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![]() Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
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Type | National polity |
Classification | Catholic |
Orientation | African Christianity, Latin |
Scripture | Bible |
Theology | Catholic theology |
Governance | ECDRC |
Pope | Francis |
President | Marcel Utembi Tapa |
Apostolic Nuncio | Ettore Balestrero |
Region | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Origin | 1483 Kingdom of Kongo |
Members | 61 million (55.8% of the DROC population [1] ) |
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Catholic Church |
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Overview |
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Catholicism has a major presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
According to the 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, an estimated 47.3% of the population are Catholic. [2]
There are six archdioceses and 41 dioceses. [3] The largest of these is the Archdiocese of Kinshasa; the Vicar General of Kinshasa, Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Nlandu Mayi, [4] is an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy For Life.
The impact of the Catholic Church in the DRC is difficult to overestimate. [5] Schatzberg has called it the country's "only truly national institution apart from the state." [6] [5] Besides involving more than 50 percent of the population in its religious services, its schools have educated over 60 percent of the nation's primary school students and more than 40 percent of its secondary students during the 20th century. [5] The church owns and manages an extensive network of hospitals, schools, and clinics, as well as many diocesan economic enterprises, including farms, ranches, stores, and artisans' shops. [5]
For earlier history see Catholic Church in Kongo.
The church's penetration of the country at large is a product of the colonial era. [5] The Belgian colonial state authorized and subsidized the predominantly Belgian Catholic missions to establish schools and hospitals throughout the colony; the church's function from the perspective of the state was to accomplish Belgium's "civilizing mission" by creating a healthy, literate, and disciplined work force, one that was obedient to the governing authorities. [5] From the perspective of the church, evangelization was the primary goal, and the number of converts baptized was the measure of its success. [5] Although different in emphasis, church and state goals were sufficiently complementary that the state and church were perceived by the population as sharing the same purpose. [5] As Joseph Malula, who was for many years the head of the church in Zaire, put it, "For our people, the Church was the State, and the State was the Church." [5] When independence came in 1960, the bill for church collaboration came due; Catholic personnel were the frequent subjects of attacks by angry Congolese throughout the country, while Protestant missionaries and Kimbanguist personnel were, outside of Bas-Zaïre Region, largely spared. [5]
The Church's reversal of its role in relation to the state since independence has been striking. [5] Formerly a reliable ally, it has increasingly become the state's most severe institutional critic. [5] Overt conflict first erupted in 1971 when the state, as part of its efforts to centralize and extend its authority, nationalized the country's three universities, including the Catholic Church's Lovanium University outside Kinshasa. [5] State attempts to implant sections of the official party's youth movement, the Youth of the Popular Revolutionary Movement (Jeunesse du Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution—JMPR), in Catholic seminaries were strongly resisted. [5] The conflict intensified in 1972 when, as part of the authenticity campaign, all Zairians were ordered to drop their Christian baptismal names and adopt African ones. [5] Cardinal Malula protested the decision and told his bishops to ignore it. [5] The regime retaliated by forcing the cardinal into exile for three months and by seizing his residence and converting it into JMPR headquarters. [5] In addition, the state banned all religious publications and youth groups. [5]
Following a brief thaw in 1973 and early 1974, during which the cardinal was permitted to return from exile, relations between church and state continued to deteriorate. [5] The state declared that Christmas would no longer be a Zairian holiday, banned religious instruction from the schools, and ordered crucifixes and pictures of the pope removed from schools, hospitals, and public buildings; the removed items were replaced by pictures of President Mobutu. [5] The president was characterized by the regime as a new messiah, and the state took over direct control of the nation's schools. [5] Courses in Mobutism supplanted courses in religious instruction. [5] Students in the former church schools found themselves participating in daily rallies led by JMPR members, during which they were obliged to chant "Mobutu awa, Mobutu kuna, Mobutu partout" (Mobutu here, Mobutu there, Mobutu everywhere). [5]
The tables turned in late 1975 as the effects of Zairianization and the fall in copper prices resulted in a progressively worsening economy. [5] As living standards fell, more and more state officials exploited their positions to steal from the citizenry. [5] Catholic clergy issued public denunciations of these exactions. [5] Increasingly pointed pastoral letters denouncing state corruption were published by all of Zaire's bishops in 1977 and 1978. [5]
Meanwhile, although privately furious at such criticism, Mobutu was preoccupied with the deteriorating economy and the invasions of Shaba Region. [5] In addition, the state's lack of managerial skills and resources had rendered its takeover of the education system a disaster. [5] Faced with these realities, the president asked religious institutions to resume responsibility for church schools, which, by 1976, they had done. [5] Courses on religion were once again integrated into the curriculum. [5]
Tensions remained high throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. [5] The bishops' episcopal letter of June 1981, for example, castigated the regime for corruption, brutality, mismanagement, and lack of respect for human dignity. [5] An angry Mobutu retaliated by warning the Catholic hierarchy to stay out of politics; he also stationed JMPR militants in all places of worship to monitor priestly homilies. [5] Coincidentally, attacks and attempted attacks were launched during the following months by unknown parties against several highly placed Catholic clerics; Cardinal Malula's home, for example, was attacked and his night watchman killed. [5] The cardinal advised Zairians before the 1984 presidential elections to consult their consciences before casting their ballots; his act was denounced by the government as religious zealotry. [5]
Tensions would have been still greater but for divisions within the Church and for the ambiguity of the Church's role relative to the state. [5] Conflict within the Church exists between the lower clergy, who are in day-to-day contact with the population, and the higher clergy; the former argued for a more radical structural critique of the regime, while the latter prevailed in arguing for a more limited, moral criticism. [5] Many bishops wished to protect the church's institutional position and to avoid the retaliation that a more militant attack on the state could well provoke. [5]
In November 2022 the Congolese bishops issued a statement in which they warned that the country was at risk of "Balkanisation" due to the dire security situation, with rebel groups making significant gains in various parts of the territory, [7] and in 2024, six bishops from the east of the country issued a statement criticising the "undermining" of the dignity of the population, and claiming "our country is not for sale!". [8]
High church officials enjoyed many of the economic and social privileges of other prominent Zairians. [5] In addition, the Church continued to depend on grants from foreign sources; as of 1976, none of Zaire's forty-seven dioceses was financially self-sufficient, a situation of dependency that appeared little changed by the early 1990s. [5] The dependence of the largely Africanized church leadership on substantial numbers of expatriate priests, nuns, and brothers at lower and middle staff levels was another weakness. [5] Finally, while church officials generally sided with the populace against the government in labor disputes, tax revolts, and individual cases of injustice, they sometimes made common cause with the regime; in its management role in Catholic schools, for example, the Church found itself siding with the government against teachers striking for higher wages in the early 1980s. [5]
The Zaire Use, [9] or Zairan Rite (Rite Zaïrois), that which perhaps now can be called the Congolese Rite, is a variation of the Roman Rite. It was approved by Rome in 1988. This liturgy fits into Congolese culture. People are involved in the liturgy because they feel recognised and considered. It takes into account African life and culture. [10]
The Zaire Use encourages the participation of the congregation. The engagement of the faithful by, for example, dance, can be seen as an expression of faith. [11] Another aspect is the invocation of ancestors and the saints which forms an important part of liturgy in the Congo. It is an eschatological affirmation of the Christian assembly as well as a part of the Congolese culture. A third characteristic of the liturgical celebration is that readers receive a blessing given as a mandate by the priest, before going up to read. [12]
Cardinal Joseph Malula is considered, today, as "one of the founders of the African Church [...] and as an African father figure", the father of the Rite Zairois or the pioneer, par excellence, of the Africanisation of the c\Church in sub-Saharan Africa. [13]
Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 1997. Zaire was located in Central Africa and was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa, and the 11th-largest country in the world. With a population of over 23 million inhabitants, Zaire was the most populous officially Francophone country in Africa, as well as one of the most populous in Africa.
Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga, commonly known as Mobutu Sese Seko or simply just Mobutu and also by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the 1st and only President of Zaire from 1971 to 1997. Previously, Mobutu served as the 2nd President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1971. He also served as the 5th Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity from 1967 to 1968. During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu, serving as Chief of Staff of the Army and supported by Belgium and the United States, deposed the democratically elected government of left-wing nationalist Patrice Lumumba in 1960. Mobutu installed a government that arranged for Lumumba's execution in 1961, and continued to lead the country's armed forces until he took power directly in a second coup in 1965.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 112 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the economic center. The country is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, also known by the French acronym AFDL, was a coalition of Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, and Congolese dissidents, disgruntled minority groups, and nations that toppled Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent-Désiré Kabila to power in the First Congo War. Although the group was successful in overthrowing Mobutu, the alliance fell apart after Kabila did not agree to be dictated by his foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda, which marked the beginning of the Second Congo War in 1998.
The First Congo War (1996–1997), also nicknamed Africa's First World War, was a civil war and international military conflict which took place mostly in Zaire, with major spillovers into Sudan and Uganda. The conflict culminated in a foreign invasion that replaced Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Kabila's unstable government subsequently came into conflict with his allies, setting the stage for the Second Congo War in 1998–2003.
Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba was a Congolese politician and the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the main opposing political party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A long-time opposition leader, he served as Prime Minister of the country on three brief occasions: in 1991, 1992–1993, and 1997. He was also the father of the current President, Felix Tshisekedi.
Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi, C.I.C.M. was cardinal and Archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was the DRC's foremost Catholic prelate from 1991 until his death in 2007.
The Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte, or simply the Stade des Martyrs, is the national stadium of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located in the Kinshasa commune of the capital Kinshasa. With a seating capacity of 80,000, it is the largest stadium in the DRC and the fourth-largest stadium in Africa. It serves as the home stadium for the Congolese football national team, AS Vita Club, and DCMP, making it the largest multifunctional venue in the country.
Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond was a prominent Zairian politician.
Authenticité, sometimes Zairisation or Zairianisation in English, was an official state ideology of the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in what was first the Democratic Republic of Congo, later renamed Zaire. The authenticity campaign was an effort to rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western culture and to create a more centralized and singular national identity.
The Archdiocese of Kinshasa is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its ecclesiastic territory includes the capital city of Kinshasa and surrounding districts. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Kinshasa. The current archbishop is Fridolin Ambongo Besungu.
Law enforcement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has historically been focused on furthering the state's aims with no regard for human rights. The Police nationale congolaise is the police throughout the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was composed of between 110,000–150,000 officers as of 2010.
The Congolese National Liberation Front is a political party funded by rebels of Katangese origin and composed of ex-members of the Katangese Gendarmerie. It was active mainly in Angola and Zaire during the 1970s.
Joseph-Albert Malula was a Congolese Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Kinshasa from 1964 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969.
Christianity is the predominant religion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with Catholicism and Protestantism being its main denominations.
Democratic Republic of the Congo–United States relations are the international relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United States of America.
Democratic Republic of the Congo–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Russia. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has an embassy in Moscow and an honorary consulate in Yekaterinburg. Russia has an embassy in Kinshasa. The relations between the two countries were established on July 7, 1960, and restored since November 30, 1967.
The Zaire Use, also called Zairean Rite, officially the Roman Missal for the Dioceses of Zaire, is a Congolese liturgical use of the Roman Rite within the Catholic Church. Approved by the Vatican in 1988, it contains many elements from the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but also incorporates elements from sub-Saharan African culture, particularly Congolese, including a number of inculturated liturgical modifications.
Emmanuel Dungia was a diplomat of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and author of the political book: Mobutu and the money of Zaïre: the revelations of a diplomat, former Secret Services agent. The latter includes the report prepared for the International Monetary Fund by Erwin Blumenthal, former Director of Foreign Affairs of the Bundesbank. Dungia was also imprisoned but was eventually acquitted by the Congolese government for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow Laurent Kabila who was assassinated 16 January 2001.
During the presidency of President Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, later Republic of Zaire (1965-1997), social and political rights were strongly curtailed. As a consequence, several Congolese/Zairean citizens went into exile for political reasons.
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