YAOUNDÈ, Cameroon – Bishop Sébastien Muyengo of Uvira Diocese, located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, says Pope Francis is coming to the country to console its people.
Francis will pay a four-day visit to the Congo from July 2-5, 2022, before traveling to South Sudan.
Muyengo said his country has known war and natural disasters, and its people are hurting under corrupt political leadership.
“The pontiff follows closely what is happening in our country, especially in the East, a region marked by natural disasters, as happened recently with the eruption of a volcano. Above all, there is the situation of repeated war,” the bishop told Crux.
The Nyiragongo volcano began erupting in May 2021, sending toxic ash across the east of the country. The region has also been the center of a long running insurgency, which has pitted rebels against government forces, both of which have been accused of human rights abuses.
Following are excerpts of Muyengo’s conversation with Crux.
Crux: Pope Francis will visit the DRC July 2-5. What do you think is the general mood in the DRC before this visit?
Muyengo: First of all, I would like to remind you of two things: First, it is 42 years since the holy Pope John Paul II visited our country, called Zaire, for the first time on May 2, 1980. I remember that I was at the beginning of my seminary years, just in my first year of philosophy. I can still see the enthusiasm, the joy that flooded our hearts in Kinshasa, but also everywhere he went, especially in Kisangani.
For the record, this was the first stage of his first visit to Africa, and it was a great honor for us. Five years later, in August 1985, the Pope returned to Zaire for the beatification of Sister Marie-Clementine Anuarite Nengapeta. Incidentally, it is rare for a pope to visit a country in such a short space of time. This is to say how much the Polish Pope loved our country and our people, and this because of the greatness of our country and the number of Catholic, and also Christian, believing population.
Second, it is not only this year that Pope Francis dreamed of coming to DR Congo; it has been for a long time, only the authorities of the time were not, for God knows why. However, the visit of the pope to a country is a blessing for that country, for its population, all religions included.
How far have preparations gone for the papal visit?
The preparations are going well in Kinshasa as well as in Goma where the bishops of Greater Kivu, the Ecclesiastical Province of Bukavu, have set up a large preparation committee comprising priests, religious men and women, laypeople, etc. All our six dioceses, the Province of Bukavu, have set up a committee to prepare the visit. All our six dioceses, namely Bukavu, Goma, Uvira, Kindu, Beni-Butembo and Kasongo are represented, and each will send a delegation. In Goma, the pope will also meet with victims of violence in our dioceses: Women who have been raped, children – girls and boys – exploited in mining quarries, refugees and displaced persons from wars, members of discriminated groups, etc. Each diocese will send 10 people.
The Holy Father will visit Kinshasa and Goma. What is the significance of his visit to these places?
Kinshasa is obviously the capital of the DR Congo. It is normal for the pope to enter the country through this door and given the number of its population. By visiting Kinshasa, he will have visited all the Congolese. In Goma, as we know, the pontiff follows closely what is happening in our country, especially in the East, a region marked by natural disasters, as happened recently with the eruption of a volcano.
Above all, there is the situation of repeated war. The Pope has therefore come to console the Congolese people, not only those of the East, but all of them, because a people are like a body, when one member is bruised, the whole body suffers. This is why, after the DR Congo, he will visit South Sudan, which is also plagued by repeated wars. Let us remember that not long ago the Holy Father mentioned these two countries in his prayer during his Angelus.
The bishops of the DRC have declared that the Pope is coming to “reconcile” the Congolese people. How divided is the Congo today?
Personally, I don’t think that the Congolese people are divided in terms of groups. I don’t know if there are any in the DR Congo. I don’t know if there is a conflict in the DR Congo, apart from what is happening on the high and middle plateaus of Fizi, Mwenga and Uvira, between some communities and our Rwandophone brothers. But rather than a conflict between groups, it is a conflict over land, fueled by politicians pulling the strings in search of position.
The same applies to what is happening in North Kivu. When we talk about ADF-NALU, M23, etc. [different militias operating in the region], which ethnic groups are we talking about? Rather, they are armed bands in the pay of the politicians of the region, both foreigners and nationals.
In our opinion, the pope has come to reconcile the Congolese with themselves. In DR Congo, we seem to have lost our sense of self, considering how badly the country is managed: a country rich in natural resources, but where the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty; an elephant with feet of clay, whose borders have become porous, making us the prey of our neighbors.
In any case, it is time for the Congolese people to wake up, as we sing in our national anthem “Débout Congolais”, to become self-aware and take charge of our destiny.
You mentioned the involvement of foreign actors in Congo’s conflicts. What specifically has been their role in the country’s wars?
Here again I would put a small caveat. One should not confuse the division of politicians with that of the people. And this is where the Congolese, more precisely the intellectuals, the political elite is called upon to question itself.
In recent years, we have witnessed a nameless disorder in the Congolese political class: For reasons of power and wealth, we participate day after day in alliances that are found and then melt, friendships that are linked and unlinked, etc., until they turn into murderous enmities, treacherous relationships; friends and allies of yesterday, who today humiliate themselves, expose themselves in broad daylight, in full view of everyone, on media channels, social networks, etc.
We are losing more and more of the sense and dignity, and of statesmanship because of corruption, mismanagement, etc. I don’t believe that we are talking about the internal division of the Congolese. Obviously with this disorder within the political class, foreigners take advantage of it, and everyone knows that since independence and even before, our country has always been coveted by foreign powers, because of its resources.
Today, it is all our neighbors who come to the DR Congo supposedly to liberate it from its demons as President Ndayishimiye of Burundi said in his prayer of January 1.
Finally, what kind of message should the Pope bring to the population of the DRC?
The pope comes with a message of peace, unity and reconciliation.
This man of God, who in his encyclical Laudato Si’, on the safeguarding of creation, cited the Congo Basin as one of the two lungs through which the world still breathes in the midst of the environmental crisis it is experiencing, will not fail to encourage us, not only us Congolese, but all Africans, to protect our common home which is the earth.
We also appreciated the logo designed by CENCO to welcome him to our country, through the three colors framing the map of our country the DRC.
First, there is red, symbol of the blood of the martyrs shed in our country, which, placed in the East, would like to underline that Congolese blood continues to flow today, particularly on this side of the country.
Secondly, the blue, symbol of peace, which, placed in the North, i.e. above, would like to express the most ardent wish of every Congolese: Peace above all else. This is one of the objectives of the Holy Father’s visit to us. He has come to call us to work for peace, for reconciliation, as it is written in large letters at the bottom of the logo: “All reconciled in Jesus Christ.”
Finally, the yellow, which is placed in the South, that is to say at the bottom, symbolizes the richness of our country from every point of view: Fauna and flora, soil and subsoil; a richness that unfortunately constitutes one of the main sources of our misery, that is to say of our wars, our land conflicts, and the kidnappings.
