Dr. The saint of Congo killed ‘Mafia style’ to refuse to bribe

Two days after he kidnapped him in July 2007, Floribert Bawana Chui bin Kissi’s blood and battered body were thrown out of a university campus in Goma city east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The new graduate degree 26-year-old and devotee Catholic was only three months in the job as a Customs Officer-which he refused to pay a bribe with his general enthusiasm.

He stood for people wishing to smuggle in rice from neighboring Rwanda who had deteriorated and could prove to be poisonous on eating. No one was ever arrested for his murder.

Francesko Tedsky, a man campaigning to become a Catholic saint for Kosti, told the BBC that his “mafia -style” murder meant to work as a warning for someone else, standing for corruption – in a part of the world where guns dominate the rule of law.

Goma is the capital of North Kivu province, rich in iconic minerals – such as power mobile phones – and in plenty in rebel and militia groups.

But FR Tedeschi believes that the warnings failed completely due to Kissi’s love and heritage of justice, saying that she shows the kindness shown through her small life today.

His actions, at a place where corruption is ideal, was informed by his belief.

This made him quite strong to oppose the proposals repeatedly by smugglers.

According to the Catholic Sant’Gidio community, in which he was a member – the Cossity was first offered $ 1,000 (£ 750), then $ 2,000 “and more”, but was not stated continuously.

“They got phone calls and pressure, even from public authorities, to close one eye and to pay their fees as everyone did,” Sant’egidio community said,

Last year, the Catholic Church declared him a martyr – a step for the saint – as it felt that his death is the result of his reluctance to sacrifice his Christian values for money.

In the Catholic tradition, a saint serves as a model of Christian life and is considered the hero of faith through his extraordinary functions of courage.

Kosita has been defeated since then – in a ceremony in Rome last month – which means that once a miracle was held responsible for her, he would become a saint.

Till now it has been a remarkable journey, as in the form of canonization – the process for the saint – sometimes it can take decades or centuries – However it intensifies if the church decided that someone’s death had died for their faith,

Born in Goma in 1981, the eldest of the three siblings and eight half siblings was the eldest, according to a biography written by Sant’Gidio, who described them as coming from “well family”. His father was a bank clerk and his mother a border police officer.

“Floribert Bawana Chui was a wise and eloquent child from birth. He was a humble boy who respected his parents. I saw a bright future in it. I was expecting him to be a boy, who would get married, he would have a wife and children,” Told United Nations-provided radio Okapi Last month, before his son’s trip to Rome for beating his son – in which two younger brothers of KOSESI also participated.

Eastern Dr. Despite the challenges of living in the Congo, Kosati was always eager about the world, performed well in school and studied the law at the university.

It was during his study that he attended a regional student conference in Rwanda in 2001, which changed his life course.

An Italian priest made a thing in the gathering, which brought people to discuss ways to find, and to live, comfortably brought for peace in the field of great lakes.

He was speaking on behalf of the Sant’egidio community, a movement of both people and pastor, committed to social service – and the priest was encouraging students to embrace a rustic mission.

Fr Tedeschi barely ended speaking in the auditorium at the leafy university of Southern Rwanda, when Kissi approached him.

He told the BBC, “The speech along with Floribert touched his other friends who came from Goma.”

“He wanted to start a community of Sant’egidio in Goma. [He was] A young man filled with a desire to be useful to the world, who he saw around him, did not work with the desire to change him. ,

CoCity took his mission – and especially his efforts focused on helping the road children, FR Tedeschi said.

The region around Goma has known the decades struggle and is currently at the center of a rebellion that has captured a powerful rebel group in the city and its surrounding area.

Kositi, “very impressed” by the fate of children, caught in gradual trauma, set up One of Sant’egidio’s “School of Peace” – Those who provide food and other help to children to get education.

Today Goma’s School of Peace has been named in his honor and has become a real school.

But in the early 2000s, young graduates were often helping road children with school fees or food – or helping them become self -sufficient in a city where almost everyone was struggling.

“What hit me,” Fr Tedeschi said, “How Floribert was someone who took the life of others very seriously and more importantly, he would ask a lot of questions to understand himself, what were the roots of poverty – the misfortune of the people.

“They loved to talk, facing these problems.”

Koisi’s reach Dr. The Congo went beyond the borders. In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, some 100 km (60 mi) in the east of Goma, Bernard Musana Segatagara, a Santgidio companion, also remember him.

He told the BBC, “Changing Africa and building peace was our shared dream because we saw the growing network of friendship. I think living in an area of stress was making our friendship even more special,” he told the BBC.

After graduating in 2006, Kosita in April 2007 Rwanda and Dr. Before taking a senior position on the border between the Congo, started training as a customs officer in the capital Kinshhasa.

The rice dispute consisted of a consignment of about four or five tons that they tested because it was worried about its safety and then ordered that it be destroyed.

“The first one who pushed smugglers to try and bribe him, and later to threaten him. And Floribert always refused,” said Froo Tedchi.

“He refused on the basis of his Christian principles. At one point he asked a doctor – a nun working in Goma, a friend who was a friend – so he could really understand that this rice would have represented the civilian population.

“And this is why he was motivated to think: ‘So as a Christian, I can neither accept money nor these people are at risk of dying due to poison that it is just due to corruption.” ,

This is the same for the priest who showed the Christian values of love for someone’s neighbor “for the priest. [and] Justice”.

Advocate Jean Jacks Bakinahe, who studied with Kosisi at Goma University and was one of the leaders of Sant’Gidio in the city.

He told Rwanda Catholic Church TV channel that his friend “followed Shanti’s gospel in depth … [which] In fact, he helped him clearly reject that work of corruption “.

But this eventually caused his death.

,[The smugglers] Wanted to send a message … a mafia-style warning, “Fr Tedeschi said.

He admitted that it could scare some customs officers at that time, but said it was “successful in making” [people] Forget these testimony of love and justice that Floribert gave us “.

When the heavenly Pope Francis in February 2023 Dr. When he visited the Congo, he spoke to the young people at the main stadium in Kinshhasa – and urged them to follow the example of Kosi.

He said, “A young man like himself, Floribert Bawana Chui … At the age of only 26, was killed in Goma, which was damaged for poor food, which was harmful to people’s health,” he said.

“Since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others and he chose to be honest – did not say the dirt of corruption.

“If someone bribes you, or promises you and promises a lot of money, do not fall into the trap. Don’t cheat! Don’t suck in the swamp of evil!” He said.

His successor, Pope Leo XIV, who presided over the Betification ceremony in Papal Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in June, Dr. Agreed a more promising future for the young people of Congo.

“This African martyr, in a continent rich in youth, shows how young people can give birth to peace,” said Pontiff.

The Christian martyr, who is now the title of “Blessed” before his name, was appreciated with a joyful congregation loyal flags in Basilika.

Pope Leo said, “In the Congo, in the Congo, and in the whole of Africa, long -awaited peace comes soon – through the interval of Virgin Mary and Blessed Floribert,” said Pop Leo.

If Shanti Goma was to be given, where currently two combined peace processes are going on, it would actually be a miracle worthy of a saint – and will give hope to the entire region.