The umbrella organization of Genocide survivors' associations, Ibuka, has said Pope Francis’s decision to dismiss from the clergy Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Rwandan priest convicted of genocide crimes, should have come in 1994, right after the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Munyeshyaka was dismissed by the Pope on March 23, according to a statement by Christian Nourrichard, Bishop of Evreux, in France, where he lived for nearly three decades. In 1994, he was the vicar of Sainte Famille Parish in Kigali.
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"It is a good decision for the Church to respect the principles governing priests, but we understand that Munyeshyaka was dismissed due to his admitted siring of a child and not his role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,” said Naftal Ahishakiye, the executive secretary of Ibuka.
"We wonder why the crimes he committed during the Genocide against the Tutsi – taking part in Tutsi killings and rape of women and girls – were not considered,” Ahishakiye said.
"The decision to dismiss him should have been taken right after the Genocide against the Tutsi,” he noted.
"The same decision should also be made on other priests and members of the clergy who have been convicted of genocide. They have debased themselves and are no longer mediators between God and people.”
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In 2006, Gacaca courts convicted Munyeshyaka, in absentia, for killing the Tutsi and rape during the Genocide, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
As reported in December 2021, Munyeshyaka had been suspended from clerical duties by Bishop Nourrichard, after it was found out that he had sired a son.
He faced more charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but the UN tribunal later referred his case to the French judiciary, which in 2015 dismissed it despite overwhelming evidence, attracting uproar from survivors of his crimes and the government of Rwanda.
According to the former National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), on various dates between April 8 and the first week of July 1994, Munyeshyaka participated in meetings held to organize the massacres and kidnappings of Tutsi civilians along with Col Tharcisse Renzaho, Odette Nyirabagenzi, Angeline Mukandutiye, Lt Col Laurent Munyakazi, other soldiers and Interahamwe.
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Tom Ndahiro, a researcher specialising in genocide ideology and history, said the Catholic Church has been reluctant to take action against its Rwandan clergymen who took part in the Genocide against the Tutsi, even after their conviction.
"One example is Father Athanase Seromba, who was sentenced to life by the ICTR but who is still a priest and offers the mass to fellow prisoners,” Ndahiro said.
"For the Catholic Church, genocide is not a crime. The Pope should include genocide among the church’s laws as a crime, and a serious one.”