Rwanda priest laicized, but genocide not the reason
May 08, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: A Rwandan priest who was linked to the genocidal massacres of 1994 has been laicized. But the Diocese of Evreux, France, where Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka had been stationed, has announced that the disciplinary measure “is not related to the past of this [cleric], in this case in Rwanda.”
Instead, the diocese said, Munyeshyaka was defrocked as the result of an investigation opened more recently, in 2021, involving a relationship in which he fathered a child.
Munyeshyaka was sued in France by survivors of the 1994 massacres, but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. However a court in Rwanda convicted him on genocide charges in 2006, and he faces life imprisonment if he returns to his native country.
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