DRC Catholic Episcopal Conference tones down sedition theology of Kinshasa Archdiocese

The Catholic Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) met in an extraordinary plenary session from January 9 to 11 to discuss the November 28 general elections. Politicians, especially those close to Kabila, were awaiting with terror the release of CENCO's statement on Thursday, thinking that  it would be in a piece with the recent sedition theology developed by the Kinshasa Archdiocese.

CENCO's statement, albeit couched in tough wording, stopped short of calling for open sedition--as did the homily of last Saturday mass delivered by Mgr. Albert Kisonga, the auxiliary bishop of Kinshasa, who gave a strange exegesis of Romans 13:1 ("there is no authority except from God") upon which he superimposed Acts 9:1 (Saul "breathing threats and murder")...

In the event, CENCO's statement, based on the report by Catholic election monitors, was devastating both to CENI and the government.

In its recommendation to Parliament, for instance, CENCO urges it "to urgently review the composition of CENI which no longer enjoys the confidence of the population and to integrate into it the representation of the civil society for more independence; additionally, to realize that the people won't let pass any attempt to modify the locked-in articles of the Constitution" (among the "locked-in articles" of the Congolese constitution is the article pertaining to the president's maximum two terms in office which can't be changed anyway, lest the person attempting the change be accused of high treason).

In my view, despite its relatively sober tone by comparison to the earlier fatwas issued by Cardinal Monsengwo and Mgr. Kisonga, CENCO's statement is none the less outrageously meddlesome. The Congolese state is secular and cannot yield to the dictates of some prelates, no matter the guise of drag queens in which they issue their fatwas!