{"id":26787,"date":"2018-01-16T08:49:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T08:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=26787"},"modified":"2018-01-16T08:49:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T08:49:48","slug":"congo-police-attack-congregation-tear-gas-mass-acn-malta-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/01\/16\/congo-police-attack-congregation-tear-gas-mass-acn-malta-2\/","title":{"rendered":"CONGO: Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As protests against the continued rule of President Joseph Kabila intensified, police invaded Catholic churches and fired tear gas during Mass on Sunday 7 Jan. One witness at\u00a0St Michael\u2019s Church in central Kinshasa said police disrupted the Mass and arrested altar boys, still in their liturgical robes, who had been protesting against the President. \u201cWhile we were praying, the soldiers and the police entered the church compound and fired teargas at the church,\u201d he said. Another member of the congregation added:\u00a0\u201cPeople collapsed, first-aiders were resuscitating old ladies who had fallen\u201d \u2013 but the priest continued saying Mass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The parish priest of St Alphonse Parish in Kinshasa, Mgr Hugues Ndongisila, said that police had beaten and robbed Catholics who had sought refuge in his church, shooting out its stained-glass windows. The bodies of two dead protesters were later collected by the Red Cross. A UN spokeswoman said seven deaths had been recorded in Kinshasa, and another at Kananga.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Congolese bishops expressed shock at the violence and condemned \u201cwith the utmost vigour this unjustified violence.\u201d In a statement they said \u201cWe similarly denounce this attack on freedom of worship, which is guaranteed in every democratic state, as well as the profanation of churches and physical aggression against the faithful and their priests.\u201d They called for demand a \u201cserious and objective inquiry\u201d into who was responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the violence was and urged Kabila\u2019s government to show restraint and \u201crespect the rights of Congolese people to free expression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The December 31 protest against President Joseph Kabila\u2019s rule was organised by the Kinshasa archdiocesan lay coordination committee. Security forces subsequently targeted Catholic protesters, leaving at least eight dead and 120 people detained, including at least a dozen priests. Catholics make up around half the 67.5 million inhabitants of Congo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Catholic bishops had pressed Kabila to step down after his second and final term expired in December 2016. Later, a church-brokered agreement allowed the President to stay in office alongside an opposition Head of Government, pending elections by the end of 2017. However, in November, it was announced that elections would be postponed until December 2018. The bishops are urging Kabila to release political detainees and stick to the December 2016 agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ACN Malta<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass &nbsp; As protests against the continued rule of President Joseph Kabila intensified, police invaded Catholic churches and fired tear gas during Mass on Sunday 7 Jan. One witness at\u00a0St Michael\u2019s Church in central Kinshasa said police disrupted the Mass and arrested altar&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26787","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: Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass - ACN Malta - 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\/2018\/01\/16\/congo-police-attack-congregation-tear-gas-mass-acn-malta-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CONGO: Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Police attack congregation with tear gas during Mass &nbsp; As protests against the continued rule of President Joseph Kabila intensified, police invaded Catholic churches and fired tear gas during Mass on Sunday 7 Jan. 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