Bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo have denied association with the leader of a failed coup in the capital Kinshasa.
After the suppression of the coup attempt led by Christian Malanga Musumari on 19 May, images circulated on social media showing him with senior clerics and other public figures.
One picture showed Malanga, a Congolese-American politician, businessman and soldier, in the company of Archbishop Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa, before he was made a cardinal.
A statement from the bishops said the images did not mean a special relationship between the hierarchy and those involved in the coup.
“It turns out that the bishops, in their pastoral work, allow themselves to be approached, anywhere, by any human person, for photos or videos,” said Fr Donatien Nshole, the general secretary of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo on 20 May.
“[The bishops] thus condemn any recovery of these images by malicious people for malign populist purposes.”
Fr Nshole said Malanga was not a member of any official Church institution either in DR Congo or in Rome.
“His despicable acts do not involve the Catholic Church, neither directly nor remotely,” said Nshole.
Malanga was the leader of the United Congolese Party, which he founded in the US in 2012 to campaign among the Congolese diaspora. In 2017 he declared himself President of New Zaire, the head of an alternative government of DR Congo.
He was implicated in a number of conspiracies against the Kinshasa government, including an alleged assassination attempt against the former president, Joseph Kabila.
Reports said a group of armed men attacked government buildings and the home of a government minister in the capital, in an attempt to overthrow the government of President Felix Tshisekendi. Six people were killed in the fighting, including Malanga, and Congolese security forces said they made 50 arrests.
The bishops condemned the coup attempt, and regretted that it occurred at a time when all efforts should be focused on the insecurity and violence in the eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu.
“It is unacceptable for an armed group to take up residence in the heart of Kinshasa, the capital of the country,” said Nshole. “It is very regrettable that the security services were tested.”
The circulation of the images led to concerns that they could widen existing tensions between the government and the Catholic Church, which had become particularly fraught in late April when a senior state prosecutor ordered an investigation of alleged “seditious remarks” by Cardinal Ambonogo.
However, after meeting President Tshisekendi on 17 May the cardinal said their discussions had established an understanding on the challenges faced by DR Congo and shed light on their differences. “And now that we are talking, everything is becoming clear,” he said.
Their meeting in Kinshasa took place in the company of Mgr Andriy Yevchuk, the Vatican’s chargé d'affaires in DR Congo.
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