At the end of the general audience on February 16, 2022, Pope Francis paid tribute to a Congolese “young friar” who was a member of the Order of Clerics Regular Minor and was killed on February 2 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The priest was murdered by members of an Islamist group from Uganda linked to Daesh as he returned to his parish after celebrating Mass.
Father Richard Masivi Kasereka, the Pontiff said, was “the victim of an unjustifiable and deplorable act of violence.”
The Pope called on the priest’s family and the entire Christian community of the Democratic Republic of Congo not to be discouraged and “to be heralds and witnesses of the goodness of brotherhood, despite the difficulties, imitating the example of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.”
Father Richard Masivi Kasereka, a 36-year-old priest, was carrying out his pastoral ministry in the northeastern zone of Lubero when he was attacked by an armed band. He had just celebrated a Mass on the occasion of the World Day for Consecrated Life and was returning to his parish by car. He was ordained just three years ago.
