the chance to explain what they were being blamed for. All these things can serve as a pretext to spread rumours based on people's presumed intentions and can generate interminable hatred.
5. Another anomaly in this Report is astonishing: sentences previously issued by the Justice of our Country are being called into question. This is in flagrant contradiction to the principle of independence of the judiciary authority. An appeal against a sentence is normally lodged when new evidence is brought and the trial is reopened before the court.
6. We found what the Report says about the Catholic Church particularly surprising since it does not correspond with the truth. The Catholic Church declares that genocide is so grave a sin that she cannot protect those who are guilty of it. Consequently, saying that she protects priests and others responsible for genocide is untrue. The State is responsible for pursuing all these people, wherever they may be.
As for the Church, she has asked all her members who have committed this crime to have the courage to confess their sins. His Holiness Pope John Paul II said: "The Church as such cannot be held responsible for the faults of her members who acted against the law of the Gospel; they will be called to account for their acts. All the members of the Church who sinned during the genocide must have the courage to bear the consequences of the deeds they committed against God and against their neighbour" (cf. our Pastoral Letter of 4 January 2004, "Let us remember what happened, reinforcing truth, justice and forgiveness" pp. 12-13; John Paul II, Message to Bishop Ntihinyurwa, 14 March 1996; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 27 March 1996, p. 9).
7. The accusation leveled at the Catholic Church of not recognizing her share of responsibility for the propagation of the ideology of genocide is unfounded. The Church is right not to recognize a crime that she has not committed. Her proper mission is well-known to all: to reconcile human beings with God and to encourage brotherhood among all men and women.
8. The Report frequently mentions the basic Ecclesial Communities, wrongly considered as networks for the spread of the ideology of genocide. We would like to inform everyone that the basic Ecclesial Community is the grassroots structure of the organization of the Catholic Church. if certain individuals have hidden in our basic Ecclesial Communities in order to reach their ends, it is not the Catholic Church which should be accused. We have continued to exercise strict vigilance to ensure that no one ever makes use of our basic Ecclesial Communities for purposes foreign to them. We assert the same with regard to our ecclesial institutions and the associations of our Christian faithful.
9. Another surprising assertion in the Report is that the Church is supposed to advocate an ideology of poverty, and is committed to keeping the population poor. Those who assert this are wilfully misrepresenting the role the Catholic Church has played and continues to play in the development of this Country and in the improvement of its people's standard of living. There is no blindness worse than that of a person who refuses to see! The Catholic Church will never abandon the poor and will make no discrimination, for this is an essential and constitutive part of her mission.
10. To dare to assert, in contradiction to the truth, that in most of the Dioceses the priests belong to a single race, meaning the Hutu, is discriminatory language that conveys separatist ideas that would tend to re-establish a policy of disequilibrium. There are rules and a procedure for admittance to religious orders. In this area, it is not a matter of sharing equally material goods. We know of no Diocese that would refuse a candidate ordination to the Priesthood on fulfilling the requisite conditions. Nor would any Diocese ever force a candidate to become a priest, or a man or woman religious, simply in order to represent one race or another.
Genocide, we repeat, is a crime that must be neither confused nor compared with any other crime against life, although other criminal acts of slaughter must also be denounced and punished. No one should lightly attribute a genocidal ideology to any person nor, what is more, designate him or her by name without reliable and irrefutable proof.
For this reason, we declare that the Report was drafted in haste and widely and hurriedly circulated, for some unascertainable purpose.
These are a few reflections that we thought it might be wise to address to the authors of the Report, based on their text. It is imperative that we all pursue the aim of building up the Rwandan family, strengthening its goal of unity and reconciliation, in addition to respect for the dignity of the human person, a goal that our Country has set itself. We should beware of all that would be liable to make us go backwards! Let us advance in the truth that reconciles all Rwandans; let us fight for everything that encourages the development of every Rwandan, excluding no one.
This item 6173 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
