Floribert Bwana Chui
"I think of the witness given by a young person like yourselves, Floribert... only twenty-six years old, he was killed in Goma for having blocked the passage of spoiled foodstuffs that would have been harmful for people's health. He could easily have turned a blind eye, no one would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. But, since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others, and he chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption. That is what it means to keep your hands clean and your heart clean too'. Thus Pope Francis spoke of Floribert Bwana Chui, in front of thousands of young people gathered in the stadium in Kinshasa on 2 February 2023, during his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Who was this young man of the Community of Sant'Egidio, killed in July 2007 for resisting an attempt of corruption and presented as an example of freedom from the dictatorship of money?
Born on 13 June 1981 in Goma, the capital of Kivu in eastern Congo, Floribert lived in a region that has not known peace for a long time: a rich land with lush nature, but politically complex and troubled, ravaged by a long and bloody conflict. During his studies, which he completed with a degree in law, he met the Community of Sant'Egidio that encouraged him to visit the poor, particularly the maibobo – street children, as they're called with contempt in the Great Lakes region. Floribert didn't feel that way. He wanted to use the School of Peace to educate these children and help them become the Congolese of the future. He went to work in Kinshasa at the Office Congolais de Contrôle, the state agency responsible for checking the quality of goods transiting through the country. After a period of training in a capital city full of opportunities, where he could have stayed, he decided to return to Goma. Here lived his friends, his girlfriend and the street children he was so close to.
He had met one of them, Jonathan, when, after boarding a boat in Bukavu, in southern Kivu, perhaps because of a quarrel with his parents, he found himself alone on the streets of Goma. Floribert did not even know his exact age because the boy had no documents: registration in Congo is a complicated and expensive procedure. However, despite many difficulties, a deep friendship developed between the two, and Floribert, with his salary as a customs officer, offered to pay for Jonathan's studies.
Among the testimonies collected by Don Francesco Tedeschi, a priest of the Community of Sant'Egidio, who was a friend of Floribert and later postulator of his cause for beatification, there is also that of Jonathan. "When I saw him for the first time, I was afraid. He was well dressed, and people like that don't usually approach street kids, they don't talk to them. Yet he came straight to me, as if he were looking for me. I thought there was something going on, that he wanted to hurt me. So I kept my guard up. Then he started talking and invited me to what he called the School of Peace. I didn't trust him, I didn't want to go, I told him so. However, I was struck by his insistence. I was really impressed! I wasn't part of his family, but he came looking for me, asked me questions, cared about me.‘ When Jonathan asked him why he was helping him, Floribert replied, ’Because in God's eyes, we are all equal, we all have the same rights‘ Like Jonathan, many other street children and young people became his friends. Floribert also particularly admired Sant'Egidio's commitment to peace, especially the peace agreement reached in Mozambique: ‘The Community,’ he used to say, ‘brings all peoples to the same table.’
In Goma, Floribert started working at the customs office on the border with Rwanda: a position of responsibility in a hotspot crossed by armies of militiamen and waves of refugees, but also by large quantities of goods. As a damage control officer, his job was to check the quality of foodstuffs and report any violations: counterfeit, damaged or harmful goods. He started work in April 2007 and immediately had to deal with people trying to smuggle spoiled goods and bribe him by any means possible: first they offered him a thousand dollars, then two thousand and even more. But he replied “no”— a refusal that could not be bought. He thought of his street children and asked himself, “Is it dangerous for people’s lives to allow expired food to be sold?” He confided firmly to a friend, Sister Jeanne-Cécile Nyamungu, a surgeon at the Goma Hospital: ‘The money will soon disappear. But what will happen to the people who eat those products? If I accept this money, am I living in Christ? Am I living for Christ? As a Christian, I cannot allow people’s lives to be sacrificed. I would rather die than accept that money’.
This led to the terrible Saturday, 7 July 2007, when Floribert was kidnapped as he left a shop and forced into a car. Search efforts were unsuccessful. Two days later, at noon, he was found dead by a motorcyclist. His body showed signs of beatings and torture during his captivity. The autopsy revealed he had died on 8 July, the day that has now become his feast day in the Church calendar.
Corruption can kill. Floribert's story bears witness to this, but it also tells us that it is possible to resist evil and pave the way for hope for a future often denied to young people in Africa. In his introduction to Il prezzo di due mani pulite (The Price of Two Clean Hands) by Francesco De Palma, the first book on the life of Floribert Bwana Chui, published in 2014, Andrea Riccardi emphasises the strength that the defeat of men of peace and faith leaves behind: 'It is a very sad story, which shows the power of corruption and the atmosphere of violence. Indeed, it is also the story of the ‘weak strength’ of a young man of faith. It points to the path of Africa's resurrection, which begins with young people and lay people."
The diocesan phase of the beatification process, which began in March 2015, concluded on 9 December 2018. On 25 November 2024, Pope Francis authorised the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognising the martyrdom “in hatred of the faith” of Floribert Bwana Chui, thus initiating the process of beatification. On Sunday 15 June 2025, he will be proclaimed blessed with a celebration at 5 p.m.The celebration will be presided over by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro. It will be attended by the Community of Sant'Egidio, the Congolese Church, led by the Bishop of Goma, and many faithful who believe in a future of peace and resurrection for Africa.
(updated 7 June 2025)
