Easter Message: Cardinal Ambongo Decries Insecurity, Says DR Congo “seriously ill, almost in a comatose state”
The Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo, has decried the persistent security challenge in country, and described the Central African nation as “seriously ill” and in coma.
In his homily during the Easter Vigil Mass at Our Lady of Congo Cathedral of his Metropolitan See, Cardinal Ambongo faulted the country’s authorities for ignoring the plight of the citizens.
“We know very well that our country is today a country in agony, seriously ill and when a seriously ill person is in a state of coma, it is dangerous to predict his future and today the Congo is in this situation of the seriously ill person who is almost in a comatose state,” he said on March 30.
The Congolese Cardinal added, “We have always drawn attention to the risk of balkanization. Today we are there; our country is being carved up in front of us and we act as if it was not our country.”
He criticized the security agencies in DRC for not being proactive in defending the people and their properties, saying, “Beyond the speech we are making here, completely useless speeches, the reality is that the others continue to advance and occupy the East of our country. This is obvious for the simple reason that Congo has no strength to defend the integrity of its country.”
“We are so big, but we are as they say, an elephant with feet of clay. We are making speeches here as if we were strong. The truth is that the Congo does not have an army and that is very serious for a nation like ours,” Cardinal Ambongo said.
The Catholic Archbishop of Kinshasa, who doubles as the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) decried the seeming indifference of the international community and DRC’s neighbouring countries with expansionist visions.
He also blamed the people of God in Congo for the challenges in the Central African nation. He said, “We see that our country is today placed in a comatose state; we see that those who come from outside can afford to play with the Congolese nation because the main cause of our misfortune, the primary cause of lack of peace in our country, is not the people from outside, it is not the foreigners, it is not the bad Rwanda it is first of all us the Congolese.”
“Our irresponsibility has meant that today we are taking actions that do not allow the emergence of peace in our country,” he further said.
Cardinal Ambongo warned that if the people of God in DRC “fold our arms and wait for our Congolese nation to disappear as it began in the East … tomorrow, we will only have our eyes to cry, when the Congo will be divided into several nations and the process is already underway in the East.”
By Jude Atemanke
Kinshasa, 01 April, 2024 / 9:45 pm (ACI Africa).
