Pope’s Visit “strong signal, hope for peace” in Eastern DR Congo: Nobel Peace Prize Winner

In the program and itinerary that the Vatican unveiled, the Holy Father is to realize the “Ecumenical Pilgrimage of Peace” in the world’s youngest nation alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields, from February 3-5.

In the December 9 interview with Vatican News, Mr. Mukwege shared his expectations regarding the Papal visit, saying he believes Pope Francis' presence in DRC will serve to clarify to the international community about the “sufferings that the Congolese are living today.”

“We also hope that through his prayers, his voice that is vocal, he can help to put an end to this tragedy, which unfortunately is not talked about much here in Europe,” he said in reference to the violent conflict in Eastern DRC.

The 2018 Noble Peace Prize winner emphasized the role of the Church in resolving conflicts, adding that the prophetic mission of the Church “can make a very big difference.”

“A Church that is silent when people are suffering is a Church that is no longer in its place,” Mr. Mukwege told Vatican News, and added, “I think that the most important role of the Church is to suffer with the people who suffer.”

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The Holy Father’s visit, he said, “is part of this logic of going to suffer with the Congolese people who are suffering.”

Fighting between FARDC and the M23 rebels have intensified in recent weeks in the Eastern part of DRC.

On December 8, the M23 armed rebel group reportedly executed 131 people last week “as part of a campaign of murders, rapes, kidnappings and looting against two villages,” according to a United Nations report.

Another rebel group aligned with the Islamic State, the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a Catholic mission hospital in the country’s northeast province of North Kivu in October and killed six patients and a female religious and medical personnel, Sr. Dr. Marie-Sylvie Kavuke Vakatsuraki.

Amid the violence perpetrated by armed rebel groups in DRC’s eastern region, Mr. Mukwege founded a hospital in 2008 in his hometown of Bukavu, where he and his staff have treated the injuries of thousands of women and girls who were victims of rape and sexual violence.

As a gynecologist, Mr. Mukwege is recognized as “one of the world’s leading experts on the treatment of internal injuries suffered by women subjected to gang rape,” according to the Nobel Peace organization.

He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 along with Nadia Murad. Both were recognized for their “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of armed conflict.”

In the interview with Vatican News, the native of Bukavu in DRC said that the hospital he founded is “trying to bring care services closer to the patients.”

“We are in the process of multiplying the care centers that we call ‘one-stop centers’, where we provide holistic care, that is to say, on the medical-surgical, psychosocial, but also socio-economic and legal levels,” the Director of Panzi Foundation said. 

He noted that “destroying children, destroying babies, destroying women in front of their family, their community, is simply destroying a whole community.”

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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.