Father Richard’

ANNIVERSARY  OF EVANGELIZATION IN THE BENI-BUTEMBO REGION (Africa.  D. R .CONGO) Sunday 24 of September 2006

From six in the morning until the beginning of Mass at 10am, people wound their way up the hill from Beni-City and the surrounding countryside to Beni-Paida and the Church of Saint Gustave, where hundreds had preceded them, arriving the day before to camp out overnight.  Thousands of them (over twenty-five thousand to be sure) had come together to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of evangelization in the Beni-Butembo region of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Diocesan Bishop Melchisedeck Sikuli, three other Bishops, and nearly four-hundred priests concelebrated the outdoor Mass that lasted over five hours.  During his homily, Bishop Melchisedeck noted that from great suffering and simple means, the diocese had grown from around 9,000 in 1929 to include 900,057 Catholics at most recent count.

Outdoor Mass

Along with the Sacred Heart fathers, who arrived in the region in 1906, the Assumptionists had a place of honor as members of the Congregation that took up the mission from them in 1929, providing the diocese its first Bishop in the person of Henri Piérard, over 150 Assumptionist missionaries from eight different countries, and an important contribution still today through the presence of more than one hundred religious.  At the end of the Mass, among others, the Bishop, a representative of the President of the country, the Provincial of the Sacred Heart Fathers, and the Assumptionist Superior General addressed the attentive crowds. 

Father Richard’s talk:

ANNIVERSARY  OF EVANGELIZATION IN THE BENI-BUTEMBO REGION

Outdoor Mass

Outdoor Mass