Paul KeenanIreland has been hailed for its backing of peace and development initiatives in Africa’s Great Lakes region by a visiting delegation of African religious.
Present in Dublin – and hosted by Trócaire – on an awareness-raising mission of the role played by the Catholic and Anglican traditions in creating and sustaining peace in the often troubled Great Lakes region, the delegation from Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) comprising bishops, priests and nuns drawn from both traditions sought to build on historic links already existing between Ireland and the region and to urge continued backing from government and the Catholic and Anglican Churches here.
Speaking on behalf of the group to The Irish Catholic newspaper, Bishop Fridolin Ambongo of DRC explained the rationale behind the Churches’ joint mission, offering a picture of a linkage between the two faith traditions which offered a measure of oversight for politicians who might otherwise seek to avoid their responsibilities as elected representatives.
Message
“The communities represented by the Churches want to live in peace, but very often politicians manipulate the message, creating problems,” he said. “It’s about allowing the voices of ordinary people to be heard [and] we are the united voice of the people.”
The bishop added that the access granted to them as faith representatives on the trip (to Britain as well as Ireland) offered the opportunity to have politicians offer another measure of oversight to beneficial initiatives already underway in the Great Lakes region and to ensure that agreements signed locally are adhered to.
In this Bishop Ambongo expressed his confidence that Ireland would fully understand the religious drive, given past interactions by Irish people in the region and their efforts to foster peace and justice there.
“In DRC we recall vividly the rule of Leopold II and the acts of violence then,” he said. “The first person to raise his voice against this was an Irishman, Roger Casement. During peacekeeping by the UN, Irish blue helmets died in DRC. And the UN special envoy, Ireland’s Mary Robinson, has done much to instil a climate of trust there.”
What representatives of Ireland have helped to create, the Churches are now working to maintain, hence the Dublin visit (during which the religious met with Mary Robinson and Minister for Overseas Development Joe Costello).
For all the positivity contained in the cooperative efforts between Churches, their work remains beset by the fluctuations, often extremely violent, in African realities.
Central role
By way of an illustrative snapshot, take for instance a report extract on the region from the International Crisis Group’s Central Africa Project: “The scene of numerous violent wars causing massive human suffering in 1990s, Central Africa has been mired in armed conflicts that have defied the international community’s capacity for crisis response and management. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the holding of national elections in 2006 closed an important chapter in the country’s post-war transition, but failures in army and police reform, insufficient infrastructure and poor governance have left many of the root causes of violence intact.
“The situation in the east again escalated from mid-2008, with grave consequences for civilians.
“A new bilateral alliance with neighbouring Rwanda to move against the [Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda] FDLR rebels in North Kivu signalled a new regional dynamic, but inadequate demobilisation of rebel groups and renewed attacks on civilians from early 2009 have underscored the urgency of a comprehensive political approach to address the ongoing crisis in the region.”
Where political will falls short, the faith traditions work to fill the gap. For example, the Catholic Peacebuilding Network speaks of “the central role the Church plays, both in terms of shaping culture and mediating conflict.
“Shaping culture means, in particular, the striving to create a culture of nonviolence, peace and justice, a society for which human dignity and human rights are sacrosanct, written both into law and in human hearts… the Church in Burundi, in Rwanda, and in eastern Congo promotes justice and peace through an impressive array of local and regional institutions initiatives, and services, led by women and men, laity, religious and clergy.
As elsewhere, the Church is an alternative to the state, a guarantor – at times, the sole guarantor – of the delivery of whatever social-material relief that is available to the people, and of presence to the people, a compassionate and disinterested presence, marked by integrity and devotion to the common good.
Hierarchy
“The Catholic hierarchy, while striving to remain apolitical and operating through civil society, apart from the government in most respects, cannot and must not escape politics, questions of governance and especially the responsibility of shaping a political culture that is at least not inimical to the culture of peace and justice.” (www.cpn.nd.edu)
This, then, Bishop Ambongo argues, is what Irish politicians, through direct representation, and Irish people, through support for religious-backed NGOs, such as Trócaire, can continue to defend on behalf of people who very often have no other voice than that of their faith leaders.
“We see Ireland intimately linked to our history,” Bishop Ambongo said, “and just as intimately linked to the peace we seek in the Great Lakes.”