Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko; Congo Exile

Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko, 68, who was exiled from his diocese in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwanda-backed rebels. Kataliko, the vice president of Congo’s bishops conference and archbishop of the eastern city of Bukavu, was barred from his diocese for seven months this year for encouraging his parishioners to resist the authority of the Rwanda-backed insurgents. The Congolese Rally for Democracy, the main rebel group that took up arms against Congolese President Laurent Kabila two years ago, finally allowed him to return in September. “He exerted great influence in his diocese and all over Kivu, the region of Congo occupied by foreign troops,” said Archbishop Marcello Zago, secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. “The native and foreign invaders of this area realized this and tried to remove him from the area.” Kataliko, in Rome for meetings, died Wednesday of a heart attack in a hospital in Marino.