{"id":21691,"date":"2017-03-28T10:47:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T10:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=21691"},"modified":"2017-03-30T10:47:24","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T10:47:24","slug":"congo-bishops-sound-alarm-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/03\/28\/congo-bishops-sound-alarm-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"CONGO -Bishops Sound the Alarm &#8211;\u00a0ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><strong>C<\/strong><strong>ONGO &#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Bishops Sound the Alarm<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5>The bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have issued an urgent warning that rising violence and political unrest are threatening the nation with \u201cunravelling and chaos.\u201d The bishops expressed sorrow for \u201cthousands\u201d who have lost their lives in recent months, including many minors enlisted by various militias. The bishops also expressed concern that the crisis might trigger a famine and even the breaking up of the nation.<\/h5>\n<h5>The prelates, meeting in an emergency plenary session late last month , blame the worsening situation on the failure of President Joseph Kabila and his political opponents to observe the terms of an historic accord\u2014signed Dec. 31, 2016 and brokered by the bishops\u2019 conference\u2014that paved the way for presidential elections later this year, with President Kabila not pursuing an unconstitutional third term in office.<\/h5>\n<h5>In a statement obtained by international Catholic charity <em>Aid to the Church in Need<\/em> (ACN), the bishops insisted that the Church\u2019s role is strictly that of mediator on behalf of the common good\u2014even as a growing number of violent and deadly attacks on Church property and personnel reflect apparent resentment at the Church\u2019s role in brokering the Accord. In the city of Bukavu, several Daughters of the Resurrection were murdered, prompting the order to close seven convents. Last December, a Franciscan Sister was stabbed to death, also in Bukavu. A mob of youths burned down the Church of St. Dominic in Limete, outside Kinshasa in February.<\/h5>\n<h5>In a message sent to ACN, Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya, the archbishop of Kinshasa, the country\u2019s capital, reported on a Feb. 18, 2017 \u201carson attack\u201d on the Malole major seminary. The prelate charged the perpetrators were \u201cviolent thugs, who have [also] sown terror among the Carmelite Sisters\u201d in nearby Kanaga. Nonetheless, the bishops said they remain committed to their \u201cprophetic role\u201d in \u201caccompanying the Congolese people\u201d in seeing to it that the terms of the Accord are observed.<\/h5>\n<h5>The bishops proclaimed: \u201cFaced with the trials of the present time and for the sake of more justice and peace, we say \u201cno to the obstruction of the complete and rapid application of the Accord.\u201d They called on the President, the opposition and all of civil society to begin a \u201cfrank dialogue, based on good faith and mutual confidence\u201d and thus to respond to the \u201ccry of distress of the Congolese people who impatiently await the implementation of the Accord.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>They called on police and military to keep the peace nation-wide, but without resorting to \u201cexcessive force;\u201d the country\u2019s media were urged \u201cto avoid polemics\u201d and to inform the public \u201cobjectively and accurately\u201d for the sake of \u201cnational unity.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>The bishops called on the faithful to \u201cintensify their prayer for the country, help protect Church property, and to not give in to provocations, discouragement and fear.\u201d On March 26, 2017, the fourth Sunday of Lent, all of the bishops will say a special Mass to ask for the \u201cmaternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Hope, that the Lord\u201d will bestow \u201cpeace and mercy on the Democratic Republic of Congo and its people.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5><strong><em>ACN <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>International<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CONGO &#8211;\u00a0Bishops Sound the Alarm &nbsp; The bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have issued an urgent warning that rising violence and political unrest are threatening the nation with \u201cunravelling and chaos.\u201d The bishops expressed sorrow for \u201cthousands\u201d who have lost their lives in recent months, including many minors enlisted by various militias. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CONGO -Bishops Sound the Alarm -\u00a0ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/03\/28\/congo-bishops-sound-alarm-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CONGO -Bishops Sound the Alarm -\u00a0ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CONGO &#8211;\u00a0Bishops Sound the Alarm &nbsp; The bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo have issued an urgent warning that rising violence and political unrest are threatening the nation with \u201cunravelling and chaos.\u201d The bishops expressed sorrow for \u201cthousands\u201d who have lost their lives in recent months, including many minors enlisted by various militias. 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