(OSV News) — Hundreds of Catholics in Congo gave thanks for the recent Rome beatification of Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, a customs official who was killed and tortured for refusing a bribe.
On July 8, the remains of the young Congolese layman were transferred from the Kanyamuhanda public cemetery to St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Goma.
“I thank the members of Floribert Bwana Chui (Bin Kositi’s) biological family … for agreeing to donate their son’s remains to the church,” Bishop Willy Ngengele Ngumbi of Goma told the faithful.
The cemetery had been the blessed’s Congolese resting place since 2007, when he was killed at age 26, for rejecting bribes given to entice him to allow the entry of expired foods and goods into eastern Congo through the Goma port.
“Floribert was a civil servant and we know the concept we have of civil servants in our society. He made a difference by demonstrating that those armed with faith in Jesus Christ cannot retreat before the invasion of values,” Archbishop Flugence Muteba of Lubumbashi, president of Congo’s bishops’ conference, told the faithful gathered at the thanksgiving July 8 Mass in Goma.
The Mass was a culmination of a three-day celebration following the beatification of Kositi — and was attended by the blessed’s immediate family members, Congolese Catholics from all walks of life, clergy and delegations from different countries. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro beatified the Congolese civil servant on June 15 in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Congolese Bishop Willy Ngumbi Ngengele of Goma gestures alongside other prelates following Mass honoring Blessed Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi. Blessed Kositi, a 26-year-old layman from Congo, was a member of the Congolese branch of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which called him “a martyr of corruption.” Kidnapped July 7, 2007, after refusing a bribe, his body was discovered two days later with evident signs of torture. Blessed Kositi’s remains were transferred from a public cemetery to a cathedral in Congo’s eastern city of Goma during a special Mass following his June 15 Vatican beatification. (OSV News photo/Arlette Bashizi, Reuters)
Blessed Kositi, born in 1981 in Goma, and the first son of the late Deogratias Kositi Bazambala and Gertrude Kamara Ntawiha is being celebrated as a hero of Christian ethics. He was the eldest in a family of 12 — six boys and six girls. A member of the Holy Spirit Parish in Goma, Blessed Kositi was an active member of the Community of Sant’Egidio in the diocese. Among other apostolic commitments, while at the university, he joined the Sant’Egidio community in the Diocese of Goma, and devoted his life to the poor, especially street children.
Growing up in eastern Congo, a region beset by militia violence, Blessed Kositi launched a school of peace, aiming to shape the future of Congolese people through education.
But while working with the Congolese Control Office — as a commissioner in the damage department — Kositi was kidnapped on July 7, 2007. In a discovery that shocked the community, his lifeless body, bearing signs of torture, was found on July 9, 2007, near the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries in Goma.
During his apostolic visit to Kinshasa on Feb. 2, 2023, Pope Francis presented Kositi as an example of honesty and integrity to thousands of Congolese Christians gathered at the football stadium in the city.
When on an apostolic trip to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, in February 2023, Pope Francis said of the future blessed: “He could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result,” he said of the corruption attempt Kositi refused. “But, since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others and he chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption. That is what it means to keep your hands clean, for hands that traffic in easy money get stained with blood.”
If he becomes a saint one day — and for this declaration a miracle is needed even if one is beatified as a martyr — Kositi would become Congo’s first saint, in an African country with one of the largest numbers of Catholics on the continent.
News & Commentary
Congolese Catholics honor their beatified martyr of ‘integrity and honesty’
(OSV News) — Hundreds of Catholics in Congo gave thanks for the recent Rome beatification of Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi, a customs official who was killed and tortured for refusing a bribe.
On July 8, the remains of the young Congolese layman were transferred from the Kanyamuhanda public cemetery to St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Goma.
“I thank the members of Floribert Bwana Chui (Bin Kositi’s) biological family … for agreeing to donate their son’s remains to the church,” Bishop Willy Ngengele Ngumbi of Goma told the faithful.
The cemetery had been the blessed’s Congolese resting place since 2007, when he was killed at age 26, for rejecting bribes given to entice him to allow the entry of expired foods and goods into eastern Congo through the Goma port.
“Floribert was a civil servant and we know the concept we have of civil servants in our society. He made a difference by demonstrating that those armed with faith in Jesus Christ cannot retreat before the invasion of values,” Archbishop Flugence Muteba of Lubumbashi, president of Congo’s bishops’ conference, told the faithful gathered at the thanksgiving July 8 Mass in Goma.
The Mass was a culmination of a three-day celebration following the beatification of Kositi — and was attended by the blessed’s immediate family members, Congolese Catholics from all walks of life, clergy and delegations from different countries. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro beatified the Congolese civil servant on June 15 in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Blessed Kositi, born in 1981 in Goma, and the first son of the late Deogratias Kositi Bazambala and Gertrude Kamara Ntawiha is being celebrated as a hero of Christian ethics. He was the eldest in a family of 12 — six boys and six girls. A member of the Holy Spirit Parish in Goma, Blessed Kositi was an active member of the Community of Sant’Egidio in the diocese. Among other apostolic commitments, while at the university, he joined the Sant’Egidio community in the Diocese of Goma, and devoted his life to the poor, especially street children.
Growing up in eastern Congo, a region beset by militia violence, Blessed Kositi launched a school of peace, aiming to shape the future of Congolese people through education.
But while working with the Congolese Control Office — as a commissioner in the damage department — Kositi was kidnapped on July 7, 2007. In a discovery that shocked the community, his lifeless body, bearing signs of torture, was found on July 9, 2007, near the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries in Goma.
During his apostolic visit to Kinshasa on Feb. 2, 2023, Pope Francis presented Kositi as an example of honesty and integrity to thousands of Congolese Christians gathered at the football stadium in the city.
When on an apostolic trip to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, in February 2023, Pope Francis said of the future blessed: “He could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result,” he said of the corruption attempt Kositi refused. “But, since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others and he chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption. That is what it means to keep your hands clean, for hands that traffic in easy money get stained with blood.”
If he becomes a saint one day — and for this declaration a miracle is needed even if one is beatified as a martyr — Kositi would become Congo’s first saint, in an African country with one of the largest numbers of Catholics on the continent.
By Fredrick Nzwili | OSV News