A Congolese priest, Father Aimé Lusambo has been suspended after claiming his bishop had fathered four children.
Lusambo’s suspension came after he posted a video on Holy Thursday, slamming the Congolese bishops’ March 4 exhortation urging priests who have fathered children to seek laicisation and care for their families
The video quickly went viral on social media.
“If I have four or five of them (children), who will raise them if you take away my cassock? Are you going to give me the money since there is no final severance pay in this service? Should I found my own Church?
“I have sacrificed my entire youth to the service of the Church and no one can take away this cassock. Otherwise, we will also ask the pope to suspend those among them who have children,” he says.
Then, making a gesture of putting a bishop’s hat on his head, he says: “I know one who has four”.
Parishioners have been told Lusambo has been “temporarily removed” as pastor of his parish pending investigations into the incident.
The majority of the Congolese clergy say that the priest – who appears in the video causally dressed and drinking beer – has a great sense of humour.
They suggested he probably wanted to make people laugh by making these remarks.
“Even if the video makes people smile, what he says is not without meaning.
“If there are bishop-fathers, they should also be removed from the clerical state. Moreover, the question of the reintegration of dismissed priests is raised,” an unnamed colleague of Lusambo says.
In a recent interview with La Croix, it was revealed the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo has not made any general provisions to support laicised priests affected by this ruling, the women or their children.
“The support is done on a case by case basis at the level of the dioceses. These are cases that the Church is called upon to treat with great humanity,” the Conference said at the time.
Lusambo, who completed a doctorate in 2005 at the Rome-based Pontifical Biblical Institute, is highly regarded by Congolese Catholics. He has been hailed for leading the laity during the 2017 and 2018 marches for democratic changeover.
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