Pope Francis comforts Congolese victims: ‘Your pain is my pain’

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the people of the Congo to forgive those who committed “inhuman violence” against them, celebrated mass for 1 million people, and then heard first-hand about the atrocities some of them were subjected to: a teenage girl “raped like animal”. months; a young man who watched his father beheaded; a former sex slave who was forced into cannibalism.

Congolese from the country’s violent east traveled to the capital, Kinshasa, to tell the Pope about the horrific violence they endured over the years as rebel groups sought to gain territory in the mineral-rich region through attacks that forced more than 5 million people to flee their homes. .

Francis sat in silence as victim after victim approached each other to tell their stories. He saw how they brought to the crucifix the symbol of their pain: the machete with which they maimed and killed, or the straw mat on which they were raped. When they knelt before him for blessing, Francis placed his hands on their heads or on the remaining stumps of their hands.

“Your tears are my tears; your pain is my pain,” Francis told them. “To every family that is grieving or forced to leave their homes as a result of the burning of villages and other war crimes, survivors of sexual violence and every wounded child and adult, I say: I am with you; I want to bring you God’s favor.”

An intimate meeting at the Vatican embassy in Kinshasa was an exceptional moment for a pastor seeking to console his flock and for a pope seeking to draw attention to what Francis called a “forgotten genocide” that is hardly covered in the news. Despite being home to one of the largest UN peacekeeping operations in the world, eastern Congo has been mired in violence since the early 1990s as rebels and militias vie for control of the mineral-rich territory.

“What a scandal and what hypocrisy when people are raped and killed while the commerce that causes this violence and death continues to flourish!” Francis spoke about the foreign powers and extractive industries that are exploiting the east of the Congo. “Enough!”

Pope Francis called on his followers in the Congo to forgive those who committed “inhuman violence” against them. VATICAN Media/AFP via Getty Images

Francis had originally planned to visit the eastern province of North Kivu, where rebel groups had stepped up attacks last year, when his trip was originally scheduled for July.

But after the trip was rescheduled, the Vatican was forced to cancel a visit to Goma due to fighting that forced some 5.7 million people from their homes, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Congo, where there are already about 26 starving, according to figures. 4 million people. World Food Program.

Instead, Easterners came to Francis, and their testimonies were heartbreaking.

Ladislas Kambale Kombi, from the Beni region in eastern North Kivu, told Francis that he saw men in military uniforms behead his father, place his head in a basket, and then carry away his mother, whom he never saw again.

Pope Francis listened to the stories of victims of violence. AFP via Getty Images

“I can’t sleep at night,” he said. “It’s hard to understand such malice, such almost bestial cruelty.”

Bijuu Makumbi Kamala, 17, said she was abducted by rebels in Walikale, North Kivu province in 2020 when she went to fetch water. Speaking through an interpreter, she said the commanding officer raped her “like an animal” daily until she escaped after 19 months.

“It was useless to scream because no one could hear me or come to my aid,” she said, adding that she gave birth to twin girls “who will never know their father” and found solace in the services offered by the Catholic Church.

The violence forced the Pope to reschedule his earlier planned trip to the Congo. AP

The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual assault, but those who told their stories to Francis publicly gave their names at the beginning of their testimony.

Emelda Mkarhungulu, from a village near Bukavu in South-Kivu province of the Congo, spoke through an interpreter about being held as a sex slave for three months at the age of 16 by armed men who invaded her village in 2005. She said she was raped daily. five to ten men, who then forced their captives to eat the meat of the people they killed, mixed with animal meat and corn paste.

“That was our meal every day; whoever refused, beheaded and fed to us,” she said. M’karhungulu said that she once managed to escape for water.

Although forced cannibalism is not known to be widespread, the United Nations and human rights groups documented its use as a weapon of war in the early 2000s in parts of eastern Congo.

A statement prepared a few months ago by Desiree Dhetsina was read aloud on his behalf; Dhecina disappeared after an attack on 1 February 2022 on a camp for internally displaced persons in Ituri province, on Congo’s northeastern border with Uganda.

“I saw savagery: People are butchered like meat in a butcher’s shop; the women were gutted, the men were beheaded,” Dhetsina said. When his story was read to Francis, two women stood in front of the pope and lifted into the air the stumps left from their mutilated hands.

Francis condemned the violence and called on the affected Congolese to use their pain for good, to sow peace and reconciliation. This was the message he also delivered earlier in the day at Mass in front of the crowds at Ndolo Airport in Kinshasa, where he cited the example of Christ who forgave those who betrayed him.

“He showed them his wounds, because from wounds forgiveness is born,” Francis said. “It is born when our wounds do not leave scars of hatred, but become a means by which we make room for others and accept their weaknesses. Our weakness becomes opportunity, and forgiveness becomes the path to peace.”

Roughly half of Congo’s 105 million people are Catholic, according to the Vatican, which also estimated that 1 million people attended Francis’ mass, citing local organizers.

Among the believers was Clément Condé, who came from Kisantu, a city in the province of Central Congo, more than 150 kilometers (95 miles) from Kinshasa. He planned to attend all of Francis’ activities this week before the pontiff travels to South Sudan for the second leg of his African journey.

“To my children and the children who have remained in my city, I will give them the message of the Holy Father, the message of peace and reconciliation,” Conde said.

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