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World
Catholic Church Apologizes for Role in Rwandan Genocide
By Conor Gaffey On 11/21/16 at 9:37 AM EST


The Catholic Church in Rwanda has formally apologized for the role it played in the country's genocide of 22 years ago, in which around 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days.

A statement by the Conference of Catholic Bishops was read out in parishes across the East African country Sunday, acknowledging that church members violated their "oath of allegiance to God's commandments" during the genocide, AP reported.

The genocide in Rwanda took place between April and July 1994. Members of the Hutu majority ethnic group, enraged by the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, systematically murdered members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and moderate Hutus.

Rwanda is a majority Christian country and Roman Catholics make up the biggest religious grouping in the country. Several Catholic priests have been indicted by international tribunals for alleged crimes committed during the genocide, but the church in Rwanda has not previously acknowledged its formal role in the mass-murder, saying that those guilty of crimes from within its ranks were acting individually.