Congolese cardinal hopes beatification of martyrs will restore peace to DRC

YAOUNDÈ, Cameroon – A leading African cardinal has said the blood of the newly beatified martyrs will obtain the gift of peace for the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo was speaking August 18 at a homily during the beatification of three Xaverian missionary priests martyred alongside a diocesan priest in DRC’s Diocese of Uvira in 1964.

“Their blood has since become a seed for the profound evangelization of the Diocese of Uvira, the entire DRC, and the whole Church,” Ambongo said at the homily that took place at the St. Paul Cathedral in Uvira, located to the east of the country.

“I am convinced that the blood of our blessed martyrs will obtain for us the gift of peace,” the Congolese cardinal added.

The four priests beatified are Father Albert Joubert, a priest from the diocese of Uvira, Fathers Luigi Carrara and Giovanni Didonè, Xaverian priests, and Brother Vittorio Faccin, a professed member of the same order.

Joubert, who had a French father who belonged to the Papal Guard and a Congolese mother, was the 15th diocesan priest in eastern Congo, and in 1962 he became a priest of the new diocese of Uvira. His ministry focused on ordinary pastoral work, and education.

His missionary work, which focused on freedom and human dignity, was not appreciated by the ‘Simba’ rebels, who openly opposed the freedom and human dignity preached by the missionaries.

The three others were born in Italy. Carrara, 31, spent two years of service in the Congo. Didonè, 34, worked at converting the Congolese people. Faccin, 30, had a passion for pastoral work and mentoring young people in Catholic Action.

Ambongo said they were all aware of the lurking danger from those who didn’t like the Church and what it represented, but the four men decided they would stay, ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice. All four men were killed for their faith on 28 Nov. 28, 1964.

“At the height of the rebellion of the 1960s in our country, the DRC, when they had the option of going into hiding, our blessed martyrs agreed instead to bear witness to their evangelical brotherhood by remaining at the side of their faithful in Fizi and Baraka until the shedding of blood, until death,” said the cardinal.

He said the DRC had earlier produced two other saints – the Blessed Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta and Blessed Isidore Bakanja.

Anuarite was killed the same year as the four men.

“She was massacred in circumstances similar to those of today’s four. All these blessed martyrs make us proud today and are an expression of the vitality of our Church,” the cardinal said.

“Martyrs don’t just fall from the sky. Nor are they extraordinary beings. Rather, martyrs are Christians like us, like you and me. Only, they lived their lives in an exceptional way, demonstrating fidelity to God and his word in a sometimes-hostile environment,” Ambogo said.

“Because they did not betray their faith, our four martyred brothers are proclaimed blessed today, and thus brought to the honor of the altar and proposed as models of Christian life,” the Congolese cardinal said.

He said their beatification means that death has been defeated, and that God has “rewarded their fidelity by taking them to heaven to contemplate his face in the company of angels and in the communion of all the saints.”

“To be a martyr is to be a witness, to bear witness; a Christian is one who bears witness to his faith in Christ wherever he may be,” the cardinal said.

“Despite suffering, persecution, and temptation, the Christian stands firm.” Ambongo continued, and used the occasion to denounce violent conflicts, barbarity, killings and deaths in the DRC and the entire Great Lakes Region.

He declared that violence and war is only entertained by foolish people who have neither the fear of God nor respect for man, created in the image and likeness of God.

“Armed conflict degrades man. Instead of making him grow, conflicts, wars, and divisions bring us down. And deprive man of the dignity of a child of God,” he emphasized.

The DRC has been caught in violent conflict for decades now, with over 120 militias exacting all forms of violence in the east of the country.

Catholic bishops have often blamed the violence on foreigners seeking to balkanize the DRC in order to steal its vast mineral resources.