NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    KIGALI, Rwanda (CWNews.com) - Rwandan Archbishop Augustin Misago, on trial in his country for genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi minority, told Associated Press news agency this week that his trial is an attempt to discredit the Catholic Church.

    In a jailhouse interview, the archbishop rejected charges that he sent 82 children to their deaths at the hands of militias, and said he is a scapegoat for the current regime's revenge on the Church for its alleged silence during the genocide of up to 1 million people. "I'm innocent," he said. "But through me, the Rwandan government is targeting the Catholic Church."

    When the archbishop's trial begins with a major phase on Tuesday including preliminary defense motions, the Church's actions are expected to be a focus of the prosecution. The Rwandan government appeared to welcome such scrutiny as it waited for contrition from the Church for what it believes to be her failure to stop the killing.

    The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has described that case against Archbishop Misago as a government campaign to hold the Catholic Church solely responsible for the genocide. Rwanda was Africa's most Catholic country with more than 62 percent of the country's pre-genocide population of 7.8 million belonging to the Church, which wielded enormous influence in the country.

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