Congolese customs worker beatified by the Vatican

The Advertiser

10 hours ago

The Vatican has beatified a Congolese customs worker who was killed for resisting a bribe, giving young people in a place with endemic corruption a new model of holiness: Someone who refused to allow spoiled rice to be distributed to poor people.
The head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, presided over the beatification ceremony of Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi on Sunday, at one of the pontifical basilicas in Rome, St Paul Outside the Walls.
The event attracted a cheering crowd of Congolese pilgrims and much of Rome's Congolese Catholic community, who will be treated to a special audience on Monday with Pope Leo XIV.
Faithful wore T-shirts and vests with Kositi's portrait and erupted in chants and applause as soon as the beatification ceremony was concluded, waving Congolese flags.
Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to the eastern Congo city of Goma.
As an official with the Congolese government's custom's quality control office, the 26-year-old knew the risks of resisting bribes offered to public officials.
But he also knew the risks of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the most desperate.
"On that day, those mafiosi found themselves in front of a young man who, in the name of the Gospel, said 'No.' He opposed," his friend Aline Minani said.
"And Floribèrt, I think that for me personally, I would say for all young people, is a role model."
Pope Francis recognised Kositi as a martyr of the faith late last year, setting him on the path to beatification and to possibly become Congo's first saint.
The move fits into the Pope's broader understanding of martyr as a social justice concept, allowing those deemed to have been killed for doing God's work and following the Gospel to be considered for sainthood.
Pope Francis said Kositi "could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. 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".
The Italian priest who spearheaded Kositi's sainthood case, the Reverend Francesco Tedeschi, broke down as he recounted Kositi's example and Francis' call for the church to recognise the ordinary holiness in the "saints next door".
Tedeschi said his decision to refuse the spoiled food was inspired by the Christian idea of the dignity of everyone, especially the poor.
Being declared a martyr exempts Kositi from the requirement that a miracle must be attributed to his intercession before he is beatified, thereby fast-tracking the process to get to the first step of sainthood.
The Vatican must, however, confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be canonised, a process that can take years or more.
The Vatican has beatified a Congolese customs worker who was killed for resisting a bribe, giving young people in a place with endemic corruption a new model of holiness: Someone who refused to allow spoiled rice to be distributed to poor people.
The head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, presided over the beatification ceremony of Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi on Sunday, at one of the pontifical basilicas in Rome, St Paul Outside the Walls.
The event attracted a cheering crowd of Congolese pilgrims and much of Rome's Congolese Catholic community, who will be treated to a special audience on Monday with Pope Leo XIV.
Faithful wore T-shirts and vests with Kositi's portrait and erupted in chants and applause as soon as the beatification ceremony was concluded, waving Congolese flags.
Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to the eastern Congo city of Goma.
As an official with the Congolese government's custom's quality control office, the 26-year-old knew the risks of resisting bribes offered to public officials.
But he also knew the risks of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the most desperate.
"On that day, those mafiosi found themselves in front of a young man who, in the name of the Gospel, said 'No.' He opposed," his friend Aline Minani said.
"And Floribèrt, I think that for me personally, I would say for all young people, is a role model."
Pope Francis recognised Kositi as a martyr of the faith late last year, setting him on the path to beatification and to possibly become Congo's first saint.
The move fits into the Pope's broader understanding of martyr as a social justice concept, allowing those deemed to have been killed for doing God's work and following the Gospel to be considered for sainthood.
Pope Francis said Kositi "could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. 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".
The Italian priest who spearheaded Kositi's sainthood case, the Reverend Francesco Tedeschi, broke down as he recounted Kositi's example and Francis' call for the church to recognise the ordinary holiness in the "saints next door".
Tedeschi said his decision to refuse the spoiled food was inspired by the Christian idea of the dignity of everyone, especially the poor.
Being declared a martyr exempts Kositi from the requirement that a miracle must be attributed to his intercession before he is beatified, thereby fast-tracking the process to get to the first step of sainthood.
The Vatican must, however, confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be canonised, a process that can take years or more.
The Vatican has beatified a Congolese customs worker who was killed for resisting a bribe, giving young people in a place with endemic corruption a new model of holiness: Someone who refused to allow spoiled rice to be distributed to poor people.
The head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, presided over the beatification ceremony of Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi on Sunday, at one of the pontifical basilicas in Rome, St Paul Outside the Walls.
The event attracted a cheering crowd of Congolese pilgrims and much of Rome's Congolese Catholic community, who will be treated to a special audience on Monday with Pope Leo XIV.
Faithful wore T-shirts and vests with Kositi's portrait and erupted in chants and applause as soon as the beatification ceremony was concluded, waving Congolese flags.
Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to the eastern Congo city of Goma.
As an official with the Congolese government's custom's quality control office, the 26-year-old knew the risks of resisting bribes offered to public officials.
But he also knew the risks of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the most desperate.
"On that day, those mafiosi found themselves in front of a young man who, in the name of the Gospel, said 'No.' He opposed," his friend Aline Minani said.
"And Floribèrt, I think that for me personally, I would say for all young people, is a role model."
Pope Francis recognised Kositi as a martyr of the faith late last year, setting him on the path to beatification and to possibly become Congo's first saint.
The move fits into the Pope's broader understanding of martyr as a social justice concept, allowing those deemed to have been killed for doing God's work and following the Gospel to be considered for sainthood.
Pope Francis said Kositi "could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. 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".
The Italian priest who spearheaded Kositi's sainthood case, the Reverend Francesco Tedeschi, broke down as he recounted Kositi's example and Francis' call for the church to recognise the ordinary holiness in the "saints next door".
Tedeschi said his decision to refuse the spoiled food was inspired by the Christian idea of the dignity of everyone, especially the poor.
Being declared a martyr exempts Kositi from the requirement that a miracle must be attributed to his intercession before he is beatified, thereby fast-tracking the process to get to the first step of sainthood.
The Vatican must, however, confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be canonised, a process that can take years or more.
The Vatican has beatified a Congolese customs worker who was killed for resisting a bribe, giving young people in a place with endemic corruption a new model of holiness: Someone who refused to allow spoiled rice to be distributed to poor people.
The head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, presided over the beatification ceremony of Floribèrt Bwana Chui Bin Kositi on Sunday, at one of the pontifical basilicas in Rome, St Paul Outside the Walls.
The event attracted a cheering crowd of Congolese pilgrims and much of Rome's Congolese Catholic community, who will be treated to a special audience on Monday with Pope Leo XIV.
Faithful wore T-shirts and vests with Kositi's portrait and erupted in chants and applause as soon as the beatification ceremony was concluded, waving Congolese flags.
Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to the eastern Congo city of Goma.
As an official with the Congolese government's custom's quality control office, the 26-year-old knew the risks of resisting bribes offered to public officials.
But he also knew the risks of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the most desperate.
"On that day, those mafiosi found themselves in front of a young man who, in the name of the Gospel, said 'No.' He opposed," his friend Aline Minani said.
"And Floribèrt, I think that for me personally, I would say for all young people, is a role model."
Pope Francis recognised Kositi as a martyr of the faith late last year, setting him on the path to beatification and to possibly become Congo's first saint.
The move fits into the Pope's broader understanding of martyr as a social justice concept, allowing those deemed to have been killed for doing God's work and following the Gospel to be considered for sainthood.
Pope Francis said Kositi "could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. 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".
The Italian priest who spearheaded Kositi's sainthood case, the Reverend Francesco Tedeschi, broke down as he recounted Kositi's example and Francis' call for the church to recognise the ordinary holiness in the "saints next door".
Tedeschi said his decision to refuse the spoiled food was inspired by the Christian idea of the dignity of everyone, especially the poor.
Being declared a martyr exempts Kositi from the requirement that a miracle must be attributed to his intercession before he is beatified, thereby fast-tracking the process to get to the first step of sainthood.
The Vatican must, however, confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be canonised, a process that can take years or more.