“Our hearts have become insensitive”: Congolese Cardinal on Violence in Great Lakes Region

“Despite all this, it's as if our hearts have been turned to stone. Even if we're told today: over there we've killed as many, it leaves us indifferent,” Cardinal Ambongo lamented.

Indifference to human suffering is prolonging the tragedy being experienced by the people in the Great Lakes region, he further lamented, and recalled, “Since the events following the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, the Great Lakes sub-region has already recorded over 12 million deaths, particularly in the DRC.”

Cardinal Ambongo continued, “Today's figures, which are still rising, speak of at least 6 million internally displaced people in the DRC, and just yesterday we received the news that in the town of Mweso, in the Masisi territory, there is still exchange of gunfire, resulting in the displacement of the population.”

“In fact, every day we witness social inequality, indifference to the distress of others, insecurity, misery, violence, and inter-state tensions, not to mention war and the selfishness of leaders,” he lamented.

the Local Ordinary of Kinshasa Archdiocese who doubles as President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said he finds it regrettable that “we live in a sub-region where we have the impression that we're all consumed by quarrels, divisions and wars, as if peace were not a cardinal value for the people of the sub-region.”

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Those in power “take very little interest in the general welfare of the population,” he went on to lament, and to underscore the need for strategic plans and concrete actions for lasting peace in the Great Lakes region, the Cardinal said, “He who wants peace prepares for peace,”

He continued, “Our celebration today is part of this dynamic of seeking peace between the populations of these three countries, while those who govern us are distinguished by their tendency towards division and conflict.”

Alluding to the closure and reclosure of Burundi-Rwanda borders amid rising tensions between the two neighboring countries, the Cardinal said, “Faced with the worsening security situation and the deterioration of relations between the countries of the sub-region, it is true that the mission of the Bishops is put to the test.”

He continued, “While politicians try to divide and set our populations against each other, our role is to build bridges of peace through constructive dialogue with leaders, accompanying our faithful, especially the victims of these conflicts.”

“We beseech the Lord that the long-suffering inhabitants of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi may regain their peace,” Cardinal Ambongo implored.

Also speaking during the January 28 event, the President of ACEAC, Bishop José Moko Ekanga, decried the persistent violence in the Great Lakes region and assured the people of God of continued efforts of the Church leadership to foster peace. 

“It is a great sorrow for your Bishops to see that violence continues to rage in our sub-region, creating civilian and military victims, creating situations of distress,” Bishop Moko said. 

He added, “In 20 years we cannot tell you exactly what our contribution to the return of peace in the sub-region has been. But what is certain is that the gospel we proclaim is a gospel of peace.”

“The Church sees itself as a weak interpellant because the Church has no army; the Church has only its pastoral ministry. We can't decree peace today, but we pray,” the Local Ordinary of DRC’s Idiofa Diocese since his Episcopal Consecration in August 2009 said. 

Catholic Bishops in the Great Lakes region, the Congolese President of ACEAC further said, are “trying to reach out to all levels of our populations, from ordinary citizens to our leaders.”

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“Your bishops are working so that peace can return, but with the means that are ours, and which are not means to be neglected,” he emphasized on January 28, the last day of ACEAC Plenary Assembly in Goma Diocese.

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.