CHURCH IN RWANDA: GOD ALONE CAN DESTROY THE LOGIC OF EVIL

VATICAN CITY, FEB 8, 2001 (VIS) - This morning, in the Amahoro Stadium of Kigali, Rwanda, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, special envoy of the Holy Father, celebrated the closing mass for the centennial celebrations of the Church in the country.

"Mingling with victims of every kind, refugees of all ages," the Cardinal said in his homily, "it is here on this tortured land that I understood the full sense of fraternity and the senselessness of its denial; it is here that I understood how there cannot be enduring peace where life together is suffered through out of necessity and not savored out of an appreciation for brotherhood."

"Reconciliation," the Cardinal continued, "must be, for you, a fruit of the four seasons, harvested in the garden of the Church. Only the Church is able to name evil with its true name which is sin. ... God alone can destroy the logic of evil and help us to depart from the vicious circle of suspicion, vendetta, and violence; since for Him forgiveness is not a passing attitude or tactic, it is His very nature."

Affirming that a new prospect is unfolding for Catholics in Rwanda, the Cardinal went on to say that "rereading its recent history with lucidity and serenity, enlightened by the extraordinary Synod of all your dioceses and by the universal Great Jubilee ... your Church feels itself called to go to the depths of the Gospel. ... You will be judged by the courage with which you carry out your service as sentinels of the Gospel. Your constant and total reference to Christ the Savior will be the true source of your dignity, of your freedom, of your peace."

In closing, Cardinal Etchegaray referred to the words "Duc in altum," which appear at the beginning and end of the Holy Father's Apostolic Letter "Novo millennio ineunte": "Do not be afraid to put out into the deep, and even to go very, very far. A Church is fully evangelized when it is able, in its turn, to evangelize other peoples, other cultures. The more a Church evangelizes elsewhere the more it evangelizes itself. Church in Rwanda, learn to make of your wounds new springs not only for yourself but for all of Africa and beyond."

...;CENTENARY CHURCH RWANDA;...;ETCHEGARAY;VIS;20010208;Word: 380;