Off the wire
• S. Africa's ANC welcomes proposed minimum wage  • NATO Corps to start Compact Eagle 2016 exercise in northwest Poland  • Lao economy to return to normal in 2020: Deputy PM  • Spotlight: Chinese President Xi's APEC speech puts China, Asia-Pacific in global "vanguard"  • Jordan survives economic difficulties: central bank  • EU expresses condolences to India over fatal train derailment  • Voter turnout in France's right-center primary exceeds one million at midday  • Openness lifeblood of Asia-Pacific economy: Xinhua editorial  • Xinhua world news summary at 1600 GMT, Nov. 20  • Gunman shoots dead soldier in Burundi's capital  
You are here: 　 Home

Rwanda's Catholic church apologizes over genocide

Xinhua, November 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Rwanda Catholic church on Sunday apologized for its priests' role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which killed close to 1 million people.

The apology is contained in a statement signed by nine catholic bishops who constitute the Episcopal Council and read after mass on Sunday.

"We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed," reads the statement, "Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity. We didn't show that we are one family but instead killed each other."

"Forgive us for the crimes committed by priests and nuns and church leadership that promoted ethnic divisionism and hate," The apology reads.

The statement adds that though the Catholic church had not instructed any of its members to commit genocide crimes, the Bishops again "apologize for the role of priests, nuns, Bishops and Christians in the genocide against Tutsi."

Genocide scholars have called it a landmark, as for the last two decades the Catholic church had not officially apologized for its role in the genocide.

The Rwandan government has accused the Catholic church of offering "indispensable support" to the genocidal regime during the killing and of failing to take a moral stand against it.

Shortly after the genocide, a report by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which has been replaced by AU, described the church in Rwanda as carrying a "heavy responsibility" for failing to oppose, and even promoting, ethnic discrimination.

Since 1996, several clergy members of the church have been convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by Rwandan courts.

For more than two decades, the Vatican has maintained that, while individual clergymen were guilty of crimes, the church as an institution bears no responsibility.

In April 2014, Pope Francis told the Rwandan catholic bishops to work closely with the government and help Rwandans not be held back by genocide and its effects. Endit