Ambongo at the Paroxysm of Hate during the Pope DRC Visit

In the DRC, the Cardinality is the name of the newly founded political party by Fridolin Ambongo, as the Pope on the eve the 40^th trip by Pope Francis. His birth name Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Sovereign Pontiff set foot on DRC blessed soil on Tuesday January 31, 2023; 38 years after the last papal visit by Pope John Paul 1^st in August 1985, five years after he made his first trip in May 1980. 266th Pope in history, it was under the reign of Congolese President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi that the Most Holy Father chose to enhance the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fortunes spiritually. Kinshasa and the DRC experienced the papal presence (January 31 to February 3, 2023) with an expression of immeasurable joy; a boomerang effect that only seasoned minds were able to extract the quintessence thereof. It is not every day that the sovereign pontiff accepts invitations, even in a country where more than 45% of the population are Catholic believers despite the secularism stipulated in the constitution, however little beleaguered kabilie likes it. Also, it is a first after the death of Pope Benedict XVI –Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger on December 31, 2022, his predecessor who had renounced his papacy on February 28, 2013. In his popemobile (the Pope car) from N’djili airport in Kinshasa, the Pope admired while blessing the people who strewed the Lumumba boulevard. All, practicing Catholics, Christians, believers and followers of other religions, populated the route that the papal procession took to the Palace of the Nation before joining the apostolic nuncio office, in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace, his accommodation venue during this DRC visit.

At the Palais de la Nation, the President of the Republic was in his element; he voiced, without glitch, his strong words to the Pope Francis, about crises which are perpetuated against the health of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Apostle Peter successor listened attentively to the speech by the DRC Head of State. He depicted a macabre assessment following the deaths recorded in the eastern part of the country without losing hope for better days. He castigated, before His Holiness Pope Francis, the role of foreign powers who exploit, without mercy or human life consideration, the DRC wealth under the cover of Rwandan forces. Silence by the international community, which oxygenates this looting, displacement of wounded populations and the dead, is a form of proven complicity and co-action. These absurd crimes and facts escape the attention from the leaders of the new political party, led by Ambongo.

The Holy Father arrival in the DRC did not please many; it sounds such a slap in the face of the DRC evil enemies, compared to the successes registered by Fatshi Béton on the international scene, the Catholic “political” prelate  is first to have Felix Antoine as their public enemy number one. The Vatican President was disappointed by putative tribulations that feed the appetite of those who bypass DRC mining and soil resources, without respect due to human life. The Holy Father, who does not hold a passport, is President of the Vatican, a State founded on February 11, 1929 following the Lateran Accords. These agreements bear the official title of Treaty between the Holy See and Italy. They were signed in the Lateran Palace on February 11, 1929, between the Italian State, represented by Benito Mussolini, and the Holy See, represented by Cardinal Gasparri, Secretary of State to Pope Pius XI. In addition to a political treaty which settled the Roman question, the agreements included a financial convention of four billion lire which compensated the Holy See; and a concordat which ruled on the position of the Church in Italy, Catholicism became the official religion of the Italian State. The Lateran Pacts made the Pope temporal ruler over the Vatican City State confined within 44 hectares (0.44 km2), becoming the smallest state in the world.

At the Ndolo aerodrome, fitted out for the occasion, the people of DRC had gathered on its airstrip and beyond, to follow the papal homily on Wednesday, February 01; holiday. Françis had had very strong words the day before in denouncing what he called “economic colonialism”, and Congolese resources predation while populations are suffering. In this Ndolo enclosure, more than a million people attended the papal Eucharist. The Holy Father centered his homily on peace. He challenged those who commit atrocious violence against populations, to lay down their arms, to have the courage to listen to the poor, above all “to break the circle of violence, to dismantle the plots of hatred”, while inviting the Congolese to find the strength to forgive. Citing Rwanda by name as the DRC war fuelling country would have appeased more than one. Unfortunately, this was not meant to be! events marking the 6th anniversary of the death of the Sphinx of Limete, Dr Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, on February 01, 2017 in Brussels, were put on hold. It was easy to understand the rationale beyond such a decision without which the enthusiasm inherent in the papal arrival would have been unattended considerably. The addiction did resurface during the mass with the Congolese cardinal, Fridolin Ambongo; he who had accompanied Pope Francis in his popemobile from the airport. Faithful to his invective and nasty old habits of undermining actions by President Félix, the cassock political opponent, Ambongo continued the mass after the papal homily, punctuated by his legendary vehemence, underlying a hatred depicted from all religiosity towards His Excellency the President of the Republic Fatshi Béton.

Arrogant Fridolin Ambongo Basunge, President of the Cardinalat was , mesmerized by Reinforced Concrete “Fatshi Beton”

Fridolin Ambongo was prevented from having a face-to-face meeting with the Sovereign Pontiff during his diplomatic stay in Kinshasa. This has never happened in all the history of the Roman Catholic Church, that the Pope does not spend a moment with a Cardinal of the local church. The protocol of His Holiness Pope Francis and his sole legal representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo Monsignor Ettero Balestraro, Apostolic Nuncio, have reserved an end of inadmissibility to his request. In French, they categorically refused to attend to a dinner that the Cardinal politician Fridolin Ambongo Basunge wanted to host in honor of the Pontificate in Kinshasa. Analysts and researchers have not missed the opportunity to deal with this twisted way of doing things; it was clearly admitted that Ambongo is competing head-on with President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, Head of State.

At this expected famous gala dinner, rump steak, sirloin, multiform roasts and poultry simmered in different tasty sauces were already planned for the Cardinal invitees. Politician Cardinal Ambongo, had reserved special seats for his distinguished guests, in  particular his close friend the Belgian of Congolese origin Olive Lembe Di Sita, Moshe Soriano Nissim d’Ardagno who became by trickery and lies Moïse Katumbi, Hypolite Kanambe Kazemberere and all sorts of perverted offenders from the AFDL criminal regime in Congo, which has become FCC, Ecide, Envol, Nouvel Elan, Ensemble pour la République, etc. Pope Francis, as Head of State, exasperated by verbal excesses spewed by the politician Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Basunge with regard to his “false counterpart”, according to his lies, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo HE Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, corrected him publicly and ignored him in the program relative to his diplomatic stay. He deprived him of a one-on-one meeting.

Why did the Vatican refuse to include the politician Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Basunge   in the Pope Francis official program? It’s curious and challenging for a cardinal who thinks he’s the incarnation of powers. His Holiness Pope Francis and his Legal Representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Monsignor Ettore Balestraro, Apostolic Nuncio, are wary of this politician in a threaded cassock. This justifies the non-scheduling of a face-to-face meeting with him. Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, Apostolic Nuncio and sole Representative of His Holiness Pope Francis in the DRC, is the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Vatican City in the DRC. He is the main architect of the program relating to the papal stay, with the assistance of services in the Presidency and the government. He (Ambongo) moved “heaven and earth” and requested the intervention of President Denis Sassou Nguesso (as he did for the evacuation of Monsengo Pasiya) so that he would intercede on his behalf with President Félix Antoine, and facilitate the meeting with the sovereign pontiff.  However, the Pope granted audiences to the victims from the East of the country at the Apostolic Nuncio office after the mass of Ndolo, to the representatives of certain charities, to young people and catechists at the Martyrs stadium. In the presence of Pope Francis, priests, deacons, consecrated persons and seminarians attended a prayer at Notre-Dame du Congo Cathedral. A private meeting also took place with the members of the Society of Jesus at the Apostolic Nuncio’s office. Prior to his departure for Juba in South Sudan, the Pope Francis held a meeting with bishops at CENCO. A farewell ceremony was held at NDjili International Airport in Kinshasa before his plane disappeared into the DRC skies, without having had a one-on-one with the political president of “Cardinalat” .

In DRC, priestly vestments are meaningless, Ambongo created his political party, the Cardinalat, to monetize his influence, and oppose the Head of State in everything and for everything. In doing so, he indulged in a pecuniary drunkenness that is worse than murderous madness, demonstrated urbi et orbi at the end of the papal eucharist in Ndolo. Congolese did witness a visual drama in Ndolo. Instead of bringing to the Pope attention the ecclesiastical achievements of Christians and Catholic believers, Cardinal political opponent took the floor to inform the Pope about the misery in the DRC and decline all social inequalities of which the Congolese people are victims, without him admitting that he was one of DRC sufferings’ architects; his fight against free education in the DRC being one of the many situations causing squabbles. Deception is not a papal term of reference; the Most Holy Father is informed by his Apostolic Nuncio in the DRC, Monsignor Ettore Balestraro about everything. Two 4×4 Jeeps given to Ambongo by the outgoing kabilie and the incoming regime are not hidden from him. The sovereign pontiff was waiting for a statement by Fridolin Ambongo that he had sold them at auction, and had returned the proceeds of the sale to this same population in order to alleviate their misery as much as possible – one wonders how dementia can also be cardinal. Extravagant luxury enjoyed by the Congolese prelate, Ambongo at the helm, is a fortress of ease fed by Olive Lembe, Soriano Katumbi and Hyppolite Kanamberere; an existence contrary to Christian values, in the image of Christ who was born in a stable and shared his life with the poor since the heavens and the earth belong to him. It has become a norm that each time, Cardinalat, since becoming a political party in the DRC, wants to set itself up as a counterweight to the actions by the Head of State. Ambongo had just missed a subliminal opportunity and an extremely important occasion to praise the contribution of the Catholic Church to the consolidation of peace in the DRC; their involvement in brainstorming aimed at the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the East, their concern for displaced populations thanks to the establishment of the Catholic Church throughout the national territory for decades, the strengthening of FARDC capacities in the war against Rwanda, as well as the predation denunciation of Congolese minerals by foreign countries under the tutelage of Rwanda. The financial windfalls that Hyppolite and Soriano pumps into the new political party, Cardinalat and its president Ambongo, are a muzzle so that he never cites Rwanda as an aggressor of the DRC. People would have liked to hear Ambongo make the mea culpa on behalf of the church which had boycotted the appointment of the new CENI President, taking the whole country hostage, haunted by the delights of tribal hatred that Ambongo supports wholeheartedly. The main reason being the implementation of free education as stipulated in article 43 of the constitution which they accuse FATSHI of violating with each rooster’s crow.

Ambongo no longer gives merits to his cardinal bar, cardinal ring as well as the cardinal purple. He was an ambassador of individuals who have pillaged DRC to the bones and deprived the Congolese people of brilliant future. Today, they all claim to behaving like torch bearer for the very people whom they neglected when FCC were in control. Instead of serving the gospel, Ambongo grooms his political party, Cardinalat, to join the Patriotic Bloc and run Soriano for the presidency. The Cardinalat has become the most pathogenic political environment par excellence in the DRC, and Ambongo plays out the procedures like a real metronome. He has become a personality who clings to nagging and unshakable convictions once he has acquired them. Ambongo suffers from severe hypertrophy. Is he aware those conspiracies that are brewing in Rwanda aim, this time, to break up the DRC and share the spoils? In Kigali, parliament approved the creation of a special commission whose mission is to review borders inherited from colonization. Kagame and his acolytes are convinced that part of their territory is in the DRC, and that Belgium has made serious mistakes during border tracing. France, Great Britain and the United States have their experts behind this turpitude. These are issues that affect the security of the DRC at the highest point on which Ambongo should focus his address. He suffers from myopia and presbyopia which prevent him from seeing otherwise; he could not detect anything, except making FATSHI Béton, precursor of the sufferings of an entire people. He leaves the 18-year-old regime alone, gravedigger of a population among which only the animators and the Catholic prelate received five-star treatment.  

Pope Francis ended his beautiful stay in the DRC by insisting that: “Power only has meaning if it becomes service. How important it is to act in this spirit by fleeing authoritarianism, the search for easy gains and thirst for money, and by the same token,  favouring free, transparent and credible elections”. The Pop added that  taking sides for one’s own ethnicity or for particular interests by putting spirals of hatred and violence there would turn to the detriment of all. DRC shall avoid slipping into tribalism and confrontation. The Most Holy Father called on the international community and great powers to withdraw their hands from the DRC, that they withdraw them from Africa, and that they stop suffocating Africa which is far from being a mine to exploit land to rob. Biblically and historically, the visit of the Head of the Catholic Church demonstrates the importance of the DRC on the world stage, but above all its place of choice internationally. Spiritually, the DRC is truly a gift from God for all humanity. Presidents, who have had the divine privilege of receiving it, become influential in the world, as was the late President Mobutu. Today His Excellency President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi entered this closed environment. The end of Rwandan aggression will only be a matter of weeks after His Holiness’s visit. All spiritual-physical signs show that Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo is really essential in the sub-region with a DRC, becoming the anchor of Africa development, as a whole. Wait and see!