Founder of a website documenting the ongoing violence in North Kivu Province, the Assumption priest Vincent Machozi was murdered on March 21, shortly after he posted an article denouncing the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda because of recent massacres in the region. Father Machozi defended the Yira ethnic group (also known as Nande), who have been victims of the illegal exploitation of coltan in eastern Congo. “Soldiers arrived in a vehicle a little after midnight, broke down the door and shot him on sight,” said the Very Rev. Emmanuel Kahindo, vicar general of the Assumptionist congregation stationed in Rome. Father Kahindo said that in a conversation last October Father Machozi told him: “Pray for me because I will be murdered....” He led Kyaghanda Yira, an organization that defended the rights and the land of the Yira people. It is estimated that since 2010, some four million people have been systematically driven from their land, terrorized and massacred by armed groups in North Kivu.
Assumptionist Priest Killed in Congo
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?