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Carney, Jay J.

Waters of Baptism, Blood of Tribalism?

Introduction N the contemporary life of the Catholic Church in Africa, two remarkable events occurred in April 1994: The convocation of an unprecedented Synod of African Catholic bishops in Rome and the onset of one of the worst humanitarian tragedies of modern times, the Rwandan genocide. Fifteen months later, Pope John Paul II agreed to summarize and engage the African Synod's reflections in his apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa, although no explicit mention is made in this document concerning the African tragedy that shadowed the Synod throughout its duration.1 This article is reflecting on the Ecclesia in Africa and the Lineamenta for the Second African Synod in the shadow of the 1994 Rwandan genocide*
Jay J. CarneyteaDoctoral student, School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America. His address is: 3900 Hamilton Street, 02, Hyattsville, MD 20781 USA. Email: 53carney@cua.edu
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It should be noted that John Paul II condemned the "fratricidal acts of violence" in his opening homily on 10th April 1994 and went so far as to name the massacres as th "genocide" on 15 May 1994. (Cf. Rittner, G, Roth, J.K. and Whitworth, W. (eds.), Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches? St. Paul, MN: Paragon Press, 2004, p. 13).

*This essay is adapted from a paper given in a Roman Catholic section of the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 20 th November, 2006.

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Fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide and the First African Synod, African bishops will once again gather in Rome to discuss the Church's evangelizing mission in the 21st century. Significantly, this Second African Synod's primary themes - reconciliation, justice, arid peace, reflect the challenges of a Church, still recoveringfromthe legacy of the Rwandan genocide. To help "establish priorities,, and "raise questions" ahead of the October, 2009 gathering,2 the Synod of Bishops released a preliminary Lineamenta in June 2006. As a contribution to the preparatory discussions for the Second African Synod, this article assesses crucial components of the visions of Ecclesia in Africa and the Lineamenta for the Second African Synod in the light of the Rwandan genocide that affected one of the countries in Africa with the highest number of Catholic faithfuls. First, we consider the two documents ' understandings of the proper relationship between the Church and State in Africa. After discussing the challenge of enacting Ecclesia in Africa's model of confession and reconciliation in a postRwanda Church, I turn to the documents' respective presentations of Christian, ethnic and national identity in Africa. I argue that while the emphases on universal catholicity, baptismal identity, and the power of embodied Christian witness offer commendable lessons for a Church coping with the legacy of the Rwandan genocide, the documents overlook the Church's legacy in further legitimating constructed political and ethnic identities in Africa. In addition, while Ecclesia in Africa and the Lineamenta present an inspiring vision of a prophetic Church of servantleaders, the documents offer largely prescriptive solutions to Africa's problems that overlook the Church's crucial descriptive task. And by not sufficiently engaging the "ethnic question" in Africa - specifically how supposedly natural ethnic and national identities are imagined and institutionalized - both documents fall short of offering the robust vision of the Christian identity, needed for a Church still coming to terms with the meaning and lessons of the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide.
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Synod of Bishops, II Special Assembly for Africa - The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace: Lineamenta, Vatican City: 2006, Par. 9. Future references to this document are embedded within the text.

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Ecclesiology and Church/State relations Three paradigms of Church and state relationships - what we term the "three Ps" of Political, Pastoral and Pious, appear in Ecclesia in Africa? In brief, the political paradigm contends that the Church's primary public role is to raise up Christian leaders who will build the common good, supporting justice, democracy and humanrights.Success in the political paradigm would be measured in terms of elite identification with Christianity and the extent of the Church's influence in the public square. The pastoral paradigm is similar in seeing the Church actively engaged in the public sphere, but the focus here lies in providing material care for God's people.4 Finally, the pious paradigm assumes a stricter demarcation between the Church and State, drawing a hard line between the material and spiritual worlds. In this model, the Church "stays out of politics," focusing exclusively on her spiritual mission of motivating and forming faithful disciples who will serve as leaven within the broader society. This latter model has been particularly associated with Evangelical and Pentecostal churches or communities in Africa.5 It would be a mistake to try and reduce Ecclesia in Africa to one of these paradigms; we in fact see all three emerging in the text. In terms of the political model, John Paul II encourages individual Christians to actively participate in public life, adopting the African bishops' petition that "holy politicians" and "saintly Heads of State" will emerge to more justly administer the political and economic systems of individual African
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I am indebted to the Ugandan theologian Emmanuel Katongole for these categories. See in particular Katongole's essay "A Different World Right Here: The Church within African Theological Imagination," in his A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination, Scranton: The University of Scranton Press, 2005, pp. 153-84. Katongole describes the Pastoral Church as the "Church as healer and servant of the poor," symbolized in the Bible by a Joseph of Arimathea who "tenderly treat its abuse." Katongole, "A Different World," p. 154. For a helpful study of the roles of both Catholic and Pentecostal churches in the African public sphere, see P. GifFord, African Christianity: Its Public Role, Bloomington, IN: Univ. of Indiana Press, 1998.

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nations.6 John Paul IPs advocacy of lay involvement in politics also supports a principle contention of the pious paradigm namely that the Church'sfirsttask is to evangelize individual Christians who will "live the social implications of the Gospel in such a way that their witness will become a prophetic challenge to whatever hinders the true good of the men and women of Africa and every other continent."7 Finally, we see echoes of the pastoral paradigm in Ecclesia in Africa's repeated focus on the Church's social services, such as schools, hospitals and development agencies. Like Christ, who came to "liberate humanity, to take upon himself our infirmities and diseases,"8 the Church should minister to people suffering from the ills that afflict African society: poverty, urbanization, illiteracy, hunger, drug abuse, gender discrimination, war and AIDS.9 There are important insights to be gleaned from such teachings, all of which surely apply to the Church's evangelizing mission. I would argue, though, that all three of these models are primarily prescriptive, conspicuously missing is what we might term the Church's "descriptive task." In other words, none looks to analyze or challenge what Paul Nzacahayo has termed "the basic questions of the political realities they are in."10 In cases like post-colonial Rwanda, the state's mythos or foundational story was terribly skewed, with the racist ideology of Hutu power institutionalizing ethnic discrimination and fomenting a genocidal mentality.11 Before determining whether individual Christians should
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John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year 2000, Nairobi, Kenya: Paulines Publications Africa, 1996, nos. 110-112. Further references to this document will be embedded within the text. Ibid, no. 54. Ibid, no. 68.

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Ibid,no.5\.
Nzacahayo, P. "Religion and Violence: Outbreak and Overcoming (Africa: Rwanda)," Religion as a Source of Violence? W. Beuken and K.J. Kuskel (eds.), Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997, p. 16. Cf. Bjornlund, M. Markusen, E. Steenberg, P. and Ubaldo, R. "The Christian Churches and the Construction of a Genocidal Mentality in Rwanda," in Rittner, et al, Genocide in Rwanda, pp. 141-67. Although the focus here lies with Rwanda, one should not

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serve in government, provide social services or even "stay out of politics," the Church must analyze the mythos behind the state. For if the Church moves too quickly to the prescriptive stage, she may find her sons and daughters unconsciously co-opted into a story inimically opposed to the Christian gospel. As historian Ian Linden writes, "Acculturation (in Rwanda) had meant the immersion of the Church in the divisions of a divided and stratified society. It had never meant any serious challenge to Hutu and Tutsi identity as an imagined identity which was potentially open to being re-imagined in a new Christian form because ethnicity had always been taken as a given."12 In addition, each of the models discussed above contains potential risks. The pious model looks to deeper conversion of individual Christian leaders, yet Rwandan political leaders known for their Catholic devotion were also central actors in fomenting the pernicious ideology of Hutu power.13 The pastoral Church's social service agencies (e.g. hospitals, schools, orphanages) continued to take orders from the state during the genocide, with many observers contending that more people died in churches and hospitals than anywhere else.14 And the seeming success of the political paradigm may explain why Catholic hierarchy were quick to embrace lay Catholic political leadership, with the Rwandan prelate, Archbishop Vincent Nsengiyumva, serving as chair of the ruling party's central committee from 1976 to 1990. Lost in all of this, of course, was the Church's prophetic voice with post-genocide commentators reduced
overlook the ideological similarities with Rwanda's "twin," Burundi, where the minority Tutsi perpetrated acts of genocide against the majority Hutu in 1973,1988 and 1993. Linden, I. "The Churches and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwandan Tragedy," The Month (July 1995): 261 (my emphases). Fr. Andr Sibomana's anecdote shows the failures of the Pious paradigm at the local level as well: "During the genocide, I saw people wearing a medal of the Virgin Mary around their necks and holding a machete. We are forced to ask ourselves questions." (A. Sibomana, Hope for Rwanda: Conversations with Laure Guilbert and Herve Deguine. Trans. C. Tertsakian, Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1999, p. 96). Cf. African Rights, Rwanda: Death, Despair, and Defiance, London: African Rights, 1994. See also D.P. Gushee, "Why the Churches Were Complicit," in Rittner, et al, Genocide in Rwanda, p. 259.

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to arguing over whether the Church was complicit to genocide or powerless to prevent it. Regardless of where one falls in this argument, something has gone wrong if our ecclesiological choices have been reduced to corruption or impotence.15 Turning to the Lineamenta's consideration of the Church/state question, one immediately notes the repeated stress on the poor performance of the post-colonial African state. Paraphrasing Pope Benedict XVTs first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, the Synod of Bishops writes, "this (the arms trade) is a glaring sign of the failure of politics in Africa, which is in service no longer to building the polis and the search for the common good, but rather to eliminating politiceli adversaries and the city itself."16 Such blunt language is welcome, although the authors seem reluctant to analyze some of the more systemic causes of this failure of African politics. Rather than see nationalism and ethnic identity politics as flip sides of the same divisive coin,17 the Lineamenta implies that nationalism could be an antidote to ethnic division.18 Above all, the Lineamenta's consideration of socio-political aspects would benefit from a more robust historical analysis of the underlying causes of the
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The Church's cohabitation with political power had already been named prior to the genocide; see the Bishop of Kabgayi's 1991 pastoral letter, accusing the Rwandan Church of being a "giant with feet of clay.. .who lives in a continual lie, because her submission to temporal power impedes her from being critical towards it and from denouncing the numerous violations of humanrights,"(Cf. T. Longman, "Christianity and Democratization in Rwanda: Assessing Church Responses to Political Crises in the 1990s," in R GifTord (ed.), The Christian Churches and the Democratization of Africa, Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1995, p. 198). Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 17. Mahmood Mamdani notes that the nationalist Rwandan revolution of 1959 failed to challenge the ideological underpinnings of the colonial project, thereby "politicizing indigeneity " and establishing the toxic atmosphere that would dominate post-colonial Rwanda. "The Rwanda genocide is testimony to both the poisoned colonial legacy and the nativist project that failed to transcend it." (M. Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2001, p. 39). For a thorough overview of the problematic role of nationalism in independent Africa, see Basil Davidson's Black Mans Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, New York: Three Rivers Press, 1992. Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 11.

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failure of politics in Africa. The authors seem too quick to move from the descriptive to the prescriptive stage, too quick to dismiss as "overly simplistic" critiques which honestly grapple with issues like artificial colonial borders. I would argue that the Lineamenta^ hope of transforming ethnic pluralism "into a positive, constructive factor and not one which leads to division and destruction"19 cannot be achieved unless the Church undertakes a more thorough historical exploration of the problematic origins of the modern African nation-state. In lieu of such a purification of historical memory, offering exhortations that "the time has come for lay Christians in Africa to make a large-scale, resolute commitment to the Church and the State"20 will only repeat the limitations of Katongole's political paradigm. In the context of the Rwandan genocide, the Lineamenta should be credited for explicitly admitting that Christian leaders have sometimes been a "source of division, inter-ethnic wars, corruption and other evils which trouble the continent,"21 even if the typically platitudinous language leaves specific examples to the imagination. The document also declares that "the Church must be an arbitrator with an impartiality beyond question. The positions taken by the bishops have to be impartial with regard to the powers and ideologies of the various associations of a political or tribal character."22 Such impartiality would have been welcome in pre-1990 Rwanda. The challenge, of course, is that so often the Church cannot stand neutrally above thefrayin the various political conflicts that besiege contemporary society.23 Prophets are rarely
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Ibid. Ibid., no. 61. /., no. 51. #/</., no. 54. When asked in 1992 whether the Church engaged the political, ethnic and social tensions tearing apart Rwandan society, a Rwandan Catholic sister replied, "The Church's position is clear. We do not intervene in political affairs. We read the letters of the bishops, that is all." Such an attitude is neither as neutral nor as faithful as the speaker would have us believe. (T. Longman, "Christianity and Democratization in Rwanda," p. 203).

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impartial, and Rwanda presented the Church with just this sort of prophetic challenge - to denounce a genocidal state.24 Perhaps more significant, then, is the conclusion of this paragraph - the Lineamenta^ recognition that Christian impartiality should give the bishop the platformfromwhich to denounce the abuses of the powers-that-be, counter the manipulation of people by politicians, and defend the "little people" whose rights are trampled underfoot.25 It is crucial that the Church sees her prophetic task viz a vis the State as defending the marginalized, even if this might conflict with the Church's own institutional interests. In this light, it might help to see the Church not only as making a "preferential choice for the poor"26 but as being a "poor Church," modeling Christ's kenosis (cf. Phil 2) and embodying Jesus' beatitudinal vision (cf. Mt 5, Lk 6).27

Complicity, confession and Christian reconciliation In Ecclesia in Africa, the relevance of the church's message depends on the credibility of Christian bishops, priests, and laity. A pastor who is truly seeking to follow Christ's example in leading a "holy life" as an embodied "witness of action"28 is even more critical for a cynical
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A contemporary example of the Catholic Church adopting an appropriately-prophetic role viz a vis the State is the work of Bishop Pius Ncube and the Zimbabwean Bishops* Conference. Note, of course, that the Mugabe government inevitably accuses such bishops of "becoming political" as soon as they register any critique of the ruling regime. Cf. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, "Pro-Government Militias Launch Intimidation Campaign Against Catholics," 31 May 2007. Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 54. Ibid.,no.32. Katongole, E. makes a similar argument in the context of the AIDS pandemic, positing that common language of "fighting AIDS" externalizes the problem and fails to recognize that the "body of Christ has AIDS." Cf. E. Katongole, "AIDS in Africa, the Church, and the Politics of Interruption," Symposium on Liberation and Salvation in Africa: The Mission of the Church Challenged by HIV/AIDS. Department of Theology, University of Wuerzburg, Germany, Oct. 23-25,2005. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the year Year 2000, no. 21.

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generation searching for authenticity, truth and honesty. In light of this call to authentic witness, the Church must always be "evangelized herself."29 The Pope admits that Christian leaders themselves have not always modeled justice and peace in their internal relationships, calling for deeper formation of seminarians and the establishment of Justice and Peace Commissions at the parish and diocesan levels.30 John Paul IPs call for internal re-evangelization has particular resonance for a Church recovering from the Rwandan genocide. Immediately after the genocide, many Christian leaders tried to portray Rwanda's ethnic problems as wholly extra-ecclesial, with Church leaders reduced to passive bystanders. In the words of Bishop Augustin Misago, "When men become like devils and you don't have an army, what can you do? All paths were dangerous. So how could I influence?"31 Not only do such sentiments fail to take seriously the Church's own massive social capital and political influence, but they tend to exonerate Church leadersfromany direct responsibility in a genocide or any other human abuse or exploitation, perpetrated by the irresponsible and callous members of society. In contrast, I would argue with Columbia University political scientist Mahmood Mamdani that the Catholic Church was not simply a "passive mirror reflecting tensions," but rather an "epicenter radiating tensions."32 From colonial Tutsi supremacy to post-colonial Hutu domination, the stratification of parishes, seminaries, and schools embodied and exacerbated the ethnic divide throughout Rwandan society.33 We should greet with thanksgiving, then, John Paul IPs call for the Church to be a "place of true reconciliation" for the "sons and
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Ibid.,no.76. Ibid., nos. 105-107. Gourevitch, P. We Wish to Inform You, That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: StoriesfromRwanda, New York: Picador, 1998, p. 139. Mamdani, M. When Victims Become Killers, p. 226. For a detailed and judicious treatment of the history of Catholic engagement with the ethnic question in colonial Rwanda, see Ian and Jane Linden, Church andRevolution in Rwanda, Manchester/New York: Manchester Univ. Press, 1977.

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daughters" of Africa.34 Unfortunately, the Pope never implies that the African churches themselves should apologize for past errors. Such confessions are particularly needed in Rwanda, where the local Catholic Church waited over a year to acknowledge the genocide and another six years to issue a statement of collective responsibility and accountability.35 John Paul II stated that the Church cannot be held responsible for the sins of its members.36 To some extent the Church that baptized and educated those who committed atrocities against fellow humanity, bears at least a measure of responsibility for their actions. This is not to deny the courageous acts of heroism performed by many Catholics during the genocide, (priests, sisters and laypeople), hiding their brothers and sistersfromthe death squads. But in the words of Rwandan Bishop Thade Nsengiyumva, "after a century of evangelism, we have to begin again because the best catechists, those who filled our churches on Sundays, were thefirstto go out with machetes in their hands."37 One wonders if more Church leaders in the West need to hear such sentiments. Perhaps this would help prevent the Rwandan genocidefromremaining a political problem, a human rights problem, an ethnic problem, an African problem, a United Nations problem, but never a Catholic problem.
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John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year 2000, no. 79. Ndahiro, T. "The Church's Blind Eye to Genocide," in C. Rittner, et. al., Genocide in Rwanda, p. 244. The Anglican and Evangelical communities in Rwanda were far ahead of the Catholic Church in this regard. A series of articles in the National Catholic Reporter traced this Vatican obduracy; see in particular M. Kantz, "Vatican Accuses Rwandans of Defaming the Church," The National CatholicReporter{June 4,1999), 9; M. IJantz, "Vatican Defends Priest Accused of Genocide," The National Catholic Reporter (Dec. 10, 1999), p. 10; G. Donovan. "Vatican Criticizes Conviction of Nuns in Genocide Case," The National Catholic Reporter (June 29, 2001), pp. 12-13. See also the editorial "Religion and Genocide" in Commonwealth (July 13, 2001), pp. 5-6. Quoted in Mbanda, L. Committed to Conflict: The Destruction of the Church in Rwanda. London: SPCK, 1997, p. 37. These words were uttered shortly before the bishop himself was killed by Tutsi RPF soldiers in June 1994.

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For Christians to offer the credible witness for which John Paul advocates, they must be willing to undertake the difficult and painful work of admitting guilt, asking for forgiveness, seeking reconciliation and recognizing with theologian Tharcisse Gatwa that "for Christians to abstainfromrepentance resembles a denial of identity."38 A possible model for such a task comes from the late priest, Andr Sibomana, named apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Kabgayi in the immediate aftermath of the 1994 genocide. His first action was to institute a five-month period of mourning. Baptisms and weddings were suspended and "every parishioner who knew he had killed was asked not to receive communion" until he/she had offered a sincere explanation of his/her actions during the genocide.39 Confession may not be the sole sufficient aspect of the reconciliation process - the crucial issues of penance, justice and forgiveness remain crucial but it is surely the indispensable first step. To put this another way, the road to Acts 2 goes through Luke 22 - like Peter, the Church must "weep bitterly" (cf. Lk 22:62) at its betrayal of Christ before she can hope to model the Pentecost community to which Ecclesia in Africa aspires. Like Ecclesia in Africa, the Lineamenta for the Second African Synod is full of critiques of the African state, international institutions and Western culture. Also like Ecclesia in Africa, the document does not engage in substantial self-critique. For example, the document notes the positive legacy of the Catholic monopoly of education in the Belgian Congo but does not even hint at possible shortcomings.40 Likewise, the Lineamenta
Gatwa, T. "Victims or Guilty? Can the Rwandan Churches Repent and Bear the Burden of the Nation for the 1994 Tragedy?" International Review of Mission (2000), p. 361. Sibomana, A. Hope for Rwanda, p. 126. Another more recent example comes from "The Samaritans," a mixed Hutu/Tutsi women's group who lost family members during the genocide. Launched in 1996, the group did not achieve a measure of trust until one Hutu woman admitted her husband's crimes during the genocide. They now work among the genocidaire prison population, encouraging confessions and reconciliation. Cf. F. Callister, "Rebuilding Rwanda," The Tablet, 28 Feb. 2004,10. For a more balanced perspective, see M.D. Markowitz, Cross and Sword: The Political Role of Christian Missions in the Belgian Congo, 1908-1960, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973.

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laments the loss of African traditional values41 but fails to acknowledge that Christian missions were integral to the modernization project that marginalized such values.42 Representing an important step forward, however, is the Lineamenta 's admission of past Catholic shortcomings in training lay political leaders.43 Arguing that Christian leaders need a deeper sense of their "duty in service to the common good" and "the formation of political conscience,"44 the authors call for deeper formation within Catholic universities, including seminaries on peace and justice and cross-disciplinary studies that can better inform Christians concerning the "social questions of our times."45 While by no means a panacea, the university may be a privileged place for what I have termed the church's "descriptive task," with lay and religious leaders grappling with the stories that have performed Africa's colonial and postcolonial history. In addition, paragraphs 67-71 offer a welcome of the ambiguous exploration of the oft-invoked but equally often misunderstood concepts of "reconciliation" and "forgiveness," distinguishing a pragmatic understanding of reconciliation (i.e. reconciliation as a "language of learning to live with others in a pluralistic society, to manage conflicts peacefully)"46 from the more personal concept of forgiveness, in which a person "regains peace and heals the wound" through a "real purification of memory and solid peace."47 If the initial language risks equating
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Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 23. Multiple historians have shown how Christian mission schools exercised an innovative, modernizing effect on traditional African religious, political and social institutions. Some of the better recent studies include A. Hastings, The Church in Africa 1450-1950, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994; P.V. Kollman, The Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005; John and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, Chicago/London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991. Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 66. Ibid., no. 60. Ibid Ibid, no. 68. Ibid.

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reconciliation with tolerance, the later language of memory is especially important for a Church moving forwardfromRwanda and other identitybased conflicts in Africa. I question, however, why the Lineamenta implies that this process can only happen on an individual level. If the history of Rwanda demonstrates nothing else, it is that the way we tell our history determines how we see our present; it is only through developing a shared historical memory that a community can hope to heal from past atrocities.481 would argue that the African Church herself must engage in an "ecclesial purification of memory," perhaps using as a model John Paul IFs Jubilee Year confessions concerning Christian/Jewish history.

Christianity and ethnic identity Evangelization in Ecclesia in Africa is principally concerned with transforming men and women into Christian disciples whose primary loyalty is to Christ and the Church. This process culminates with a "transforming encounter with the living person of Christ"49 through the sacrament of baptism, a metanoia that is continually reinforced by the grace of the Eucharist. On a corporate level, the goal of baptismal evangelization is to produce a "Church as Family of God"50 standing above all forms of ethnocentrism and nationalism. It is not surprising that this "family" motif has become the dominant ecclesial image to emerge from the First African Synod, offering rich potential for ecclesiological reflection around the world.

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I therefore disagree with critics who argue that the South African Truth and Reconciliation gave away too much by offering amnesty to perpetrators in exchange for their truthful testimony. Such confessions were necessary for establishing some semblance of shared history for a highly polarized, post-apartheid South African society. Cf. D. Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, New York: Doubleday, 1999. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year 2000, no. 57. Ibid, no. 63.

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To echo Rwandan papal envoy, Roger Cardinal Etchegaray, Ecclesia in Africa looks for the "waters of baptism" to flow deeper than the "blood of tribalism."51 If Christians are to genuinely embrace their calling as disciples of Jesus Christ, their Christian identity must be primary - before state, before markets, before tribe, even before (biological) family. Jesus' words in the Gospel of Mark might provide an appropriate model: Now his mother and his brothers arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him. A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, "Look, your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you." He replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?,,And looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother" (Mk 3:31-35). While Ecclesia in Africa should be praised for taking Christian identity so seriously, one wishes that John Paul II and the African bishops would grapple more explicitly with the often-constructed nature of ethnicity. On the contrary, the meaning of ethnicity is not explored in any depth, andfleetingreferences to the concept border on the ontological. "Above all, these (ecclesial) communities are to be committed to living Christ's love for everybody, a love which transcends the limits of the natural (my emphases) solidarity of clans, tribes, or other interest groups."52 Rather than explore several of the false narratives that have so often hardened purportedly "timeless" ethnic divisions (such as the European "Hamitic Thesis" which both sacralized and racialized the previously permeable

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As quoted in Kritzinger, J.J. "The Rwandan Tragedy as Public Indictment of Christian Mission," Missionalia 24:3,1996, p. 345. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year 2000, no. 89.

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lines between Hutu and Tutsi)53, the Synod bishops merely appeal to the church in Africa to overcome them. Tribalism may be condemned, but the foundation of its existence in tribal identities is never questioned.54 In contrast, I would argue with historian Ian Linden that "the Church must have the courage in situations like Rwanda's, to challenge the givenness of ethnic boundaries and to imagine new identities with new contents,"55 recognizing with Phillip Gourevitch that much of our allegedly natural ethnic identities stemfrom"how we imagine ourselves and of how others imagine us."56 At the same time, it would be a mistake to fall into what one might term the "Gnostic" temptation of denying ethnicity all together.57 The point is simply to recognize the risk of naturalizing or racializing identities that gain their power from political construction. In terms of ecclesial identity, the Pope's concluding remarks further emphasize the catholicity of the global Church, "The Gospel spirit must lead us to overcome cultural and nationalistic barriers, avoiding all isolationism."58 The First African Synod should be commended for
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Mamdani's When Victims Become Killers provides the best overview of the political, religious, and anthropological roots of the Hamitic Thesis in the Great Lakes region. See in particular pp. 79-87. For a helpful study of the pre-colonial roots of ethnic identities, see Jan Vansina's Paths in the Rainforest: Towards a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa, Madison, Wis.: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1990, which discusses how innovative traditions of matrilinearity broke the connection between residence and lineage. For an influential study of how missionaries catalyzed ethnic labels in colonial South Africa, see John and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution (1991). Linden, I. "The Churches and Genocide...," p. 263. Gourevitch, P. We Wish to Inform You, p. 71. Gourevitch himself would seemingly fall into this category. Perhaps under the influence of the current Kagame government, Gourevitch seems to wholly deny the existence of Tutsi and Hutu identities in pre-colonial Rwanda. Alain Destexhe likewise diagnoses 20th century Rwanda as a classic example of "tribalism without tribes" (A. Destexhe, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Trans. A. Marchner. New York: NYU Press, 1995, p. 36). It would be more accurate to say that Belgian colonists hardened and racialized rather than inventedTutsi and Hutu identities, which tended to reflect more permeable economic and class divisions in the pre-colonial period. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the year Year 2000, no. 89.

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challenging the Church to embody a more evangelical, more prophetic, more genuinely "catholic" witness. In the context of Rwanda, the challenge comes in visualizing how to achieve this as a majoritarian Church standing at the centre of power. The contrast between Catholicism and Islam in Rwanda helps to illustrate this point. While Christian churches became slaughter-houses, the marginal Islamic community maintained its unity in the face of the violence. Historian Gerard Prunier attributes this to both global and local factors: "Being Muslim is not simply a choice dictated by religion; it is a global identity choice. (Rwandan) Muslims are often socially marginal people, and this reinforces a strong sense of community identification that supercedes ethnic tags, something the majority Christians have not been able to achieve."59 Of course, there were exceptions to this even in Rwanda,60 and we only need to read today's headlines in Darfur and Iraq to see how the "global identity choice" of Islam can break down under political, sectarian and ethnic pressures. But the fact remains that very few Muslims took part in this Christian-on-Christian genocide, and coincidentally their community witnessed a steeprisein conversions during the decade after the genocide. 6I The same cannot be said - on either count - for the majoritarian Catholics of Rwanda. Turning to the Lineamenta for the Second African Synod, one notes an increased awareness of the risk of ethnic divisions to Church and State; language of ethnic rivalry and tribalism recurs repeatedly throughout the text. "Ethnic divisions and tensions" can lead to "disastrous crimes;"62 the Church is called to "breakfromnegative forms of solidarity . . . which originate precisely in the overemphasis on the
59

60

61

Prunier, G. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, p. 253. For example, the editor of the Hutu Power magazine Kangura and author of the infamous "Hutu Ten Commandments" was a Muslim, Hassan Ngeze (T. Ndahiro, "The Church's Blind Eye...," in C. Rittner, et al, Genocide in Rwanda, p. 235). See Emily Wax's article, "Islam Attracting Many Survivors of Rwanda Genocide," The Washington Post (Sept. 23, 2002), AIO. Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 17.

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ethnic group;"63 at the same time Christians must "give the ethnic group its proper significance."64 As with Ecclesia in Africa, however, the concept of ethnicity itself is never subjected to deeper analysis, although the Lineamenta admits that the frequent exploitation of "African cultures" for divisive political ends necessitates "added thought to the roots of these cultures from a global perspective."65 Such hints are welcome,66 and one may hope that the Second African Synod will more fully engage the historically contextual nature of African ethnic identities like Hutu and Tutsi, exploring how such identities result more from performed politics than biological essentialism. On a more positive note, the Lineamenta carries forward John Paul II's emphasis on baptismal identity and adds to it an even stronger sense of Eucharistie identity. Particularly welcome are the document's repeated assertions of what we might term the Eucharist's "horizontal" effects, deepening communion between Christian brothers and sisters and between Christians and the environment. "The Eucharist makes abundantly clear that life is a relation of communion with God, our brothers and sisters and the whole creation."67 Perhaps most significantly, a direct connection is made between Eucharist, non-violence, and respect for human life and dignity; performing the Eucharist should also perform the polis. "Since the same Blood of Christ circulates in each of us, and since we are all members of the Church-Family of God in the Body and Blood of Christ, it stands to reason that to shed a brother's and/or a sister's blood is to shed one's own blood, the Blood of Christ; this is killing his life in us."68 Later in the text, Eucharistie adoration and reception are the means of perceiving God's will in the world,
63 64 65 66

67 68

Ibid.,no.67. Ibid., no. 64. Ibid.,no.l7. I was also heartened to read question #25 of the pastoral questionnaire found at the end of the Lineamenta: "What are the profoundcauses of this violence and hatred; of these outrages against human rights?" (my emphases) Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, no. 35. Ibid.,no.39.

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strengthening the Christian's sense of both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of sin and "transforming every aspect of daily living into offerings pleasing to God in Christ."69 Such connections should help to break down the ideological barriers that sometimes exist between "devotional" conservatives and "activist" liberals. One can only hope that the Second African Synod will build on the Lineamenta's commitment to a genuinely Eucharistie vision of reconciliation, justice, and peace as well as its understanding of holiness as a relational state: "The Church's degree of holiness depends on the quality of interpersonal relations within her family."70

Conclusion A crucial task for a post-Rwandan Church, preparing for the Second African Synod is to recapture its own distinctive story and politics. This entails the communal embodiment of a Christian gospel which calls Jews and Greeks, Belgians and Rwandans to recognize that their truest identity lies in the Body of Christ rather than the ethnic and national identities which proved so poisonous in the 20th century. Lest one dismisses such a goal as nave utopianism, it should be recalled that only three years after the genocide, a group of Catholic students in a boarding school in Rwanda were killed for refusing to be separated, Hutus from Tutsi, proclaiming that they were "simply Rwandans."71 If the decades-old African nation-state can produce such martyrs, no less should be expected of the over 2000-year old Church of Jesus Christ. Reflecting on Rwanda, the Jewish Holocaust, and other 20th century genocides, political scientist Michael Budde has argued that the modern history of state-sponsored brutality testifies to the "irrelevance of Christianity as a category having any purchase on human loyalties or
69 70 71

Ibid, no. 87. Ibid.,no.72. Gourevitch, P. We Wish to Inform You, pp. 352-53.

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obligations." 1 hope time proves him wrong; I hope Christian students in Africa, America, or elsewhere in the world, are formed to critically engage and not just passively accept their political environments. If so, perhapsfiftyyears hence Catholic boarding school students will respond to a similar murderous threat by stating "we are simply Christians and God's children." In this spirit, then, I return to Ecclesia in Africa for a text that could guide the Catholic Church's vision of reconciliation in the 2009 Synod as well as the day-to-day lives of Christians trying to live out the radical message of reconciliation found in the Gospel: The Church in Africa shares with the universal Church the sublime vocation of realizing, first of all within herself, the unity of humankind over and above any ethnic, cultural, national, social or other divisions in order to signify precisely that such divisions are now obsolete, having been abolished by the Cross of Christ. By responding to her vocation to be a redeemed and reconciled people in the midst of the world, the Church contributes to promoting thefraternalco-existence of all peoples, since she transcends the distinctions of race and nationality.73 Amid the seeming despair of the many crosses of the 20th century Rwandan and world history, Christians of all traditions continue to stake their identity on the Cross of Calvary, knowing that in following the Crucified Christ we can embody a hoher, prophetic and a more reconciled people of God.

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Budde, M. "Pledging Allegiance: Reflections on Discipleship and the Church after Rwanda," in M. Budde and R.W. Brimlow (eds.), The Church as Counterculture, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000, p. 214. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year2000, p. 137.

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Bibliography African Rights, Rwanda: Death, Despair, and Defiance. London: African Rights, 1994. Budde, Michael, "Pledging Allegiance: Reflections on Discipleship and the Church after Rwanda," in Budde, Michael and Brimlow, Robert (eds.), The Church as Counterculture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. Callister, Fiona, "Rebuilding Rwanda," The Tablet, 28 Feb. 2004. Comaroff, John L. and Jean, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Davidson, Basil. Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the NationState. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1992. Destexhe, Alain, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Trans. A. Marchner. New York: NYU Press, 1995. Donovan, Gill, "Vatican Criticizes Conviction of Nuns in Genocide Case," The National Catholic Reporter, 29 June, 2001. Gatwa, Tharcisse, "Victims or Guilty? Can the Rwandan Churches Repent and Bear the Burden of the Nation for the 1994 Tragedy?" International Review of Mission, 2000. Gifford, Paul, African Christianity: Its Public Role. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998. Gourevitch, Phillip, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: StoriesfromRwanda. New York: Picador, 1998. Hastings, Adrian, The Church in Africa: 1450950. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. John Paul II, The Church in Africa (Ecclesia in Africa) and Its Evangelizing Mission Towards the Year 2000. Nairobi, Kenya: Paulines Publications Africa, 1996. Kantz, Matt, "Vatican Accuses Rwandans of Defaming the Church," The National Catholic Reporter, June 4,1999. Kantz, Matt. "Vatican Defends Priest Accused of Genocide," The National Catholic Reporter Dec. 10, 1999).

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Katongole, Emmanuel, "AIDS in Africa, the Church, and the Politics of Interruption," Symposium on Liberation and Salvatiqn in Africa: The Mission of the Church Challenged by HIV/AIDS. Department of Theology, Univ. of Wuerzburg, Germany, Oct. 23-25, 2005. Katongole, Emmanuel, A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Social Imagination. Scranton, PA: The University of Scranton Press, 2005. Kollman, Paul V The Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005. Kritzinger, J.J. "The Rwandan Tragedy as Public Indictment of Christian Mission," Missionalia 24:3,1996. Linden, Ian and Jane, Church and Revolution in Rwanda. Manchester/ New York: Manchester University Press, 1977. Linden, Ian, "The Churches and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwandan Tragedy," The Month, July 1995. Longman, Timothy, "Christianity and democratization in Rwanda: Assessing Church Responses to Political Crises in the 1990s," in Gifford, Paul (ed.), The Christian Churches and the Democratization of Africa. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995. Mamdani, Mahmood, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. Markowitz, Marvin, D. Cross and Sword: The Political Role of Christian Missions in the Belgian Congo, 1908-1960. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973. Mbanda, Laurenti, Committed to Conflict: The Destruction of the Church in Rwanda. London: SPCK, 1997. Nzacahayo, Paul, "Religion and Violence: Outbreak and Overcoming (Africa: Rwanda)," Religion As a Source of Violence!' W. Beuken and K.J. Kuskel (eds.) Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997. Prunier, Gerard, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. Rittner, Carol, Roth, John, K. and Whitworth, Wendy (eds.) Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches? St. Paul, MN: Paragon Press, 2004.

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Sibomana, Andr, Hope for Rwanda: Conversations with Laure Guilberta HerveDeguine. Trans. C. Tertsakian. Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1999. Synod of Bishops, II Special Assembly for Africa - The Church in Africa Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace: Lineamenta. Vatican C June 2006. Tutu, Desmond, No Future Without Forgiveness. New York: Doubleday, 1999. United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, "ProGovernment Militias Launch Intimidation Campaign against Catholics," 31 May 2007. Vansina, Jan, Paths in the Rainforest: Towards a History of Political Tradi in Equatorial Africa. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. Wax, Emily, "Islam Attracting Many Survivors of Rwanda Genocide," The Washington Post. 23 September 2002.

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