Fr. Vincent Machozi killed this week in Congo DR
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=129580&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Fr. Vincent Machozi, a Catholic priest of the religious order Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists), who for several years documented human rights abuses in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was murdered Sunday night by armed gunmen, shortly after he posted an online article denouncing the involvement of the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in the massacres of innocent civilians.A native of eastern Congo and a School of Theology student from 2006 to 2012, Machozi worked closely with the Boston University (BU) Pardee School of Global Studies African Studies Center on outreach efforts in the war-torn country.Beni Lubero, the human rights website started by Machozi while he was a BU graduate student, reports that at 11 p.m. Sunday night, 10 uniformed soldiers of the Armed Forces of the DRC stormed a social centre in the North Kivu region, where Nande tribal chiefs were meeting to discuss peace efforts, and demanded to be taken to Machozi and to Mwami Abdu Kale...
Fr. Vincent Machozi, a Catholic priest of the religious order Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists), who for several years documented human rights abuses in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was murdered Sunday night by armed gunmen, shortly after he posted an online article denouncing the involvement of the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in the massacres of innocent civilians.
A native of eastern Congo and a School of Theology student from 2006 to 2012, Machozi worked closely with the Boston University (BU) Pardee School of Global Studies African Studies Center on outreach efforts in the war-torn country.
Beni Lubero, the human rights website started by Machozi while he was a BU graduate student, reports that at 11 p.m. Sunday night, 10 uniformed soldiers of the Armed Forces of the DRC stormed a social centre in the North Kivu region, where Nande tribal chiefs were meeting to discuss peace efforts, and demanded to be taken to Machozi and to Mwami Abdu Kalemire III, leader of the Basho community. The gunmen reportedly found Machozi in a courtyard working on his laptop and opened fire. The Catholic website Crux reports that Machozi, whose last words were, “Why are you killing?” died in a hail of bullets. Kalemire escaped unharmed.
African Studies Centre director Timothy Longman, a College of Arts & Sciences associate professor of political science and a colleague of Machozi’s, says there had been at least seven earlier attempts on the priest’s life. He says Machozi fled his country in 2003 after receiving several death threats, and working from Boston, set up his website to document atrocities committed by the several warring forces in eastern DRC.
“He was trying to show the world who was killed and who was responsible,” says Longman. “He wasn’t on any particular side.”
Machozi returned to DRC in 2012, putting aside work on his PhD thesis exploring the role of the Catholic Church in transforming the conflict in his country in favor of human rights work. A few days before Machozi was killed, Longman says, the priest posted an article implicating Joseph Kabila, DRC president, in the violence.
Longman says the political situation in that country is complicated, with government forces and various rebel groups fighting one another and terrorizing civilians with widespread slaughter and rape.
(By Art Jahnke, BU Today)
Full Article
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275363&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
The Augustine Institute's new facilities in Florissant, Missouri. / Credit: Boeing Company and Augustine InstituteCNA Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).The Augustine Institute, a Catholic educational and evangelization apostolate based in Denver for nearly two decades, announced on Tuesday that it will be moving its operations to a new campus in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The institute, founded in 2005 as a Catholic graduate theology school, currently has an enrollment of 550 students. It says on its website that it exists to serve "the formation of Catholics for the new evangelization" by "equip[ping] Catholics intellectually, spiritually, and pastorally to renew the Church and transform the world for Christ."The organization announced on Tuesday that it had purchased the former Boeing Leadership Center in Florissant, Missouri, just outside of downtown St. Louis. The school will "begin transitioning its operations over the next few years," it said in ...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275362&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Over a year after the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey in February 2023, restoration of Aleppo's Church of St. George has been completed. / Credit: Abdul Kareem DanielAleppo, Syria, Apr 23, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).This year's feast of St. George was a particularly joyful one in the Syrian city of Aleppo, especially for the Melkite Greek Catholic community. The church is reopening its doors after undergoing restoration due to damage from a February 2023 earthquake. Additionally, Archbishop George Masri of the Melkite Archdiocese of Aleppo and its environs will celebrate his golden jubilee.The celebrations took place during the visit of Patriarch Joseph Absi, the current patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, who presided over the Divine Liturgy in the restored church on the evening of April 23. The evening before, there was a procession along Holy Bible Street followed by vespers.Restoration of the Church of St. George in Aleppo after the February 2023 earthquake...
http://www.myspiritfm.com/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&url=10&view=post&articleid=275361&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0
Archbishop Luis Argüello and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. / Credit: Archdiocese of Valladolid; La MoncloaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).The Spanish government approved today in the Council of Ministers a plan to implement recommendations made in a report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. While recognizing some good points in the plan, the Spanish Bishops' Conference (known by its Spanish acronym CEE) issued a statement strongly objecting to what it called unfair treatment and discrimination against the Church by the government.Before giving details of the government's plan, the minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Legislature, Félix Bolaños, extrapolating data from a survey commissioned by the People's Ombudsman, estimated that in Spain there are about 440,000 adults who were victims of sexual abuse as minors, representing 1.13% of the adult population in Spain."Around half of these abuses would have been committed...