Pope Francis on Saturday, November 28 presided over the consistory at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where 13 prelates from different parts of the world were officially created cardinals.

Among them was Antoine Kambanda, the Archbishop of Kigali Diocese, the first Rwandan to become cardinal.

Kambanda’s historic appointment makes him Rwanda’s first-ever cardinal and the first cleric from the East African region to be given the honour by Pope Francis.

He joins a growing list of bishops from Africa and other regions of the world outside Europe and the Americas promoted to the rank in recent years, as the Pope increasingly reaches out to the peripheries of the Church.

One of the other bishops that were installed is Wilton Gregory, the Archbishop of Washington, the first black American to become cardinal.

Kambanda’s appointment is particularly a growing recognition of the Catholic Church in Rwanda – and the country in general – and, at 62, he will be one of the less than 20 African cardinals with the right to elect the next pope.

This is just more than a personal milestone for the Archbishop of Kigali, as it opens doors for direct communication between the Pope and the Church in Rwanda.

In a way, while the appointment should largely be seen from the ecclesiastical perspective, it is hard to ignore the fact it has come after Kigali and the Holy See took bold steps to improve relations and move away from past difficulties.

While the Catholic Church has for long been an important partner in Rwanda’s development– especially through notable investments in education and health sectors – its role and that of its individual clerics (or lack thereof) in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi drove a wedge between the two sides.

As the titular head of the Catholic Church in Rwanda, Antoine Cardinal Kambanda, therefore, has his work cut out for him, and that is the continued effort to restore the faith that Rwandans lost in the church owing to its failings during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

This is the same message that was echoed by Pope Francis during the creation of the new cardinals, during which he urged them to not focus much on the honour that came with the cassock and other paraphernalia that came with the title, but the responsibility that came with it.

In Rwanda, in addition to its traditional role in society, the Church should be an active participant in helping tackle emerging challenges such as teen pregnancies, substance abuse, among other social ills, and fostering a more cohesive, law-abiding society.