DR Congo: the influential Cardinal Monsengwo, Archbishop Emeritus of Kinshasa, is dead

Published on : 07/11/2021 – 18:21

The influential Archbishop Emeritus of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, died Sunday, July 11, in Paris at the age of 81, six days after his evacuation in “critical condition”. – we learned from a religious source.

“Valiant Soldier of Christ, rest in peace. Pending the official arrangements of the Chancellery of Kinshasa, we pray for the soul of our Archbishop Emeritus of Kinshasa”, wrote on Twitter Father Jean-Marie Konde, in charge of the communication from the Archdiocese of Kinshasa.

At around 4:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. GMT) bells of Notre-Dame du Congo cathedral rang. A sacristan came to install the effigy of the deceased prelate at the altar as women, in tears, began to pour into the walls of the church, noted an AFP journalist.

With the episcopal conference and under the influence of Laurent Monsengwo, the Catholic Church played a major role in democratic openness during the last years of the dictatorship of the late President Mobutu Sese Seko (1965-1997).

A cardinal with political weight

Bishop Monsengwo was one of the critical voices with regard to the various regimes which have succeeded one another in the DRC (ex-Zaire), that of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1997-2001), Joseph Kabila (2001- 2019), then Félix Tshisekedi.

Ordained a priest in 1963, made cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2010, this great figure of the African Catholic Church gave up his chair at the head of the archdiocese of Kinshasa to Bishop Ambongo in November 2018.

The Catholic Church in the DRC, the only institution really present on the whole of the territory and which claims about 40% of the population, enjoys an audience on political and social questions that goes far beyond the circle of its faithful.

With AFP