The Holy Father Pope Francis prayed Monday for God’s forgiveness for the sins and shortcomings of the Church and its members during the 1994 genocide. Francis performed the religious ritual as he received on Monday for the first time in the Vatican the Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

In a statement issued by the Vatican, the Holy Father expressed on this occasion “his deep sadness, and that of the Holy See and the Church, for the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis” Pope Francis “implored God’s forgiveness for the sins and failings of the Church and its members, including priests, religious men and women who succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission”, Added the Vatican communiqué.

The Holy Roman Catholic Church was repeatedly questioned for its proximity to the extremist Hutu regime of the time and for the involvement of priests and religious in the massacres. According to the UN, the genocide killed 800,000, mostly among the Tutsi minority.

By Chi Prudence Asong