Kigali, Rwanda, Nov 21, 2016 / 15:10 pm
The Catholic bishops of Rwanda have apologized for Christians' role in the deadly 1994 genocide.
"We apologize for all the wrongs the Church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated (their) oath of allegiance to God's commandments," said Rwanda's Conference of Catholic Bishops
The statement, read at parishes across Rwanda, said that some Catholics planned, assisted, and executed the genocide. Hutu extremists killed over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Clergy members were included in the ranks of both perpetrators and victims. In some cases, Hutu priests, bishops and religious helped to hide and protect Tutsis. In other cases, they took up arms against them. They ushered victims into church buildings with false promises of security and then trapped and betrayed them, facilitating their massacre.