Aloysius Bigirumwami

infobox bishopstyles
name=Aloysius Bigirumwami
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Monsignor
deathstyle=none |

Aloysius Bigirumwami (December 22, 1904—June 3, 1986) was a Rwandan prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Nyundo from 1959 to 1973, having previously served as its Apostolic Vicar.

Born in Zaza, Bigirumwami was a descendant of the kings of the Watutsi tribe. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 26, 1929.

On February 14, 1952, he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Nyundo and Titular Bishop of "Garriana" by Pope Pius XII, receiving his episcopal consecration on the following June 1. After his consecration, Nyundo received 20,000 converts. Bigirumwami was raised to the rank of Bishop upon his vicariate's elevation to a diocese on November 10, 1959; he thus became the first Rwandan bishop. He was also seen as a likely candidate to become a cardinal [TIME Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,810154,00.html The Next Consistory] December 9, 1957] .

Bigirumwami, who had initially rejected the existence of a conflict between the two groups [University of Northern Iowa. [http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/490/490%20mvuyekure.htm From Idealism to Genocide] ] , supported the ethnic separation of the Tutsis, whose superiority he championed, and the Hutus [Commonweal. [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-19962921.html Catholics & Colonialism: The Church's Failure in Rwanda] May 23, 1997] [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. [http://faculty.vassar.edu/tilongma/Church&Genocide.html Christian Churches and Genocide in Rwanda] May 1997] .

The Bishop also believed that the conversion of the pagans within his jurisdiction could be achieved with a large number of priests. He once stated, "With enough priests to station one every ten kilometers, it would not take too long." Bigirumwami also ignored witchcraft in regards of medicine, but attacked it in the spheres of prophecy and sympathetic magic.

After twenty-one years of service, he resigned as Nyundo's bishop on December 17, 1973, five days before his sixty-ninth birthday. Bigirumwami later died at the age of 81.

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbigi.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936778-1,00.html "Black Bishops" - TIME Magazine]