As Kabila steps down, Catholics in DR Congo continue push for democracy

August 10, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Aug 10, 2018 / 02:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced this week that he will step down after 17 years in power. The announcement follows years of protests, supported by Catholics bishops, against the delaying of elections.

Kabila has been ruling in defiance of term limits, remaining president two years after he was required to leave office in 2016.

Kabila announced Aug. 8 he will not seek an unconstitutional third term and endorsed a political ally, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, for the upcoming presidential election in December.

Catholics in the Democratic Republic of Congo welcomed the news and urged the necessity of free and fair elections in what could be the first peaceful transition of power in the central African nation’s history.

“Congolese people, the fight for democracy continues!” begins a statement released by the Catholic Lay Committee (CLC) on Aug. 10.

This group of lay Catholics activists organized three protests calling for Kabila to step down after the cancellation of national elections that were supposed to be held in December 2017.

The protests took place after Sunday Masses throughout 13 cities until February 2018. In an effort to suppress the protests, police forces surrounded churches and killed a total of 18, according to local sources.

Pope Francis called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for the Democratic Republic of Congo Feb. 23.

The United Nations, African Union, European Union, and United States have all backed the Congolese efforts to peaceful democracy protests.

“This well-deserved victory is only one step in the struggle that must lead us inexorably towards total and definitive victory, that of organizing free, credible, transparent, peaceful and inclusive elections,” the Aug. 10 CLC statement continued.

CLC suspended their scheduled protests for Aug. 12-14 “to show good faith” in Kabila’s announcement.

Both the bishops and lay people alike have been very outspoken critics of Congolese political corruption. The Catholic leadership previously negotiated agreements between Kabila and the opposition, and then actively supported the protests against Kabila when he broke the agreement’s terms.

The Catholic Church is well-respected in the DRC and Catholics make up about 40 percent of the country’s population. Catholic clergy in the Congo are known for courageously standing up to corrupt leaders, such as Mobutu Sese Seko, the DRC’s military dictator from 1965 to 1997.

An estimated five million people were killed between 1997 and 2003 in ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo under Joseph Kabila’s father, Laurent Kabila, who violently overthrew Mobutu. Joseph Kabila took power in 2001 at age of 29 after the assassination of his father.

The bishops must realize how fragile the hope of a truly democratic transition is in one of the most resource-rich countries in the world where the people are so poor that an estimated 10 percent of the population of 78 million people experience extreme hunger.

However, the clergy still hold the bar high for their national government, remaining “convinced that only credible, transparent and inclusive elections are the solution to the current crisis in the DRC.”

The bishops denounced the current government’s decision to prevent the opposition leader, Moïse Katumbi, who has been living in exile, from re-entering the country to become a presidential candidate. The bishops stressed that everyone should be given the “equality of opportunity” in the elections.

Meanwhile, the former vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was convicted of war crimes in International Criminal Court in 2016 and then acquitted in June, returned to the DRC last week to seek election.

“The elections that the Congolese people are waiting for must be credible, transparent and inclusive,” said the bishops’ statement earlier this week.

The bishops called on the intercession of Blessed Marie-Clementine Nengapeta and Isidore Bakanja as their country attempts its first peaceful transition of power in modern history.

The U.S. State Department said it is “encouraged” by the news that Kabila will not seek a third term, according to a statement released Aug. 9, which calls on the DRC National Independent Electoral Commission and Congolese authorities to provide public access to the new voter registry and voting methods.

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German, African bishops affirm continued need to evangelize

June 5, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Antananarivo, Madagascar, Jun 5, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During a meeting last month between representatives of the bishops of Africa and Germany discussing integral human development, both groups affirmed their need to continue the work of evangelization.

“As Church, both in Africa and in Germany, the Holy Spirit is opening our eyes to the fact that we still have a lot to do in our mission of evangelization,” read a May 27 statement signed by Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising.

The communique was released following a May 22-27 seminar in Antananarivo, Madagascar, between the German bishops’ conference and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, which are chaired by Cardinal Marx and Archbishop Mbilingi, respectively.

The bishops pointed to poverty, misery, disease, and despair in Africa “caused by human greed and corruption, injustices of all kinds and violence and fratricidal wars,” and in Europe, a “dearth of spiritual values, excessive materialism and consumerism, individualism, little or no of respect for the life and rights of the unborn, of the aged and the infirm.”

“All of these evils .. point to the fact that as Church we still have a lot to do in our evangelization mission,” they affirmed.

In addition to proclaiming the gospel, the bishops said evangelization is “the work of deepening our Christian formation and the formation of consciences of our political and socio-economic leaders, as well as the offering of true witness of our faith in Christ.”

“Evangelization should lead all to understand and develop their lives of relationships with God, with their fellow women and men, and with creation,” they wrote. “This work of building relationship demands that we work with all women and men of good will in order to create a new and better world for all to have the chance to develop their talents to the best of their capabilities, and to bring these to serve every body, living and even yet unborn.”

The May seminar was the eighth such meeting between German and African bishops. The tradition began in 1982, and they occur every four to five years. A statement ahead of the event said that they discuss “mutually agreed issues as part of an effort to promote pastoral solidarity between Germany and the African continent, and also to discuss issues relevant to promoting the growth of the church in the two Conferences. The meetings have contributed to the deepening and intensification of the relationship between the local Churches in Africa and the Church in Germany.”

This year’s theme of integral human development was needed because of secularization and globalization, and was inspired by Catholic social teaching of the last 50 years, said the concluding document. It cited the importance of Bl. Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio, Benedict XVI’s Caritas in veritate, and Pope Francis’ Laudato si’.

They reflected that integral human development “must ensure the total well-being of the person, of every person and of every human society,” and said, “we must renew our missionary zeal working for integral human development as an indispensable part of our mandate.”

The seminar resulted in seven resolutions: a renewed commitment to working for a more just world; the need for development “to respect the ecological limitations of our planet earth”; speaking up “for a more just global order especially regarding international trade”; that “the empowerment of all women worldwide and in all fields of society is a necessary pre-condition for the development of every single person”; that evangelization will be tied to integral human development; to advocate development both domestically aind internationally; and to continue “this dialogue and cooperation and communion between the Church in Africa and in Germany”.

The statement concluded, “We are thankful for the fraternal communion and greater understanding with each other and as representatives of our local Churches.”

“At this meeting in Antananarivo, we have become more aware of the unique wealth and unique opportunities that characterize our Church, universal and global. We are a global community and communion of learning, prayer and solidarity, sent to be witnesses of faith, hope and love to the whole world. By so doing, we are serving the integral development of every person and of the whole human person.”

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