EAST CONGO (ACN News): “The Church is a place of refuge and a sign of hope for the people.”
With these words, Bishop Vincent de Paul Kwanga Njubu of Manono in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, drew attention to the growing significance of the Church in this crisis region.
“We need a new beginning for the people. We want to rebuild the diocese, our churches and chapels,” Bishop Kwanga Njubu said during a visit to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
For years, the eastern part of the Congo with its wealth of raw material resources has been the scene of struggles for power and influence between various interest groups.
In frequently-changing coalitions, and away from the public eye, government troops and militias have waged a bloody war in which the neighbouring countries also took part.
The population has been terrorised – rape and plunder are the order of the day. Even cases of cannibalism have been reported.
The spiritual as well as material damage is immense.
Thousands are traumatised, and in Manono diocese alone dozens of churches and buildings have been destroyed.
“The people expect everything from the priests,” said Bishop Kwanga Njubu, who has headed the Bishopric of Manono since 2005.
“They turn to the Church with all their concerns.”
About 200,000 faithful live in the region, and 22 priests and three religious sisters provide pastoral care.
They, together with the bishop, face enormous challenges: the Church seeks to help people marked by violence and terror to rebuild their lives, to develop a reasonably intact system of medical care, and to rebuild churches, community and social centres that have been destroyed.
Bishop Kwanga Njubu said it was indispensible to give strength to the priests, who have suffered no less than others from war and terror. He aims to foster pastoral care and preaching, in order to renew a peaceful co-existence in the spirit of the Gospels.
A small seminary is to be created in the old bishop’s residence, which was destroyed during the war.
“There, young people can experience true ecclesiastical life, and some will discover a possible vocation,” he said.
