L'église de Kibeho au Rwanda, lieu de culte ou lieu de mémoire du génocide de 1994 ?

Résumé 0

Unlike the other two massacres perpetrated in the last century, here assassins and victims share the same faith. We have quickly forgotten, reminds us the author, the strong resonance of religion in these killings ponctuated with hymns and visions of the Virgin. This brings us to the major question regarding the responsibilities of the Catholic clergy, and above that of the Church in Rwanda as well as that of the heads of the Vatican. Many prayer sites were turned into massacre sites. “African Ouradours” were to be found everywhere. Through the specific case of the Kibeho church, Chrétien studies the stakes of remembrance: can a church become once again a worshipping place as if nothing abnormal had happened (as claimed by the episcopal hierarchy) or should it be consacrated as a memorial site (as claimed by the survivors)? Far from being a formal argument, this controversy reveals how, in the name of “universal reconciliation”, (certainly an honorable position), a kind of muted revisionism is apparent now-a-days, one covering-up the responsibility of the actors of this drama, while confounding killers and victims in prayer and sorrow.