A young customs officer from Congo, who was kidnapped and killed by a gang because he refused to accept a bribe to pass on spoiled rice that was to be distributed to the poor, is being beatified by the Vatican today, the first step towards being declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
The head of the Vatican's office for the canonization of saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, presided over the ceremony in the papal Basilica of Saint Paul in Rome, where pilgrims from Congo and most of the Congolese Catholic community in Rome gathered to be received by Pope Leo XIII on Monday.
Floribert Bwana Chui Bin Kositi was kidnapped and killed in 2007 after he refused to allow rancid rice from Rwanda to be transported across the border to the city of Goma in eastern Congo.
As a customs quality control officer, the 26-year-old knew the risks of resisting bribes offered to public officials, but he also knew the risks of allowing spoiled food to be distributed to the hungry.
Former Pope Francis, who died in April of this year, recognized Kositi as a "martyr of the faith" late last year, beginning the path to his beatification, which could make him the first saint from Congo.
The pope's decision fits into his broader understanding of a martyr as someone who performs a work of social justice, allowing saints to also be those who are considered to have been killed for doing God's work and respecting the Gospel.
"Our country almost holds the gold medal for corruption among the countries of the world," the bishop of Goma, Willy Ngumbi, told reporters last week. "Corruption is really endemic here. If we could at least learn from the life of that young man that we all have to fight corruption... I think that would be very important."
Transparency International last year gave Congo one of the lowest scores on its Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking it 163rd out of 180 countries surveyed and 20 points on the organization's scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
The beatification brought joy to Goma at a time of fighting between government forces and Rwandan-backed M23 rebels that has left thousands dead, and the rebels' capture of the city has worsened what was already one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
It has renewed the hopes of many in Congo, a country of more than 100 million people whose development has been stifled by chronic corruption, which Pope Francis criticized during his visit to the country in 2023.
Speaking at the Kinshasa stadium at the time, Francis said that the late customs officer Kositi "could easily have turned a blind eye, no one would have found out, and perhaps even prospered because of it. But, being a Christian, he thought of others and chose to be honest, saying 'No!' to the filth of corruption."
The Italian priest leading Cossiti's proclamation, the Rev. Francesco Tedeschi, knew him through their work with the Community of Sant'Egidio. He wept on Saturday as he spoke of Cossiti's example and Francis' call for the Church to recognize sainthood in "neighborhood saints."
"In the end, Floribert was just that - just a neighbor, and he was also just a boy," Tedeski said.
At the Floribert Bwana Chui Peace School in Goma, which is named in Kositi's honor and advocates for social justice, his beatification is an encouragement to all who see him as a role model, school principal Charles Kalimba told The Associated Press.
"It is a lesson for every generation, for the next generation, for the current generation and for all people. Floribert's life is a positive point that must be presented to the Congolese people. We are in a country where corruption is almost allowed, and this is a challenge that must be accepted," Kalimba said.
Father Tedeschi said that giving him the title "martyr" means that Cossiti "died from someone else's hatred of the faith," because his decision not to accept spoiled food was inspired by the Christian idea of the dignity of everyone, especially the poor.
Being declared a "martyr" frees Cossiti's case from the canonical requirement that a "miracle" must be attributed to him in order to be declared "blessed," thus speeding up the process of reaching the first step of sainthood.
The Vatican, however, must confirm the "miracle" attributed to his actions in order for him to be canonized, a process that can take years.
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