Bishop: Synod is an opportunity for reconciliation after the Rwandan genocide

The Bishop of Cyangugu (Rwanda), Bishop Edouard Sinayobye, considers that the Catholic Church in the country experiences the Synod of Synodality as “an opportunity to reinforce unity and reconciliation” in the country after 30 years of the genocide between Hutus and Tutsi.

The Rwandan genocide was an attempted extermination of the Tutsi population by the Hutu ethnic group that lasted between April and July 1994, in which a minimum of 500,000 people and a maximum of one million were murdered. Numerous crimes of a sexual nature were also committed that affected thousands of people.

During the press conference held this Monday at the Holy See Press Office, Bishop Sinayobye explained that despite 30 years having passed since the genocide, it is “as if it had happened yesterday.”

In this context, he noted that the Rwandan bishops welcomed the convocation of the synod as “a Cairo” (God’s time) in which the word “communion” resonated, a concept that was really very eloquent for the heart of Rwanda.

In this sense, the synod has been welcomed in the country as “a teaching that gives us the theological and biblical foundations to understand that we are one.” This message of fraternity, the prelate stressed, is very important “because after everything that has happened to us we are learning to be brothers and sisters.”

“So we lived the synod as a process not only social but also spiritual” that helps the local church understand “that since the genocide, the path we have to follow is, in fact, a fraternal lifestyle, a style of spiritual life,” said Bishop Sinayobye.

“So we follow the guidelines of the synod, which reminds us of the way of life and the way of working of the Church,” added the prelate.

Bishop Sinayobye also recalled that “it is not easy to talk about reconciliation in a country that has experienced the tragedy of genocide, because we must accompany both the executioners and the victims.”

For the Rwandan bishop “the synod is an occasion to delve into the different approaches we have to create unity in Rwanda and to help people live in a spirit of communion, of fraternity.”

Finally, Bishop Sinayobye considered that the synod has also offered the possibility of “learning to be missionaries” to clerics, religious and lay people, which in his diocese has been carried out under the motto “Christ in all families.”