The Catholic Church in Rwanda is apologising for the church’s role in the 1994 genocide.
In a statement read out in parishes across the country on Sunday, the Conference of Catholic Bishops said it regretted the role of church members in planning, aiding and executing the genocide, in which over 800 000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists.
The statement said: “We apologise for all the wrongs the church committed.”
Local church leaders had resisted pressure from the government and groups of survivors to acknowledge the church’s complicity in mass murder, saying those church officials who committed crimes acted individually.
Some survivors have said priests and nuns were involved in some killings.
The bishops’ statement is a positive development in Rwanda’s efforts at reconciliation.
