+ Thaddè Ntihinyurwa*

1. The Catholic Church in Rwanda began its path towards the Jubilee of the year

This Jubilee of Incarnation and Redemption of the world coincides with the first Centenary of Evangelisation in Rwanda. The first missionaries arrived in Rwanda in February 1900 to announce the name of Christ. Therefore, for us, this Year 2000 is in a certain sense a dual Jubilee.

But this Jubilee is announced at a time in which the Rwandan people are coming out of a particularly tragic period in its history, a fratricidal war which caused a genocide whose wounds will be slow to heal.

We live today among the turmoil of a cold war in some regions of our country where an atmosphere of permanent precariousness reigns. In this conflictual context, marked by the wounds of history, our path towards the Jubilee of the Year 2000 becomes hope and prayer. Hope for greater justice and peace, prayer for our wounds to be healed and for reconciliation accepting to forget the past to build a better future. In our pastoral of the Jubilee, we want to create a favourable atmosphere to penance and to forgiveness, the only necessary conditions to recreate the social fabric torn by hatred.

2. To reach this objective, the Episcopal Conference has created a National Commission for the Jubilee.

This Commission, composed of three members per diocese including a priest, a religious and a lay person, is the national body charged with the animation for the Pastoral of the Jubilee. The Commission meets three times a year for a three-day session and has the task of arousing that jubilee renewal made of forgiveness, penance and justice at the level of parishes and grass-roots communities.

3. The sessions of the National Commission for the Jubilee have analysed the themes proposed by the Holy Father in his Apostolic Exhortation Tertio Millennio adveniente adapting them to the context in which we operate.

I Session (November 1996): What is the Jubilee? This was the phase of "sensitisation".

II Session (June 1997): Christ is our Justice.

Among the expectations and the aspiration of a people, justice always holds the first place.

How to operate, following Christ, for the advent of a justice for all?

What contribution can Christians bring to civil justice in the trials for crimes of genocide and against humanity committed in Rwanda?

III Session (November 1997): Christ is our Reconciliation and our Peace. What gestures can we carry out, what evangelical reactions in the face of the violence inspired to hatred and vengeance?

IV Session (February 1998): The Holy Spirit and the prophetic mission of the Church.

4. To accompany and support the work of the National Commission for the Jubilee, the Bishops every year prepare a Pastoral letter:

I Pastoral Letter: Appeal to the preparation of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and to the Centenary of the Evangelisation of Rwanda (November 1996).

II Pastoral Letter: Let us contemplate Christ Our Hope (Easter 1997).

III Pastoral Letter: Come Holy Spirit (will be published to mark the Feast of Easter 1998).

5. Collective prayer gatherings for the peace and conversion of the hearts take place on a national scale.

A day of prayer and fasting has been organised on 21 November 1997 to ask for forgiveness for our divisions and to implore God to grant us the gift of peace.

We recommend ourselves to the support and to the prayer of the universal Church so that this march of the Christians of Rwanda towards the Year 2000 may lead to forgiveness and to peace.

Let the Lord bless our path towards the Jubilee of the Year 2000.

* Archbishop of Kigali
President of the Rwandan Episcopal Conference