Archbishop discusses peace-building, maintaining peace in Burundi

Published: 2008-04-17

NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Archbishop Evariste Ngoyagoye of Bujumbura, Burundi, came to the Conference on the Future of Catholic Peace-building with a story of Catholic engagement that brought about peace in Burundi. He left with a renewed sense of the vigilance necessary to maintain peace and justice in his country. "We weren't sufficiently vigilant during this period," Archbishop Ngoyagoye told Catholic News Service through an interpreter at an interview during the conference, where he was reminded of a U.N. warning that up to half of the regions emerging from war return to war within five years. The April 13-15 conference at the University of Notre Dame, aimed at articulating a Catholic theology and ethic of peace by bringing together academics and on-the-ground peace builders, will lead to revisions in the agendas at an upcoming bishops' conference meeting and diocesan synods, he said. "It's very important that from beginning to end there be clarity of purpose," Archbishop Ngoyagoye said, noting he'll be careful to identify the audience, adapt the message to different levels of the population and engage a broad base in the synods.

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