KINSHASA, JUN 6 (ZENIT).- According to the international agency "Fides," for the past two years, the situation has been deteriorating in the Congo because of the war and the progressive destruction of the infrastructure. Churches, too, are paying the price of the conflict with buildings sacked, communities displaced, and general insecurity for pastoral workers.
At the end of a meeting of the Association of Lay Catholic Theologians, which was also attended by young leaders of the Protestant, Kimbanguist and Orthodox Churches, a communiqué stated that "the socio-economic situation is deteriorating dangerously to the point that the existing infrastructure is being destroyed." The same is happening to the Congolese ecosystem.
The theologians appealed for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the aggressors from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, and the reparation of damages caused to the Congo nation."
The theologians also asked the authorities "to foster genuine and sincere dialogue to allow all responsible elements in society participation in the management of public affairs."
The theologians called on Christians to "live in a spirit of fraternity, reciprocal love, justice and peace to achieve the integral good of all."
Meanwhile, conditions in the country continue to deteriorate rapidly. The infrastructure is gradually crumbling, communications are increasingly difficult, and information progressively uncontrolled.
The war fans the fires of misinformation. For example, there is a rumor of a conference in Canada called for September 3-5, when heads of State and government from French-speaking countries will meet. On this occasion (so goes the rumor), Kabila is to be arrested and accused of crimes against humanity.
At the same time, news is spreading of a secret plan providing for simulated confrontations between Tutsi rebels, who are against Kabila, and Tutsis from Rwanda, in eastern Congo, with the intention of eliminating bishops and priests from the area because they are regarded as the only ones capable of analyzing the situation and reporting accurately on it.
The Church Suffers
For several days there has been no news of two Italian
missionaries who work in the Kivu region, controlled by the rebels: Fr.
Piero Mazzochi (Xaverian) and Fr. Elia Leita of Fidei Donum. This is not
the first time religious have vanished from the zone controlled by one or
the other side of the hostilities.
Bishop Stanislas Lukumwuena of Kole and the ecclesiastical personnel of his
diocese were forced to wander in the jungle for a month before being
received by a parish in the Kananga diocese. The Bishop had been forced to
flee on April 13, when armed forces loyal to Kabila were forced out of
Lodja. The Bishop's see, the convents, novitiate and medical warehouse were
sacked. Other parishes of the diocese suffered the same fate.
Bishop Theophile Kaboy of Kasongo also disappeared in mid-March. On March
13, he was arrested by government troops along with three White Fathers
when he was on a pastoral visit to Wamaza parish, 75 kilometers from the
diocese's headquarters. The arrest was justified by the authorities under
the pretext that the Fathers had been accused of possessing arms and
"sophisticated communications equipment, which they used to contact the
rebels."
The Bishop and priests were taken first to Salamabila (by car on March 15)
and then to Kinshasa by plane. All these moves were accompanied by
interrogations. On March 21 the military authorities stated that "the file
was closed" and "that only the security of the three priests had obliged
the authorities to act as they did."
There is also news of destruction coming from other dioceses.
Seventy-year-old Bishop Paul Mambe Mukanga of Kindu recently told "Fides"
that his "diocese was destroyed, first by government troops and later by
rebel soldiers. The highways and railroads are unusable."