Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi

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Coadjutor Archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro (1976-77)
  • Archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro (1977-90)
  • Apostolic Administrator of Mbandaka-Bikoro (1990-91)
  • President of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo
  • (2000-04)
    MottoUn seul Coeur un seul esprit
    Styles of
    Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi
    Archbishop of Kinshasa

    Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi,

    Archbishop of Kinshasa
    , Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was the DRC's foremost Catholic prelate from 1991 until his death in 2007.

    Biography

    Educated by Catholic

    CICM missionaries in 1959. He was ordained as a priest on 13 July 1958, and assigned to the city of Leopoldville. He later studied sociology and theology
    in France and Belgium before returning to Congo in the late 1960s.

    Etsou became Archbishop of

    Laurent Kabila, the father of the current president of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, who took power in 2001 following his father's assassination.[citation needed
    ]

    Etsou was one of the

    .

    In a statement to the Congolese nation and to the international community released on 11 November 2006 from Paris, the Cardinal seemed to doubt the independence of the country's Independent Electoral Commission (headed by a Catholic priest, Apollinaire Malu Malu) and the outcome of the runoff of the first direct presidential election in the more than 40-year history of the country pitting the incumbent Kabila against his challenger vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba. He warned of what he called international meddling and accused several officials with Kabila's transitional government of stealing from the state treasury and demanded their resignations. These statement created tension in the capital city, the stronghold of the challenger, whose family is close to the Cardinal who also hails from the same Équateur Province. The results of the second round of the presidential election, published on 15 November 2006, gave the incumbent a win with 58.05% and his opponent 41.95%.[citation needed]

    Death

    Frédéric Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi died of diabetes and pneumonia at the University Hospital in

    Leuven, Belgium
    on 6 January 2007, aged 76. He was buried in Kinshasa.

    References

    External links