The Pontifical Foundation helps the Church in need (ACN) reported that the bishops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo demand that justice be done after the massacre perpetrated by a group linked to the Islamic State, between July 26 and 27 in a Catholic Church, in which more than 40 people died.
That weekend, allied democratic forces (ADF) attacked the parish Blessed Anuarrite (Beata Anuarite), in the Diocese of Bunia, killing 37 young people, and wounding another six, who participated in a vigil for the 25 years of the Eucharistic Cruz Movement, according to indicates ACN.
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The Bishop of Bunia, Mons. Dieudonné Uingi, told ACN that after the massacre “many people have been traumatized. When the adults found out, they went immediately to see what had happened.”
So far there are no detainees and the prelate regrets that the forces of the order have not properly reacted: “the police and the military were not far away, but did not act on time. They should have intervened faster to protect the population.”
Despite the prevailing insecurity, by various groups that dispute the region that limits with Uganda, the bishop continues with his work: “This afternoon I must travel more than 60 kilometers to a mining area in the middle of the jungle, as I did in June and July. I do it every month to administer the sacrament of confirmation,” he said.
The Congolese prelate also asked ACN to support for young priests displaced by violence. “Many have had to abandon their parishes and seek refuge in Bunia. We welcome them, but we have no means to sustain them. It would be a great relief to receive help like other times from their institution to accompany them at this time,” he said.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the tenth country in the world that receives the most aid, according to the Pontifical Foundation itself.
Justice clamor
ACN also reports that the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco) expressed in an official statement of July 28 its dismay for the “odious massacre” of innocent faithful.
“This nth massacre has occurred in one of the provinces that has been under site for several years (…) In these provinces we are witnessing the murders and kidnappings,” says the statement.
The outrage, the text continues, is greater because “no credible explanation has been offered to reassure the population.”
Bishops wonder why, despite so many massacres, the authorities fail to clearly identify those responsible. “Does anyone talk about the Islamists of the ADF, of the terrorists (…) do these serial killers have any task? Who benefits from these crimes perpetrated for years against peaceful citizens?” The prelates questioned.
The bishops of the Cenco finally demanded “an exhaustive and satisfactory investigation into the tragedy” to do justice.
According to the statement, the massacre took place a week after the desecration of the Parish Church of Lopa, in the same diocese of Bunia.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.