This newsletter was once written in collaboration with Marcel Ngandu Mutomba. A professor of historical past on the College of Lubumbashi, his paintings principally specializes in social lifestyles, social actions and inter-communal family members in Katanga, subjects to which he has faithful a number of works.
Within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, family members between the Church and politics have lengthy been marked by means of an everlasting rigidity between cooperation and disagreement, from the colonial duration when the Church adopted the state, in the course of the authoritarian regime of Mobutu Sese Seko the place it was a vital voice, to the hot disaster beneath Joseph Kabila, the place it established itself as an influential media ethical creator. The Catholic and Protestant church buildings are proposing a arguable initiative lately that will put an finish to the struggle that has torn the rustic aside for greater than thirty years whilst restoring social and political ties within the DRC.
On January 13, 2026, a submit titled “Earthquake in the Catholic Church (DRC)” circulated on social media in Congo. The message broadcasts the suspension of Msgr. Fulgens Muteba, president of the Nationwide Episcopal Convention of the Congo (CENCO), a non secular establishment that performs a key position within the DRC as an ethical and non secular authority, but in addition as a mediator right through political crises.
The next day to come, the Archdiocese of Lubumbashi issued a press unlock condemning this false knowledge, calling at the trustworthy to forgive “the lost brothers who do not understand the functioning of the Catholic Church, nor its institutional structure”, whilst “the country tries to find a way out of the crisis”.
Let’s recall that the hot agreements signed in Doha in November 2025 and in Washington in December of the similar 12 months didn’t silence the guns or put an finish to the profession of the towns of Goma and Bukavu by means of the riot (a coalition between the AFC/M23 and the Rwandan military).
Christmas mass
In his sermon of December 24, Bishop Muteba paints a grim image of the state of the rustic, which is a sufferer of the looting of its assets. He quotes those phrases of Pope Francis, made in 2023: “Take your hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Take your hands off Africa! Stop suffocating Africa, it is not a mine to plunder or a land to plunder!”
In any case, he asks the trustworthy in regards to the agreements signed between Kinshasa and the US, asking them in the event that they know that they had been signed for a duration of 99 years:
“It is unthinkable to pledge or sell the minerals of an entire nation to save a regime or a political system. Obviously, this means sacrificing population development and confiscating the happiness of future generations.”
On the finish of the sermon, there was once applause, however the setting heated up. The next day to come, the reactions of the believers had been other. On WhatsApp, critics pour in: “It’s not a Christmas homily”; “The cathedral was not yet full”; “People can’t take it anymore”; “Yesterday he didn’t celebrate at all…except hate.”
Wondered sooner than the church, different voices defended the archbishop, who would have the braveness to inform the reality. For Kevin (age 33, altar server), those that criticize the archbishop are fans of the presidential celebration (affiliated or sympathizers of the Union for Democracy and Social Development, UDPS). He denounces the rustic’s mismanagement – a complaint of the regime that takes on specific colour within the former Katanga province, a stronghold of the regime’s major warring parties.
As well as, the homily takes position within the context of prime tensions within the mining the town of Kolwezi (demonstrations, violent clashes, deaths) following an administrative choice proscribing the get entry to of artisanal miners to markets for processing and gross sales. Along with this local weather of social lack of confidence, accusations, suspicions and felony complaints associated with ill-gotten wealth within the area’s mining spaces are weighing closely on the ones just about President Felix Tshisekedi.
Two days after the sermon, govt spokesman Patrick Mujaya speaks of “untruths” in regards to the length of the signed contract and in addition enters the non secular sign in by means of quoting the biblical verse from Ephesians 4:25: “Give up falsehood, and let each one of you speak the truth to his neighbor.”
Bishop Muteba represents a era of extremely skilled Congolese bishops, combining instructional rigor in ethical theology and pastoral engagement within the public sphere, proceeding the Catholic Church’s custom of social intervention within the DRC. Since changing into Archbishop of Lubumbashi, he has strongly influenced the native political area by means of condemning the control of mining assets and the poverty of the folks of Katange, regardless of the wealth in their subsoil.
Interviewed in July 2025, he without delay hyperlinks the tried kidnapping of the Republican Guard, of which he’s a sufferer in 2023, to the reconciliation initiative he introduced in 2022 between Moise Katumbi and Joseph Kabila, two political heavyweights within the area.
In entrance of Lubumbashi Cathedral, December 24, 2025. A. Delescluse, Equipped by means of the creator
Within the context of inside migrations and tensions locally, the native Church made “community life” a central pastoral axis (the theme of the liturgical 12 months 2021-2022) by means of organizing the Discussion board on Reconciliation between the folks of Katan and the Convention on Group Existence. For the interviewed Lushos (citizens of Lubumbashi), the primary initiative was once welcome to reconcile the folks of Katanga weakened by means of territorial redistribution and the abolition of the executive unit of Katanga.
The Church’s ethical supremacy over Congolese society would give it legitimacy to interact in public affairs: that is the “prophetic role” of the Catholic Church, a time period often utilized by the trustworthy.
Social pact
This so-called prophetic orientation was once prolonged on the nationwide and regional degree by means of the release, firstly of 2025, of the Social Pact for Peace and Just right Coexistence within the DRC and the Nice Lakes, collectively supported by means of the Catholic and Protestant Church buildings, within the context of the resurgence of conflicts in Itura and Kivu.
This initiative proposes an inclusive discussion with the armed riot, political forces and the ones from civil society with a purpose to be able out of the disaster and reform the Congolese state. However regardless of the great global reception (global NGOs for peace and mediation, Western workplaces and diplomatic circles) and the hope it has woke up in Congolese civil society, particularly within the Kivus, it isn’t essentially unanimous.
Those variations aren’t noticeable a number of the native clergy of Lubumbashi. Clergymen and nuns interviewed stated they had been knowledgeable upfront, prayed for a a success end result and weren’t shocked by means of the consultations held in Goma or Kigali. The argument is pragmatic: for the reason that nation is militarily cornered, there can be no different answer however to open channels of negotiation to forestall the bloodshed. This place coincides with the location of a part of the global opinion and several other opposition figures.
On the civil society degree, the primary complaint is said to political interference. Voices query the effectiveness of the initiative and suspect that the bishops have a hidden political time table. Disagreements had been expressed in regards to the financing of the Social Pact and in regards to the trip of its individuals. Some decrease exterior improve and emphasize the spirit of the venture, whilst others indicate that the beginning of the improve (together with Rwanda) has grow to be a significant level of rivalry.
The studying of the struggle is itself polarized: interviewees put the violence of the rebels in point of view by means of contrasting their practices with the ones of the militias related to the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and even describe the profession as growing “order”. Against this, others in finding the means of the Social Pact incomprehensible if it is going thru Kigali: they see it as normalizing the alleged aggressor and contradicting the pontifical calls to “take your hands off the Congo”.
If right through Kabila’s time the bishops who took section in protests and mediation had been described as “extremists” or “adversaries”, with the Church taking part in a significant position in mobilizing to power him to go away energy in 2018, the step has been taken once more: beneath Tshisekedi, the latter were described as “traitors”, “rebels” or even “rebels” because the devils incite social controversy. (shaking palms of Msgr. Muteba and Paul Kagame, smile and blessing of Cornel Nangao, former chairman of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (CENI) who was the chief of the AFC/M23 rebellion motion).
Probably the most explanations given by means of supporters of the Kinshasa govt for the complaint leveled at them by means of folks from the church is the verdict made in 2019 to make number one training unfastened, which might motive a monetary loss for the Catholic Church. The second one is tribalism. Serge (age 42, legal professional) left the Church when the Social Pact initiative was once offered to the trustworthy:
“The archbishop is in the position of a politician, he is more political than religious. He is a member of the radical opposition against the government. There is evil in the Church.”
For the latter, the archbishop’s opinion was once formed by means of tribal hatred and now not pushed by means of goal causes with regards to the Congolese state equipment. He’s referring right here to the tensions between Katangese and Kasaians which were reactivated by means of the election of the Kasaian president in 2018 and the huge arrival of Kasaian migrants within the 4 provinces of the previous Katanga.
Like a excellent a part of the political magnificence related to the UDPS, this witness describes the Katanchans as traitors to the Rwandan govt. Two Congolese monks interviewed in France suspect that positive bishops had been corrupted by means of individuals of the political-military riot. For others, the cause of the kind of obvious improve for the rise up by means of CENCO individuals isn’t financial, however ethical or ideological. Benoit (age 68, professor) due to this fact believes that “Rwanda is psychologically dominating many people among the Congolese elites.”
Those that aren’t corrupt would “fish” out of naivety and thirst for energy, lots of them admit that they love politics or that they hesitated between a non secular vocation and a political or navy profession. Different believers recommend that within the context of territorial redistribution and lack of administrative solidarity and Catalan id, Msgr. Muteba seeks to grow to be the chief that Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza (died 2021) or Moses Katumbi, now in exile, might as soon as have embodied.
Palpable rigidity
What are we able to be told from those controversies? At the African continent, the Catholic Church has steadily performed a key mediating position during periods of stabilization or struggle, post-election disaster and even right through post-apartheid tensions in South Africa. In several contexts, clergy projects had been steadily focused and authorised by means of events, and even by means of the federal government. Within the DRC, the disaster is political, social and institutional, due to this fact extra diffuse – and the ambitions of the ECC-CENCO pact are very huge, which is each its energy and its major fragility.
Those controversies, then again, divulge two primary dynamics. At the one hand, the polarization of public opinion between two alleged camps: the pro-regime ones who name themselves patriots and those that are suspected of being pro-M23-Rwanda. In Lubumbashi, this department is seen a number of the Catholic trustworthy and takes on an ethnic-regional colour between the Kasajians and the Katangese. However, disinformation as a political weapon.
Within the DRC, as in other places, the struggle isn’t just navy; it’s also informative, and social networks have grow to be the primary political battlefield. The loss of keep watch over over statements broadcast on WhatsApp is a central factor on this regard, with Congolese fact-checking companies focusing extra on content material broadcast on TikTok and Instagram.
