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IN THE YEARS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING World War II, when the truth of the Holocaust proved much worse than anyone believed possible, global reaction was unanimous: Crimes of this magnitude must never be allowed to happen again. But the firm imperative “never again” heard in the late 1940s has become something closer to “again and again.” One such example is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.1 The Rwandan genocide has clearly challenged the international community’s commitment to the “never again” principle, and it has brought shame upon the world’s most prominent moral force, the Roman Catholic Church.2 Indeed, in the face of clear and indisputable evidence, the Rwandan Church leadership has been reluctant to acknowledge that Church members— including clergy—were directly involved in the killings, and took too long to use the term genocide. Similar to the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Germany during Word War II at the time of the Holocaust, the Rwandan Church has remained largely silent or ambiguous in the face of these modernday atrocities.3 Today, however, the Church is starting to help Rwandan society recover and move toward reconciliation. Deep skepticism toward the Church remains, particularly among those who witnessed the 1994 genocide and recall the Church leadership’s complicity with the killing. There is only one clear way for the Church to foster peace and unity in Rwanda: A decade after the genocide, the Church must confess its mistakes and willingly engage in the process of its own internal healing. Such healing is important for any religious institutions that have endured the divisions and atrocities visited by internal strive and civil war. The Rwandan Church: The Challenge of Reconciliation Elisée Rutagambwa, S.J. Chapter 10 173 174 The Challenge of Justice Historical Background At least three important historical factors contribute to the Rwandan Catholic Church’s present difficulty in serving as an instrument of reconciliation: first, the Church’s failure in evangelization; then the devastating impact of its ongoing collusion with political power; and finally, its failure to address the genocide in 1994. Let us examine each of these issues. The Failed Policy of Evangelization Rwanda has a population of nearly 8 million and a geographic area of 16,365 square miles. The nation is located in the African Great Lakes region, and it shares borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south, and Uganda to the north. Rwanda was colonized by Germany until the end of World War I, and it was subsequently controlled by Belgium until it achieved independence in 1962. Its population is composed of three social groups—the Hutus, Twa, and Tutsis—all of which share the same language, religion, and culture. The country is one of the most Christianized nations in Africa. According to the 1991 Rwandan census, 89.8 percent of the population claimed membership in a Christian church—62.6 percent Catholic, 18.8 percent Protestant, and 8.4 percent Seventh-Day Adventist.4 The evangelization of Rwanda began in the early 1900s while the country was already under German colonial rule. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, the League of Nations presented Belgium with a mandate to administer what was then known as Rwanda-Urundi. The White Fathers (Pères Blancs) missionaries settled in the country and recruited adherents. However, they faced resistance from King Musinga, who saw Christianity as a threat to traditional beliefs and national unity. At the urging of Bishop Léon Class, the Belgian colonial administration deposed Musinga and enthroned his son Mutara III, who soon converted to Catholicism.5 After the king’s baptism, Rwanda was consecrated to Christ the King and became a virtual Christian kingdom. Influenced by racist nineteenth-century anthropological and racial studies, the Catholic missionaries undertaking the evangelization were deeply prejudiced against the African peoples.6 Accordingly, they dismissed everything related to Rwandan religious and cultural traditions as paganism. Drawing from the reports of their travels, Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the founder of the White Fathers, surmised that Africans generally lacked a sense of religion: “It is doubtful whether Negroes have any sense of another life and the immortality of the soul. In any case, they do not seem to have any religion apart from gross superstitions without any form of culture and which resemble to witchcraft.”7 These views echoed those of the German philosopher Hegel: [18...

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