The Catholic Herald rightly called the mass killings of Christians in the Congo a “neglected tragedy.” This is the picture there:
“Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed.”
Bishop Paluku Sekuli Melchisédech declared: “we are in a state of utter misery”. Yet again, it’s at the hands of jihadists — Islamic supremacists who are determined to expand their caliphate all over Africa, and, in fact, the world.
“Democratic Republic of the Congo: ‘We are in a state of utter misery,’” Aid to the Church in Need, May 17, 2021:
THE BISHOP OF BUTEMBO-BENI IN THE EASTERN PART OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) denounced the human rights violations being carried out in his diocese by marauding militia groups. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Paluku Sekuli Melchisédech explained: “The number of incidents is particularly high in the northern part of our diocese. Armed groups are destroying schools and hospitals. Teachers and pupils are being killed. They are even killing the sick as they lie in their hospital beds. Not a day goes by without people being killed.”
According to the bishop, the crisis has led to a rise in psychological disorders. “We need centers where people can go for therapy. Many people are traumatized. Many have watched as their parents were killed. There are many orphans and widows. Villages have been burned to the ground. We are in a state of utter misery.”
For years, the eastern provinces of the DRC have been besieged by militia groups. Important factors in this development are ethnic conflicts, demographic displacement. and access to raw materials. Over the last few years, the situation has been exacerbated by a powerful radical Islamist element.
According to Bishop Melchisédech, more than 6,000 people have been killed in Beni since 2013, and more than 2,000 people in 2020 in Bunia alone. “In addition, there are at least 3 million displaced persons and about 7,500 people have been kidnapped. A large-scale project is underway to Islamize or expel the indigenous populations,” the bishop said.
Public life has come to a standstill out of fear of terrorist attacks and to protest at the collapse of the government. “It is a time of unrest, protest marches, strikes, civil rights movements. Normal life is paralyzed. People are calling for more security.”
“The state as such does not exist. The reach of the government does not extend into the east, be it out of weakness or complicity.”
The indifference of the state has led the Catholic Church to take on a special role, the bishop emphasized. “We are 1500 miles from the capital. As the government is doing nothing here, we must take care of ourselves. We do not receive any help.” However, the Church has still managed to build schools in the region.
However, an even more crucial part of its work is keeping hope alive for the people. “Our presence gives the people hope that they will be able to overcome their current adversities and that better days will come,” the bishop stressed.
“The people cry because they have reason to. But they also carry a seed of hope within them. They have a natural resilience that is strengthened by evangelization.”
Christianity was introduced in this region about 120 years ago, the bishop said. “Evangelization is bearing fruit. We have many vocations in our diocese.”…
RichardL says
I wish Francis would care about them as much as about the Muhammadans whose feet he washes and kisses. It is miserable being a Catholic at the moment…
Michael Copeland says
“Islamize or expel”, the motto of Islam: in full “Islamize or kill or expel.”
somehistory says
James wrote about the “worship that is clean and undefiled, from the standpoint of our God and Father, is to look after widows and orphans in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.”
The pope has much to say about the mozlums who, he insists, need help from Christians. Has he mentioned the plight of these people who claim Catholicism as their “faith” and in which they put hope; and has he offered help to “look after widows and orphans in their tribulation”?
Wellington says
To assert, somehistory, that Pope Francis has been a monumental failure is, I think, euphemistic and too kind. He has done far more harm than a mere monumental failure would have.
Hope you and yours are doing well. The world sure isn’t.
somehistory says
I agree, Wellington. He has done a great deal of harm.
And thank you. We are about as well as can be in a world full of stress and bad news. Muddling through, keeping our heads up. I hope the same for you and your loved ones.
Wellington says
The largely post-Christian West doesn’t care about Muslim atrocities against Christians (or against Jews). This is demonstrative of how stupid the West has become in the last half century or so. I mean look at the fools and idiots presently directing the West—Biden, Trudeau, Johnson (wow, is he a disappointment), Macron, Merkel, and of course the fool of fools, the present pontifex maximus. There actually exists wicked persons in political control like the mayor of London, the mayor of New York City, the mayor of Chicago, and those twin malevolent aberrations in the US Congress, Tlaib and Omar, who are backed up by idiots like Pressley and AOC.
Islam is not the primary problem. The primary problem is the decline of the West, precipitously so since the 1960’s, a decade I despise as much as I despise Islam, Nazism and Marxism. The 1960’s still haunts the West to this day and one knows this or should know this. If one is looking for the rot of our time, and which is extensive, don’t overlook the 1960’s when stupidity masquerading as wisdom really began in full force, though as on-point intellectuals like Victor Davis Hanson have chronicled and detailed, there has existed in Western Civilization from antiquity onward a subterranean self-criticism that has boarded on self-loathing. I guess this is a possible negative consequence of the extraordinary emphasis on freedom that the West has stressed since the ancient Greeks, even to the extent of being way too harsh from within by easily the greatest civilization of all time, Western Civilization.
somehistory says
+100
tim gallagher says
I agree with you, Wellington, that Western Civilisation is the greatest of all time and I’m with you in being annoyed, and amazed, at all these people who seem to get around being apologetic and seemingly ashamed of our Western Civilisation instead of recognising its great achievements. I suppose that it is the result of the left wingers indoctrinating students in schools and universities, and also the media types pushing the same self-loathing line. It is pathetic witnessing this grovelling attitude. Hopefully, this is a fashion and most people will wake up and reject this crap in the future. I think quite a few people are fed up with some of the really insane cancel culture type garbage these days.
Wellington says
Good to hear again from a well-informed person from “Down Under” such as yourself, tim gallagher.
Sure hope, being the American that I am, that the phrase, “Down Under,” is not considered offensive in Australia because I certainly don’t mean it that way whatsoever. Indeed, I have a great admiration for Australia—my mother has been there and loved it, but to my detriment I have not.
As for the idiocy of cancel culture, it represents just one more error by the Left. It is indicative of a totalitarian impulse to utterly destroy, not merely boycott or something like this, those you disagree with.
Alas, cancel culture is arising all over the West (the great exception is Eastern Europe to its eternal credit) and I surely hope that it will be the death knell of itself, so stupid and control-freakish is it. As with any massive stupidity or malevolence, I have long argued that mocking evil and/or stupidity is the next best thing to crushing it.
Mock away I say about both the Left and Islam. Hopefully, complete eradication will follow. What a far better world we earthlings would live in minus Western Leftism and the oldest totalitarian ideology of all time, i.e., Islam. Still there would be many problems, but a world without modern Western Leftism and Islam would most certainly represent a greater, wiser and finer world.
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the comment, Wellington. Australia is definitely “Down Under”. Actually these days, when some clowns are offended by everything anyone says, there would probably be some idiots who would be offended. WE are way don south, that’s for sure. Things are in reverse. We are moving into winter where the northern hemisphere countries are moving into summer. I do have the feeling that a lot of the weird stuff that the left wingers come up with these days does go too far and a hell of a lot of people find it idiotic. Things like the way the publishers withdrew those Dr Seuss books was an example. Then there was the truly insane piece of idiocy where they went after Pepe le Pew, for his slimy romantic methods, and so on. I think most people just roll their eyes at this type of lunacy. I often think, on these bizarre incidents, who are these fucking idiots who spend their time on this crap? I also wonder if the weirder things are some kind of a joke, like an April Fools’ Day joke. On the way that people in the western world constantly seem to beat themselves up, this morning on the radio, Michael Mclaren, on the 2GB station, who I find is excellent, mentioned something about how that reunion of “Friends” was apparently being criticised for not having blacks or Asians in the cast of main characters. He said that Asians or blacks in Africa making such a program, or Arabs would not be giving a damn about whether they had enough white people in the cast. I thought he was right. Many people in the western world seem to want to torment themselves over trivia and seem to want to feel endless guilt and beat themselves up. But I do think it has gone way too far and most people are thinking that this is all absolute nonsense. I heard another commentator say how miserable these constantly offended people are. No one is allowed to just have some fun these days. Someone is always offended by everything. As you say, it is all totalitarianism by the thuggish left. You have to see things their way. You are not allowed to disagree with their bullshit view of things or you are a horrible person. I think, to hell with their idiotic rubbish.
gravenimage says
Great exchange, Wellington, Somehistory, and Tim.
tim gallagher says
Thanks, gravenimage, for the thumbs up.
Miss L says
1,000 + %
*I* lived through it (1960s), and it was EVIL, and has multiplied through the years. God help us all.
john smith says
Excellent post Wellington.
tim gallagher says
Without a doubt, that clown of a Pope should be listening to this Christian leader and not spending his time sucking up to the murdering Muslim scum the way that he has been doing. Muslims have always been slaughtering Christians, and all non-Muslims, and that is all that the Pope needs to know about Islam. He should condemn Islam for its violent, evil nature. The Pope’s attitude towards evil Islam is sickening and totally lacking in morality.
somehistory says
+100
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the +100, somehistory. It’ll probably take a miracle, but I do keep hoping this Pope wakes up to Islam’s evil nature and calls it out for what it is. I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
somehistory says
You’re welcome, tg.
No, don’t hold your breath. . You would give out long before …well, I don’t believe it will happen. I believe he’s too entrenched, It would take a lot of humility and courage to admit how wrong he is and has been for so long. I don’t believe he can muster enough of either. He appears very arrogant, so it would be very difficult for him to admit his errors.
And then he could expect all those mozlums with whom he has kissed, shaken hands, met and had a good time, to want him dead…immediately.
tim gallagher says
Yes, somehistory, this particular Pope is pretty hopeless. I keep thinking that the Muslims must be constantly laughing behind his back at him for his gullibility. The Pope has all those advisors who he could get to go and research islam and find out what an evil ideology it really is, so I don’t get why he is so mistaken in his view of what islam is like. Islam is basically peaceful as he once said. That is beyond stupid.
Honest Ali says
Get some guns and machetes and stop waiting for the world to come to your aid!!!
Seriously, this global propaganda against our inalienable human right to keep and bear arms, and the Big Lie that Good must be pacifistic, is the reason why Evil is winning.
Infidel says
Most of the leaders of these African ?holes are more interested in the control of their rare earth minerals and enriching themselves that way, rather than looking out for the wellbeing of their citizens. Which is why muslims manage to mangle up countries where their percentage is barely an asterisk
I wonder how many years will it take for muslims to overrun almost all of Africa?
gravenimage says
The Congo has been falling apart for a long time–but now with the genocidal Jihad there things are worse than ever.
Honest Ali says
Get some guns and machetes and defend yourselves! And stop passively waiting for the world to come to your aid!!!
Seriously, this global propaganda against our inalienable human right to keep and bear arms, and the Big Lie that Good must be pacifistic, is the reason why Evil is winning.
gravenimage says
Congo bishop in the face of Muslim persecution of Christians: ‘We are in a state of utter misery’
…………….
And most of the world is silent. Just appalling.
OLD GUY says
When will the world wake up to the atrocities of the ISLAMIC domination taking place around the world? We have all these groups and organization that support human rights and say they are standing up for the suppressed. If I opened a business and but a sign up saying WHITES ONLY they would be all over me in a heart beat with cameras, law suits, I’d be labeled a racist and closed down. But when Islam commits violence, murders and rapes against humanity they get a pass. I can only guess that they are truly only catering to their big money donors and their agenda to destroy America.