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Catholic Church's celebration of convicted priests is genocide ideology, scholars say
By Emmanuel Ntirenganya
Genocide scholars have likened the forthcoming Silver Jubilee celebration that the Catholic Church of Kabgayi Diocese is set to hold for its two priests convicted of genocide crimes during the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, to genocide ideology and minimisation of genocide. On July 16, the Kabgayi Diocese will hold a series of religious event at Mushishiro Parish including the 25-year jubilee celebration for its six priests, who include two genocide convicts Joseph Ndagijimana and Emmanuel Rukundo, according to the invitation by the Diocese. Rukundo was convicted and handed a 25-year sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2009, while Joseph Ndagijimana was convicted and handed life sentence by Gacaca in the same year. A Twitter hash tag #HelloSmaradge that was created after the information that the Kabgayi Diocese is to celebrate the convicted priests was made public, had an influx of views from various people, converging on the idea that the celebration for those priests would be unreasonable, a pain to the genocide survivors but also a shame to the Catholic Church in general as it will be a sign of indifference of the Church to the suffering of people. Some also equated the practice to the genocide denial. Others suggested that a protest should be undertaken against such a jubilee or survivors filing an injunction against it. The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Dr. Jean-Damascene Bizimana told Sunday Times that the law relating to the punishment of the crime of genocide ideology prohibits any act that eulogises the genocide, or any act intended to gloat over genocide survivors. He noted that “a person who was convicted with genocide crime and got sentenced, regardless of any status they have, cannot hold a jubilee for them.” “The jubilee is an act of joy, to celebrate the work that someone carried out well, to reward one who assumed well their responsibilities. A wrongdoer does not deserve a jubilee,” he noted. Dr. Bizimana said the families of the genocide survivors, including those whose family members were killed by those priests, are deeply saddened by the decision to give respect to the genocidaire priests. He said if the Kabgayi Diocese goes on to celebrate the jubilee for the convicted priests, it will have given a bad example of intentionally transgressing the law, noting that it is a bad example of minimising the genocide against the Tutsi. Again, he noted that the decision will be against the step that has been made in terms of the unity and reconciliation of Rwandans because the survivors had made a stride to live in harmony with other Rwandans, including those who killed their loved ones. Excommunication of irresponsible priests Moreover, Dr. Bizimana said that such an act will be endorsing the culture of impunity because if the Kabgayi Diocese makes a decision to celebrate priests who committed the genocide, it is akin to overturning the judicial decision taken against them. In April 1996, when Rwanda was commemorating the Genocide against the Tutsi for the second time, Dr. Bizimana said, Pope Paul II wrote a letter to the Catholic Episcopal Conference of Rwanda requesting the Catholic Church to let the priests who participated in the genocide against the Tutsi to be held accountable and pursued by justice. Bizimana said the current Pope also does not support wrongdoing, citing the excommunication of pedophile priests. “That is a good practice. The Church in Rwanda should also learn from that and ex-communicate the priests who committed the genocide because genocide is the most abominable crime,” he noted. Speaking to Sunday Times on Friday, Tom Ndahiro, a genocide scholar and researcher wondered why Kabgayi Diocese is going to celebrate a Silver Jubilee for a person who was ordained a priest in 1991 but in 1994, committed the genocide against the Tutsi. “If a person has committed genocide, how can you consider them normal? “A person has been serving in priesthood for less than three years before being convicted of a crime, where does he get the 25 years of priesthood coming from? Why don’t you consider the crime he was convicted of and sentenced for? He said celebrating a jubilee for those convicted priests is minimising and denying the genocide against the Tutsi. “It is teaching people that the genocide crime is inconsequential, rather as a normal thing,” he noted. He said the one who put the genocide convicted priests on the list of those for whom the jubilee is going to be celebrated, made a mistake. Monsignor Smaragde Mbonyintege, the Bishop of Kabgayi Diocese said last week that the Catholic Church is in centenary priesthood jubilee (1917-2017), in which it is carrying out various religious activities mainly the priesthood ordination, whereby on July 16, they will hold first part consisting of ordination for one priest, others who will be ordained deacons as well as the priests who will have a 25-year-jubilee. “In that activity what we intend is to thank God and ask forgiveness for indecent behavior. It is understandable that those who committed the genocide are the ones we ask for forgiveness to the Christian community and God. That is what we will do,” he said. “Those are our priests who got convicted of genocide crimes. Being convicted of the crimes does not prevent them from being priests because priesthood does not get erased by crimes; [rather], a person dies with it even in his crimes. What the Church does, is to remove them from all religious positions, but also serve the sentences they are given by the law,” he said. He said the laws governing the Church are international and the Church adapts to Rwanda’s laws, but noted that the laws in the country cannot change the beliefs of the Church, rather there should be understanding between the church and the country.
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