Jesuit Social “Martyr” – Mgr. Christophe Munzihirwa, SJ: A Prophet of Compassion and Justice
We are beginning to publish an article remembering Jesuits murdered around the world for their work for justice and reconciliation. Our focus this April is on Bishop Chritophe Munziriwha, murdered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Monsignor Munzihirwa Christophe, SJ, born in 1926, became Archbishop of Bukavu on 27 March 1994 during a crisis in the Great Lakes Region. Shortly after, the Rwandan genocide of April 1994 occurred. Tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees fled to border security zones, which were unprepared to receive such a flood of people. Bishop Munzihirwa, a compassionate pastor deeply concerned for the displaced, passionately condemned the attacks, extortions, and abuses committed against humanity who needed protection under international law. He appealed for national and global solidarity. Burning with love for the poor, humble Christ, and charity towards others, Bishop Munzihirwa pleaded for humanitarian assistance. He made the rejected people's cries, thirst, and hunger for justice his cry. In contemplating their suffering, he let his heart be touched, moved, and committed accordingly.
In 1996, as the crisis and the tragic turn of events in the DRC unfolded (a so-called liberation rebellion), Bishop Munzihirwa gradually saw, from a distance, the plan to destabilise and exploit the eastern part of the DRC.
With a prophetic eye, he saw that "the powerful nations
wanted to appropriate the African Great Lakes region for themselves." With
a Christ-like view of people and events, he was a "prophet for his
time." As a sentinel of the region, he invited Christians of Bukavu and
the surrounding area to non-violent resistance, awakening them to a vision of a
world of struggles where bullets rub shoulders with wheat and weapons confront
the cross.
As a prophet, he knew how to name "evils," denouncing what was happening underneath the surface, and became a disquieting voice. Consequently, he was suppressed and eliminated through an odious assassination. A faithful apostle, he died as a soldier on the battlefield with weapons in hand, true to the words he often quoted in the Shi language: "nafe ahinga, nafuuke arharhama": even if you have to die, it is necessary to keep working, remaining faithful to one's task, in total freedom.
As we write these lines, 28 years after Munzihirwa's death, the armed fighting and massacre of innocent people in the east of the DRC continue. The international community's silence amid the dreadful and unbearable spectacle of more than 12 million murdered and 500,000 women raped is absurd.
Warlords wage war in the open because of the economic interests and
geostrategic positioning of particular nations and multinational companies.
These tragic confrontations, whether overt or subtle, have lasted 30 years,
driven by the quest for economic hegemony, leading to the removal of particular
populations from their lands and plunging them into drastic poverty. We face a
gradual occupation of the country's rich lands by others, prompting some
observers to speak of a "holocaust," the physical elimination of any
potential demographic rivalry; this is a deliberate war driven by
"balkanisation," a plan prophesied by Bishop Munzihirwa in his day.
The Society of Jesus in this country's region must always keep the struggle for which Bishop Munzihirwa shed his blood before its eyes and feel invited, with "apostolic urgency," to find inspiration in his life and mission within a troubled and tormented context which breeds despair due to unspeakable tragedies. It is a question of working to establish lasting peace in the Congo, founded on democratic values and absolute respect for human dignity, rooted in faith and hope in the Risen Lord, Conqueror of violence and death. However, this struggle implies following the example of the servant of God, Munzihirwa, in the total gift of life—generously offering to God a commitment to serve others in love, in all intelligence and wisdom, without fear or calculation, for: "He who loves his life loses it, but he who is free from it keeps it" (Jn 12:25).
By Fr. Dieudonné Mbiribindi Bahati, SJ (DRCongo)
Read other short testimonies of Martyrs
Related Posts:
"We don't want to take sides, we simply want to enlighten people through texts and enable them to start talking one day soon"
We hope that relative calmness and efforts for peace continue to be reinforced so that the dream of so many South Sudanese like the late Bishop Paride Taban and Poepe Francis is achieved.
This reality takes a lot of energy from each of us. Much of our time is spent addressing problems that do not exist in other parts of the world.
Jesuit Network with Migrants Central America and North America (RJM CANA) shared the first four months of the year report (January – April 2024): "They have been months of a lot of work to face the challenges in the migration context characterized by an increase in the migratory flow in vulnerable conditions throughout the region, however, also These have been months in which the fruits of networking have been confirmed".
One year, after the people of Sudan were plunged into extreme humanitarian emergency following the outbreak in mid-April 2023 of fierce fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), JRS and several Christian organisations, have published a statement regarding the situation.
Paglaum is the project proposed by Dulungan Youth to the Reconciliation with Creation network program in Asia Pacific Conference. Here is the progress of this project aimed at conducting a writing workshop to prepare young people to communicate the forest conservation efforts of the indigenous communities of Central Panay Mountain Range.
