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RWANDA
Bishop protests innocenceBirthday message to Pope
In a letter to Pope John Paul II, an imprisoned Rwandan bishop has said that the genocide charges he now faces are “totally unjust and unfounded.”
Bishop Augustin Misago of Gikongoro, who has been in jail since April 14, 1999, faces the death penalty if convicted of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. His letter to the Holy Father, which was made public by the Vatican on May 25, came in response to the Pope’s own letter of May 10, in which he expressed his solidarity with the Rwandan bishop.
Bishop Misago wrote that the Pope’s letter had moved him deeply. “For me it was a fatherly message of comfort and care,” he said. He mentioned that the Pope’s message arrived at a particularly difficult time, soon after he learned that prosecutors would seek the death penalty.
“Holy Father, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your gestures of solidarity and compassion,” Bishop Misago wrote. He conveyed his greetings to the Pontiff on his 80th birthday, and assured him, “I am always praying for your intentions.”