Kinshasa, 30 November, 2025 / 9:41 pm (ACI Africa).
Bishop Sébastien-Joseph Muyengo of Uvira Catholic Diocese has warned that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is facing a “crisis of fraternity” fueled by escalating violence, mass killings, and widespread looting, especially in the country’s eastern provinces.
In a pastoral letter for the first liturgical memorial of four Congolese martyrs, who include three members of Xaverian missionaries and a Priest, Bishop Muyengo emphasized that peace is inseparable from human development.
In the message on the inaugural liturgical memorial, on November 28, of the four missionaries beatified on 18 August 2024 as “Witnesses of Fraternity,” the Congolese Bishop said their example of self-giving and brotherhood stands in stark contrast to a national context marked by war, brutality, and the plunder of natural resources.
“In this difficult time marked by wars, violence, killings, and also the shameless looting of the country’s resources—resources meant to make us all happy in a land where God has provided everything necessary—we must admit that the crisis we are experiencing is a crisis of fraternity,’ the Catholic Church leader said, and added, “This is the situation in which we find ourselves today in our country, especially in its eastern part.”
“We must truly ask ourselves what has become of our fraternity, our solidarity which, as Saint John Paul II said, is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of many people, both near and far,” Bishop Muyengo said.
