Armed Raid Hits Catholic College Near Lubumbashi
Fr. Odorick Lenge was beaten and hospitalized; Archbishop Muteba postponed a protest over seminary land that remains occupied despite court rulings.
On Sunday, November 8, about twenty unidentified men in uniform raided the IMA Kafubu college, roughly 12 kilometers south of Lubumbashi in Kipushi territory, Haut-Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The assailants violently assaulted the prefect of studies, Fr. Odorick Lenge, and looted several valuable items. The priest was hospitalized for injuries from the beating and for shock.
The same day, Archbishop Fulgence Muteba of Lubumbashi—who also serves as president of the national episcopal conference of the Congo—announced during Mass that a peaceful protest march planned for November 9 had been postponed. “We want to give the authorities time to resolve the matter peacefully, as they had promised,” he said. He added: “If the authorities do not keep their promise, we will come back even stronger and even more numerous.”
Seminary land and unenforced rulings
The postponed march was intended to press the Lubumbashi municipal administration to enforce a court ruling ordering the demolition of unlawful constructions on land granted to the Grand Seminary San Paolo in Tshamalale, in the Annexe commune. The Church states that it has held the land concession since 1976 and has won several court rulings, yet has never obtained their enforcement.
An archdiocesan communiqué had invited seminarians, religious, and Catholic faithful to take part. The procession was to leave from the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul and end in front of Lubumbashi city hall.
A wider climate of violence against clergy
The seminary dispute sits within a wider climate of tension and violence affecting clergy and Church structures in the archdiocese. Earlier, on the night of October 26–27, armed men with rifles and machetes broke into the parish house of Notre-Dame de la Paix in the Gécamines district of Lubumbashi and violently attacked the priests present. The parish caretaker was seriously wounded and hospitalized. Archbishop Muteba had publicly denounced that break-in at the end of October.
Sunday’s assault on the Kafubu college and the continued occupation of seminary land underscore the vulnerability of Catholic institutions in Haut-Katanga, even as Church leaders seek lawful, peaceful remedies and give civil authorities a chance to act on existing judgments.