Machozi’s Calling
The priest’s return to the people of eastern Congo surprised few of his friends. His murder surprised no one.
There was one thing about Father Vincent Machozi that worried his religious superiors in the Brighton, Mass., house of the Augustinians of the Assumption. Machozi, a contemplative priest from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), operated a website, Beni Lubero Online, where he posted grisly iPhone photos of victims of violence in the DRC province of North Kivu, as well as reports that often identified the killers as military or government agents. Machozi (STH’15), who was working toward a PhD at BU’s School of Theology, hoped that the photos of dead and dismembered bodies would galvanize site visitors to help end the violence. His superiors, on the other hand, feared that they would invite the revenge of the warlords and militias who controlled the lawless province, and who could easily direct their retaliation at some of the 150 Assumptionist priests working in schools and orphanages in eastern Congo. They asked that Machozi never link the site in any way to the Assumptionist order.
“Our superiors were very concerned,” says Father Claude Grenache, superior of the Assumptionist Center in Brighton, the three-story brick building where Machozi lived for almost 10 years. “He was always careful to publish the website under his own personal name, because if he did that in the name of the congregation, everybody would be in danger. Even in this country, we could have run into problems.”
While Machozi honored his superiors’ concerns, he never let their trepidation influence his personal choices. In June 2012, he put his studies aside and returned to his war-ravaged homeland, where in many villages three-quarters of the women had been raped by soldiers, and where women, boys, and men were forced by militia to dig for the highly prized ore coltan, which is essential for the manufacture of cell phones.
The move surprised few of the people at STH and BU’s African Studies Center, who knew Machozi well. Even those who had heard about the several death threats he had received over the years understood why he had to do it. No measure of danger could match the power of Machozi’s calling.
Read the full story and 2 comments
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.