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ROME, GEORGIA
CHURCH IN CONGO GOING
FORWARD AFTER WEATHERING
MANY STORMS DURING 1961
By Father Joseph Ceuppens
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
LEOPOLDVILLE, The Congo — Antimissionary
violence opened the year 1961, but a determined effort
to rebuild the Church’s ravaged missions closed it.
While the first part of 1961 witnessed the flight
of missioners from violence-racked stretches of land
covering a third of the Congo’s vast territory, the second
part of the year witnessed their gradual return.
By the end of the year, most
of the missioners who had
been forced from their posts
had returned.
In January, the Premonstra-
tensian missioners of Lolo
apostolic prefecture were forc
ed to flee their territory,
which lies on the then-turbu
lent border area between Equ-
tor and Oriental provinces.
Equator province was largely
under the control of the cen
tral government at Leopold
ville, while Oriental province
declared itself to deposed left
ist Premier Patric Lumuba.
Fighting of another origin
drove missioners from three
missions in North Katanga.
This was intertribal warfare,
which broke out in various
parts of the Congo after the
departure of the former Bel
gian rulers in the middle of
1960. The Belgians yielded
their authority to a. central
government that found it al
most impossible to make itself
felt everywhere.
The announcement in Feb
ruary of the death of Premier
Lumuba, who had been kept in
detention since his deposition
in 1960, touched off riots and
persecution wherever his fol
lowers had a free hand. They
were in power in parts of
Oriental, Kasai, Kantanga and
Kivu provinces.
On February 14, about 40
White Fathers and White Sis
ters were arrested and abused
in the region of Kasongo, cap
ital of the region of Maniema
in Kivu province.
News of the humiliation and
sufferings undergone by these
missioners created a world
wide outcry. After their re
lease, about 20 of them went to
Leopoldville for medical treat
ment.
On February 15, a region of
Kasai province known as the
Sankuru became the scene of
antimissionary violence. An
armed rabble of officerless
Congolese soldiers and unem
ployed youths destroyed the
mission of Makula-Kulu.
The next day in Kivu pro
vince, the parish of Kadutu
near the provincial capital of
Bukavu came under concerted
and prearranged attack. While
the African pastor went for
help, the attackers broke into
the mission house and hunted
down the priests. They seized
one of them, Father Rene De
Vos, W.F., and murdered him.
On February 17, the Orien
tal province town of Basoko
saw Sacred Heart priests ar
rested, beaten and deported.
On February 20, Father Jos
eph H. Tegels, C.S.J., was
murdered in Basoko.
On February 25 in Kivu, a
convent of nuns was attacked.
But the local people interven
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ed and four of the attackers
were killed before the assault
was repulsed.
Throughout March total an
archy reigned in the Maniema
and in Sankuru.
All the Passionist missioners
in the Diocese of Tshumbe
and virtually all the Sacred
Hearts (Picpus) Fathers in
Kole apostolic prefecture were
forced to leave.
Seventy-seven missioners in
Sankuru were evacuated by
the United Nations force there
on April 4, and were sent to
Leopoldville en route for leave
in Belgium.
Yet even in the places where
missionaries were persecuted,
Congolese priests remained
and the Catholics went to
Mass and received the sacra
ments in great numbers. And
in Bukuvu, all the missioners
who fled during the attack
that killed Father De Vos
were able to return.
The general picture during
April — a picture that was to
improve in the following
months—was this: The Church
was being seriously impaired
in 10 of the 40 dioceses and
prefectures of the Congo —
Stanleyville, Bukavu, Lolo,
Kasongo, Kindu, Kongolo, Ka-
binda, Tshumbe, Kole and the
northern part of Baudoupun-
ville. There were lesser trou
bles in Isangi, Kamina and
Luluabourg.
The situation in the eastern
diocese of Kindu began im
proving in May, and the Con
golese Christians — many of
them previously in fear of the
reaction of Moslem elements—
began coming back to church.
In Stanleyville, stronghold
of leftist leader Antoine Giz-
enga, vandals mutilated a sta
tue of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus on May 3. After Arch
bishop Nicolas Kinsch, S.C.J.,
of Stanleyville issued a letter
of protest which was read in
all the churches and thous
ands of Catholics joined in a
public act of reparation, the
provincial government itself
ordered that amends be made.
Meanwhile, all the priests
and Brothers in Oriental pro
vince were able to carry on in
their missions; only the Sis
ters at Luputa and Yaleko had
to leave for Europe.
Two missions in Kamina,
which had been abandoned
during intertribal fighting
earlier, were reoccupied dur
ing May. Sankuru was again
calm, and the mission work
there became peaceful. But the
economic situation was deteri
orating, and the people faced
new hardships.
The month of June witness
ed the destruction by muti
nous soldiers of Kafumbe mis
sion in Katanga’s Lac Moero
prefecture. At about the same
time, the Catholic church and
schools at the Nyunzu mission
in northern Katanga were oc
cupied by Indian troops of the
United Nations contingent.
They refused to leave.
June 30 marked the first
anniversary of independence.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Mal-
ula of Leopoldville, chanting
a Te Deum in the presence of
President Joseph Kasavubu
and other high government
leaders, took advantage of the
occasion to issue a call for an
end to corruption and im
morality.
The summer months in gen
eral passed by with a steady
improvement in the general
situation. The Holy See erect
ed a new diocese at Popoka-
baka, and the consecration of
Auxiliary Bishop Louis Ngan-
ga of Lisala gave the Congo
its sixth Congolese bishop.
In September, schools re
opened in all dioceses, and the
national Catholic education of
fice in Leopoldville was able
to add 287 new teachers to the
350 already on the job. New
missionaries began coming
into the Congo, and all mis
sion posts in the Lolo pre
fecture were again staffed.
Bishop Richard Cleire, W.F.,
of Kasongo was able to return
to his See city after a six-
months’ absence; he received a
warm welcome from the local
Moslems as well as the Cath
olics.
The major trouble spot now
switched to Katanga, where
intermittent fighting between
Katanga troops and U. N.
forces was taking place. Mis
sionary work was impeded, es
pecially in the Elisabethville
archdiocese.
On November 20, the Bish
ops of the Congo gathered in
Leopoldville for their first
plenary meeting since inde
pendence; only the bishops of
Katanga were unable to come.
In the course of their session—
which adjourned December 2
—the Bishops drafted a decla
ration outlining the demands
for social justice. They also
spoke out on the educational
needs and duties of the nation.
The fighting in Katanga,
meanwhile, was growing
worse. A number of schools,
THE BULLETIN, January 20, 1962—PAGE 7
Soviet Greeting To Pope
Followed By Hew Attacks On
Holy See, Magazine Notes
ROME (NC) — An Italian
Jesuit magazine has noted that
despite birthday greetings sent
by . Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev to His Holiness
Pope John XXIII, the Soviet
press has launched new at
tacks against the Vatican.
Civilta Cattolica declared
that “those who considered
the message a simple propa
ganda move on the part of the
REELECTED — Dr. Fred
erick Rossini, dean of the
College of Science at the Uni
versity of Notre Dame, was
reelected president of the
Albertus Magnus Guild at its
annual meeting at Regis Col
lege, Denver. The guild, a na
tional organization of Catho
lic scientists and teachers,
met in conjunction with the
128th meeting of the Ameri
can Association for the Ad
vancement of Science.
—(NC Photos)
Asks End To
Bias Against
State Aid
BATHURST, Australia (NC)
—The Rev. Alan Dougan, for
mer Moderator General of the
Presbyterian Church in New
South Wales said here that all
prejudices against government
aid to church schools should
be “thrown away.”
Mr. Dougan, who is now
prinicpal of St. Andrew’s
College, within the University
of Sydney, was speaking at
Scots’ School, Bathurst.
“It is my belief that the
churches cannot build up
schools of this size — such as
Scots’ — within their own
funds, unless they have some
thing to the tune of $560,000
or $1,120,000,” h© said.
“It is only money of this
kind which will allow their
proper development.
“We have been prepared to
readily accept government
subsidies for our church hos
pitals, for our university col
leges, for our tertiary educa
tional institutions.
“In my own college I have
received $100,800 from the
State and Federal Govern
ments in the present trienni-
um.”
Mr. Dougan said it would be
only from such grants that the
best could be obtained from
our own schools to carry on
the ancient and finest tradi
tions of the British education
system and in the traditions of
the Christian faith.”
Mr. Dougan’s statement fol
lowed a recent one by Angli
can Bishop E. K. Leslie of
Bathurst who said in his opin-
iond it was only a matter of
time before Church schools re
ceived some form of State aid,
even if in the form of scholar
ship grants.
hospitals, social centers and
churches were hit by shells.
Two Sisters were wounded
and one priest, an Italian mis
sionary of the Pauline Congre
gation, was killed. Mission
work often came to a halt as
the missioners came to the aid
of the sick and wounded.
But it was also in December
that the first Sisters were able
to return to the Sankuru area.
The year just ended saw the
Church able to carry out its
spiritual and charitable activi
ties with relative calm in two-
thirds of the Congo. But the
faltering economy called for
ever-increasing aid to the hun
gry and shelterless, and the
Church, while not lacking in
human resources, was hardput
to find material aid.
Even so, the Church was ed
ucating, at the close of the
1960-61 school year, 1,334,230
primary students and 46,063 in
secondary schools. The figure
for the current year was be
lieved to be even higher.
At the close of 1961 the
Church in the Congo was gov
erned through six archdioces
es, 28 dioceses and seven apos
tolic prefectures. Twenty-four
of the Sees had Congolese vi
cars general.
Soviets have several indica
tions on which to base their
opinion.”
The magazine pointed out
that news of the message was
released by the Soviets and
stressed “the build up given
to it, the coincidence with cer
tain offers by Hungary and by
Czechoslovakia proclaiming
that they were ready, subject
to certain conditions, to review
the question of (Jozsef) Card
inal Mindszenty (Prtmrte oi
Hungary) and Archbishop
(Josef) Beran (of Prague).”
Civilta Cattolica said “the
gesture does not seem to indi
cate any change on the part of
the Soviets ... In recent days,
new attacks against the Vati
can and against the encyclical
Mater et Magistra have been
launched.”
The Jesuit magazine said
the Vatican reply to the Sov
iet note is “new proof of tra
ditional good manners toward
anyone and a concern to con
vey to any responsible per
sons, in these so dangerous
times, a lofty reminder of the
duty to assure real peace bas
ed on justice.”
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