Pope to beatify African nun

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 6

Pope to beatify African nun

NZPA-AP Kinshasa Pope John Paul II arrived in Zaire yesterday to honour a martyred nun and meet her convicted killer.

Crossing the Equator on a flight from the Central African Republic, the Pope arrived in Kinshasa to a warm welcome by the President, Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko. The President was accompanied by Cardinal Joseph Malula, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, and at one time regarded as one of the Zairean leader’s fiercest opponents. Thousands of cheering citizens lined the streets as the Pope was driven to the residence of the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Alfio Rapisarda, where he is staying during his 46-hour visit to Kinshasa.

Security was tight, as usual for a Papal visit and the security detail included some of the 250 Israelis who are part of Marshal Mobutu’s personal guard. The Pope first visited zaire in 1980.

Despite the warm greeting at the airport, Kinshasa’s welcome appeared to be subdued, compared with the reception given to the Pope in other African capitals along his seven-

nation, 12-day African tour.

In the modern business and residential centre of Kinshasa, a city of four million — one of the largest in Africa — there were few of the usual flags, banners, welcoming slogans or giant pictures of the Pope. In the Central African

Republic, one of Africa’s poorest countries, the Pope made a strong plea for selfreliance and a fight against corruption. The Pope was scheduled to say an outdoor Mass, including a ceremony to beatify an African nun, Anuarite Nengapeta. <

She was killed by a rebel officer in eastern Zaire in 1964 after she resisted his rape attempt. Beatification is the church’s last formal step before possible sainthood.

Sister Anuarite would be the first African woman to be consecrated as a martyr

of the Catholic Church. A former colonel, Pierre Openge Olombe, was convicted of the killing in 1965 and condemned to death. But the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and after serving five years in prison, Colonel Olombe was pardoned by

Marshal Mobutu. Colonel Olombe, aged 47, lives in seclusion. The Rev. Didier de Failly, spokesman for the Zaire Catholic bishops’ conference, said that the Pope had agreed to Colonel Olombe’s request to express his remorse in person.