Three Xaverian missionaries martyred alongside a local priest in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1964 were recently beatified during a Mass presided over by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo.
The local priest martyred was Father Albert Joubert of the Diocese of Uvira. The three other missionaries came from Italy: Fathers Luigi Carrara and Giovanni Didonè, who were Xaverian priests, and Brother Vittorio Faccin, a professed member of the same order.
“Their blood has since become a seed for the profound evangelisation of the Diocese of Uvira, the entire DRC and the whole Church,” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo said in his homily during the Mass that took place at St. Paul Cathedral in Uvira, located to the east of the country.
“I am convinced that the blood of our blessed martyrs will obtain for us the gift of peace,” the Congolese cardinal added, addressing the seemingly unending years of conflict that the DRC has been unable to escape.
Joubert, who had a Congolese mother and whose French father belonged to the Papal Guard, was the 15th diocesan priest in eastern Congo, and in 1962 he became a priest of the new diocese of Uvira.
His ministry focused on ordinary pastoral work and education, and his efforts were not appreciated by the “Simba’” rebels, who openly opposed the freedom and human dignity preached by the Catholic Church. <br><br>Cardinal Ambongo noted that, like Joubert, the three Italian missionaries were also aware of the lurking danger from those who didn’t like the Church and what it represented, and yet, the cardinal emphasised, the four men decided they would stay, ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice.
All four men were killed for their Catholic Faith on 28 November 1964.
“At the height of the rebellion of the 1960s in our country, the DRC, when they had the option of going into hiding, our blessed martyrs agreed instead to bear witness to their evangelical brotherhood by remaining at the side of their faithful in Fizi and Baraka until the shedding of blood; until death,” said the cardinal.
He noted that the DRC had earlier produced two other saints – the Blessed Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta, who was killed the same year as the four priests, and Blessed Isidore Bakanja.
“All these blessed martyrs make us proud today and are an expression of the vitality of our Church,” the cardinal said, before adding:
“Martyrs don’t just fall from the sky. Nor are they extraordinary beings. Rather, martyrs are Christians like us, like you and me. Only, they lived their lives in an exceptional way, demonstrating fidelity to God and his word in a sometimes-hostile environment,” Ambogo said.
“Because they did not betray their faith, our four martyred brothers are proclaimed blessed today, and thus brought to the honour of the altar and proposed as models of Christian life,” the Congolese cardinal said, adding that their beatification means that death has been defeated:
“[God has] rewarded their fidelity by taking them to heaven to contemplate his face in the company of angels and in the communion of all the saints.
“To be a martyr is to be a witness, to bear witness; a Christian is one who bears witness to his faith in Christ, wherever he may be.
“Despite suffering, persecution and temptation, the Christian stands firm,” Ambongo continued, using the occasion to also denounce violent conflicts, barbarity and killings in the DRC and the entire Great Lakes Region.
He declared that violence and war is only entertained by foolish people who have neither the fear of God nor respect for man, who is created in the image and likeness of God.
“Armed conflict degrades man,” the cardinal emphasised. “Instead of making him grow, conflicts, wars and divisions bring us down, and deprive man of the dignity of a child of God.”
The DRC has been caught in violent conflict for decades now, with over 120 militias enacting all manner of violence across the eastern region of the country.
Catholic bishops have often blamed the violence on foreigners seeking to balkanise the DRC in order to steal its vast mineral resources.
Ambongo, one of the leading cardinals from the continent of Africa, has been spoken of as a potential successor to Pope Francis.
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