Sainte-Famille Church (Holy Family Church) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church in

Muhima Muhima is a sector (umurenge) in the Kigali Province, Nyarugenge district, Rwanda. It is located in the west part of the city of Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geog ...

, downtown

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

, in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. It is located on a hill, close to the cell of Rugenge. Sainte-Famille Church was the scene of killings during the

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

in April 1994.

Architecture

The building is constructed from red brick, but its facade is embellished with white panels. Besides the parish church, it also includes a visitor centre, a clinic, a primary school, a driving school and buildings leased to individuals by the parish.

History

Constructed when Rwanda was still part of the

German colonial empire The German colonial empire () constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire. Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by Kleinstaat ...

in 1913, the building is one of the largest churches in the city. Rwanda Kigali Eglise de la Sainte Famille 001

During the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

of 1994 thousands of

Tutsi The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...

and

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

took refuge in the church and many were massacred, following the death of President

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (; ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, his assassination in 1994. H ...

. Witnesses have alleged that the priest in charge of the church, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, who had armed himself, helped

Hutu Power Hutu Power, or Hutu Supremacy, is an ethnic supremacist ideology that asserts the ethnic superiority of Hutu, often in the context of being superior to Tutsi and Twa, and therefore, they are entitled to dominate and murder these two groups an ...

militias take people from the church to be killed. Fr. Munyeshyaka allegedly agreed to "let the militia pick off those they wanted every now and then." Speaking ten years later, Father

Antoine Kambanda Antoine Kambanda (born 10 November 1958) is a Rwandan prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Archbishop of Kigali since 2019. He was Bishop of Kibungo from 2013 to 2018. Pope Francis raised him to the rank of cardinal on 28 November 202 ...

, director of the local branch of the Caritas charity, acknowledged that some members of the

Catholic Church in Rwanda The Catholic Church in Rwanda is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. There are just over five million Catholics in Rwanda - about half of the total population. The country is divided into nine dioceses including one archdiocese. The Rwandan g ...

had been involved in the killings, although others had done what they could to prevent them.

References

{{Kigali Buildings and structures in Kigali Roman Catholic churches completed in 1913 1913 establishments in German East Africa 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Rwanda