Rome Newsroom, Dec 9, 2022 / 04:18 am (CNA).
Pope Francis met Friday with Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician known for his work treating victims of sexual violence.
The private audience at the Vatican on Dec. 9 comes as Pope Francis is preparing to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next month.
Mukwege has said that he hopes the pope’s January visit will “shed light on what is happening in the Congo.”
“The international community is making the same mistake as it did in Rwanda when it allowed the genocide of the Tutsis. Today Rwandan-backed guerrillas are massacring the Congolese: these are crimes against humanity, war crimes that can also be crimes of genocide. And the international community has closed its eyes as it closed them in 1994,” he told Vatican News on Dec. 5.
The M23 armed rebel group in the DRC executed 131 people last week “as part of a campaign of murders, rapes, kidnappings and looting against two villages,” the UN reported on Dec. 8.
“The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is unprecedented: six million people are now displaced, homeless and without food,” Mukwege said.
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 Catholic Sister Marie-Sylvie Kavuke Vakatsuraki.
Mukwege responded to the news of the attack in North Kivu “with horror” and called on all Congolese doctors to demonstrate peacefully on the day of the funeral of the Catholic nun.
“The time has come to consolidate the rule of law and prevent the recurrence of the mass atrocities that have bereaved every Congolese family for more than a quarter of a century,” he said.
Amid the violence perpetrated by armed rebel groups in DRC’s eastern region, 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, 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 organization.
Mukwege 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.”
The pope previously met with Murad, a survivor of ISIS enslavement and an advocate for persecuted Iraqi minorities, at the Vatican in 2018 and 2021 following his trip to Iraq.
Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to the Congolese capital of Kinshasa on Jan. 31 before he heads to South Sudan on Feb. 3. The pope’s trip to the African countries was originally to take place at the beginning of July but was postponed by the Vatican due to problems with Pope Francis’ knee.
With the media attention that comes with a papal visit to the Congo, Mukwege said that he wants to see “the international authorities finally take the necessary measures to stop these atrocities, which are a shame for our humanity.”
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Human beings are made in the image and likeness of the divine – declare Scriptures.
Again we find Islam mentioned and it is neither respectful or nonviolent. Some may ask who Allah is, while others will say it is not the “Religion of Peace”, but one of deception and bloodshed! Who is right?
Some Muslims are fine people, yet their influence on Islam appears minimal at best. The history of Muhammadism brings no favour to Islam’s hollow claims!. Allah admonishes the Muslim to the lowest common denominator of deplorable behaviour in various Koranic verses. This should not be, furthermore nothing the prophet of Islam did or said surpassed the nobility of Jesus Christ. Yet, these standpoints deserve a rebuttal from someone who follows the tenets of Islam!
1 Peter 2:17 Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor.
Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Romans 12:10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Titus 2:7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,
The follower of Christ has a duty to proclaim the “Prince of Peace” (Jesus Christ) to the world. Muslims are worthy of hearing the Gospel and knowing that God wishes none to perish.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Blessings of peace and the love that is Jesus Christ.
Salmon Rushdie tried, he is still in hiding.
Mike, always nice to see your name and read your comments. Rushdie tried to reform Islam, perhaps from the perspective of an atheist!
Jesus Christ brought hope and salvation with him. He asks His followers to proclaim the Gospel to the world. When God asks us to preform a task, He equips us.
Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Thanks and God bless you,
Brian