Faustin Ngabu dedicated his life to reconciliation and truth. He passed away in Goma on Sunday, 26 October 2025, aged 90. African Facts met with him twice, in February and September of this year. Here is a look back at his career and his final confidences. Exclusive. The emeritus bishop of Goma leaves behind a message that some find disturbing, but salutary.
On 26 October 2025, Goma fell silent for a moment when the news spread from telephone to telephone: Faustin Ngabu had died. The bishop emeritus, who had led the diocese for thirty-six years, passed away in the city where he had made his mark and established a code of conduct: “May all be one”. This was the motto of a man of the Church who believed that peace could only be achieved by confronting the lies and hypocrisy that fuel war. News of his death brought to mind his candid words spanning half a century of political turmoil and armed violence in eastern DRC.
Born in Lokwa in 1935 and ordained as a priest in 1963, Faustin Ngabu was appointed to the head of a peripheral diocese in 1974, which history would place at the centre of the upheavals in the vast Democratic Republic of Congo. Having been appointed coadjutor in the spring, he succeeded the Bishop of Goma in autumn of the same year, going on to become one of the country’s longest-serving prelates. In 2010, Benedict XVI accepted his resignation. Ngabu remained bishop emeritus. But his voice never really fell silent.
We met him twice in Goma in 2025, during interviews that alternated between recalling certain facts and examining the conscience of a country which has rarely allowed itself to do it. During the first interview, which focused on the Congolese Banyarwanda, Ngabu employed a shocking phrase to stimulate debate: “The Banyarwanda of Congo destroyed their own identity”. This was his way of challenging the simplifications that fuel hatred.
He was obsessed with freeing the Congolese conversation from the traps of ideology. “When you’re caught up in ideology, human intelligence regresses”, he told us in a second interview, lamenting the fact that slogans are preferred to patience, dialogue, and the pursuit of truth. He spared neither religious leaders nor politicians, first asking them to name the facts correctly and to accept the complexity of affiliations, as well as the depth and continuity of identities in the Great Lakes region.
His outspokenness cost him dearly. In 2007, he escaped an assassination attempt in Goma. Although this episode has received little comment since, it nevertheless spoke volumes about the loneliness of a prelate who refused to take the easy way out and fall into line in a city where people are often quick to label others as “good” or “bad”, “allies” or “enemies”. “A priest must be a unifier”, he would repeat. In light of this credo, his consistent preaching of reconciliation, even when the media or diplomatic climate called for anathemas, becomes easier to understand.
I have always preached reconciliation in the diocese. That is why I chose as my motto, May all be one. At that time, everywhere in the dioceses of Bukavu and Butembo, people were speaking out against Rwanda. I was the only one who said, “We need reconciliation”. Even at state level: “We are condemned to live together; we need reconciliation”. This did not sit well with Kabila [Joseph, the President of the DRC from 2001 to 2019 Ed.]. I was seen as an obstacle.
Faustin Ngabu during his last interview with African Facts in September 2025
The rushes from our last interview shed new light on the life of the elderly prelate. When talking about Ituri, the province he originated from, he recounts a scene from his youth when he was almost expelled from the seminary for challenging a superior who had made derogatory remarks about the Lendu people. “I couldn’t accept a divisive priest”, he said. “A priest must be a unifier”; he insisted, before offering a political interpretation of the divisions, citing unequal access to education, competition for money and the temptation to exploit affiliations as key factors. These words are not part of the liturgy, but they resonate as much as a reminder of pastoral ethics as they do of the responsibility of the authorities.
Still on the subject of Ituri, he takes his analysis to its logical conclusion: “Insecurity is organised by the state”, he told us. “The government has condemned the Bahema as it condemned the Tutsi — they no longer have the right to be Congolese”. He criticised a recent statement by the Bunia priests on 20 August 2025 for not “pinpointing the real problem”, even though he agrees with several of their observations on division and the state of siege. His radical thesis can be summed up in one sentence: “It is the state that kills, that organises insecurity”. This can be debated and nuanced, but it cannot be ignored.
We can say that this insecurity is organised by the state. […] The Congolese state has declared a state of emergency and a state of siege in order to exploit the gold and make money. The president is making a lot of money from this. The governor organises the CODECO [Cooperative for the Development of Congo, a paramilitary group from the Lendu community responsible for numerous crimes Ed.] to search for and dig up gold. […] Many people have died. The CODECO continue to kill the Bahema people. The government agrees. This is why I pointed out the weakness of the text written by the priests, who did not dare pinpoint this issue: it is the state that kills and organises insecurity. The major powers are aware of this. Yet they do nothing. People are being killed in front of MONUSCO [United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo Ed.] camps, and yet they do not intervene. Today, CODECO declares, “MONUSCO is with us! The FARDC [the regular army Ed.] are with us!”
Faustin Ngabu during his last interview with African Facts in September 2025
Its freedom of speech has often put him at odds with the mainstream. While others clung to labels such as “invader”, “foreigner” and “infiltrator”, he offered a different perspective: “We are condemned to live together”. He proposed that the Church should hold a major ecumenical conference to calmly examine the causes of conflict in the East instead of producing numerous documents that failed to name those causes. His homilies were sometimes disturbing in the past, but it is easy to understand why: they required courage, introspection, discernment and lucidity.
His career path is well-documented: 21 December 1963 – ordination; 1974 – episcopal consecration and succession in Goma; 2010 – entry into emeritus status. Beyond these dates lies a long ministry of supporting the faithful, experiencing the region’s tragedies at first hand: displaced families, fragile truces and behind-closed-doors negotiations. The official chronology can be found in Catholic yearbooks, but the truth of a life can be found in the memory of parishes and in the way a motto has shaped a way of life: “May all be one”.
His ultimate public words here with us were anything but a watered-down testament. He called for open discussion about tribalism: “Tribalism is an ideology that stunts human consciousness; we stop thinking”. He also reminded us that words of the authorities, such as “Rwanda is attacking us”, find such easy resonance that they dispense with thinking about the very concrete interests that war serves, both in Kinshasa and in the provinces. These words spare no one; they direct everyone back to what Ngabu called “the work of truth”.
We would like to conclude by reiterating a clear instruction. However, Faustin Ngabu rejected simplistic slogans. “I think we must leave those who will read your article their freedom. They are free to accept what they believe to be true and reject what they think is not. They can even react if they want to. They are free“, he replied at the end of our last meeting in September 2025.
So, let us summarise his method: holding together the demand for justice and the rejection of ideology; demanding that religious and political leaders state the facts straightforward; and reminding them that a church, whether Catholic or Protestant, only fulfils its mission when it fosters a liberating dialogue rather than imprisoning rhetoric. This is both little and immense in a country where words can kill or liberate.
In Goma Cathedral, the candles will continue to burn for a few days. Then the tumult of the city will once again drown out the silence of Ngabu’s voice. What will remain are a motto and sermons, as well as two interviews that speak of the discomfort of truth. Until the very end, his conscience tried to push back the night.
Chronological references (click to expand)
- 1935 – Born in Lokwa (now North Kivu Province, DRC).
- 1956-1963 – Training at the Major Seminary of Murhesa, then in Bukuru (now Burundi).
- 21 December 1963 – Ordained priest at the end of the Second Vatican Council; began as parish curate and formator in the Diocese of Bukavu.
- 1960s – 1970s – Parish priest then seminary superior; known for his moral intransigence and openness within the Church.
- 25 April 1974 – Appointed coadjutor bishop of Goma and titular bishop of Tigamibena by Pope Paul VI.
- 7 September 1974 – Officially succeeds Joseph Mikararanga Busimba as bishop of Goma. Episcopal consecration by the Archbishop of Bukavu on 27 October 1974.
- 1980s-1990s – Played a mediating role in several local crises; made numerous calls for inter-ethnic reconciliation during the Kivu wars. President of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) from 1992 to 2000.
- 2007 – Escapes an armed attack in Goma; a close relative is wounded.
- 18 March 2010 – Pope Benedict XVI accepts his resignation; he becomes Bishop Emeritus of Goma.
- 2025 – Two long interviews with African Facts: “The Banyarwanda of Congo destroyed their own identity” and “When you are caught up in ideology, human intelligence regresses”.
- 26 October 2025 – Dies in Goma at the age of 90.
