Just days before Rwanda was to begin a weeklong period of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of its genocide, Pope Francis urged the country’s bishops to be resolute in continuing the work of healing and reconciliation.

“Twenty years after those tragic events,” when as many as 1 million people were murdered in savage acts of ethnic violence, Pope Francis said, “reconciliation and the healing of wounds must remain the priority of the church in Rwanda.”

Meeting the country’s bishops April 3 during their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican, the pope offered his prayers for all Rwandans “without distinction of religion, ethnicity or politics.”

Forgiveness for what happened and “authentic reconciliation can seem impossible from a human point of view,” the pope said, but they are gifts people can “receive from Christ through a life of faith and prayer.”

“The path is long and requires patience, mutual respect and dialogue,” he said.

Rwandans began an official week of mourning April 7 to mark the anniversary of the genocide, in which mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, ethnic groups with a history of rivalry, were killed. Some massacres took place in churches; in some cases, entire congregations were murdered. Leaders of various Christian churches, including the Catholic Church, were implicated in the violence because of ties to one or the other ethnic group.

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