AFRICA/RWANDA - Mgr. Misago has died, Bishop of Gikongoro, accused and acquitted for the genocide in 1994

Kigali (Agenzia Fides) - The funeral of His exc. Mgr. Augustin Misago, Bishop of Gikongoro in the south-west of Rwanda, who died suddenly on March 12 was held today March 15.
Mgr. Misago was arrested in April 1999 following accusations on behalf of some religious and laity of his diocese for having had a role in the genocide of 1994. After the trial, he was acquitted in June 2000. After a short stay in Rome, Mgr. Misago was back on duty in his diocese. Born in Ruvune, in the Nyagahanga parish of the diocese of Byumba in 1943, Mgr. Misago, first Bishop of Gikongoro, was ordained a priest in 1971 and ordained a Bishop on June 28, 1992.
Mgr. Augustin Misago with a statement made public on June 29, 2001 approved the Marian apparitions in Kibeho (which fall within the territory of his diocese). The apparitions of the Virgin began on November 28, 1981 and ended on November 28, 1989. In an interview with Fides (see Fides 01/12/2007) Mgr. Misago commented like this the message of the apparitions of Kibeho: "Now we can say that there was a prediction of the Rwandese tragedy, but I remember that on August 15 1982, the feast of the Assumption, the visionaries instead of seeing the Virgin full of joy, witnessed visions of terrible, horrible, dead bodies from which copious streams of blood gushed out, left unburied on the hills. Nobody knew what these terrible images meant. Now one can do a reading of the events and think that it could be a vision of what would have happened in Rwanda but also in the Great Lakes where the blood flows in Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 15/3/2012)