Confirmations and War

 

 

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Préparation de l'huile de palme

Confirmations and War

This has been a fairly quiet week.

Yesterday, Sunday, June 8, was the feast of Pentecost: fifty days after Easter the Apostles received the Holy Spirit.

Yesterday we solemnly celebrated the feast in the Cathedral, and we administered Confirmations to 59 people.

Concerned about the situation in the Eastern part of the Diocese, we prepared a letter, which was read yesterday in all the parishes, and spread as much as possible.

The situation remains tense, with tens of thousands of refugees and dozens of victims.

In the letter we asked everyone to calm down, and to discuss.

Let us pray and hope!

Enough!

Alingbi awe!

Letter from the Bishops of Bangassou to the Catholics of the Diocese and to men and women of good will

We, the Bishops of Bangassou, together with the entire Catholic community, are deeply concerned about the violence affecting the Haut Mbomou region.

We cannot accept that the South-East of our country, the Central African Republic, is the scene of violence of all kinds, a land from which people flee, a land of desolation.

We mourn dozens of deaths in these last weeks.

But the South-East has been in mourning for decades, a land coveted and exploited first by the Tongo-Tongo rebels of the LRA, then by the Seleka and finally by the Ani Kpi Gbe; this last movement, born to protect the population from the violence of the UPC and other armed groups in the past, risks becoming a danger for the population itself. In recent weeks we have mourned the dead: soldiers of the Internal Security Forces, and many, too many, civilians. Civilians shot, wounded, tortured and slaughtered with total impunity.

We mourn with the thousands of civilians forced to flee from Zemio, Mboki and Djema, including tens of thousands headed to Congo.

We mourn with the villages bombed, looted and burned.

We must stop all this: it is not with violence that violence will end. On the contrary! Violence only generates more violence, division and misery, hatred, mistrust and, ultimately, a hellish circle of revenge.

The apostle James, in his letter (4:1-3), proclaims this powerful word of God:

"From what do wars and fights arise among you? Do they not come from your passions that war in your members?
You desire and cannot have, and you kill; you envy and cannot obtain, and you fight and wage war.
You do not have because you do not ask; you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your pleasures."

We ask all parties involved: Azande Ani Kpi Gbe, FACA, Wagner and the population, to put an end to the violence and to commit themselves so that this remote and isolated region, without roads or communications, can live in peace and become a land where every woman, every man, every child, every young person, can look to life and the future with hope. The Catholic Church, which in recent weeks has opened the doors of the Missions of Zemio, Mboki and Obo, is always ready and available to welcome those of good will around a table to discuss and work for peace, reconciliation and development in the region.

It is not a time for war, but for discussion!

It is no longer a time for violence, but for listening!

It is not a time to indulge in suspicions, resentments, generic accusations and jealousies, but to listen to the poor who cry out and ask for peace!

We pray and implore peace. But we are women and men of peace, in our thoughts, in our words and in our actions!

Peace be with you!

Bangassou, June 5, 2025

Bishop Juan José Aguirre, Bishop of Bangassou 
Bishop Aurelio Gazzera, Coadjutor Bishop of Bangassou

Le cresime alla Cattedrale di Bangassou
Les Confirmations à la Cathédrale de Bangassou